PRINCETON, N. J.
Skelf-
BX 5199 .M33 M32 1896 v. 2 Macdonnell, John Cotter, d. 1902.
The life and correspondence
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/cletails/lifecorresponden02macd
THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP MAGEE
First Edition, October i8<f6 Reprinted, October i8q6 Reprinted, November i8g6
THE LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE
OF
WILLIAM CONNOR MAGEE
ARCHBISHOP OF YORK
BISHOP OF PETERBOROITGH
BY
/
JOHN COTTER MACDONNELL D.D.
CANON RESIDENTIARY OF PETERBOROUGH SOMETIME DEAN OF CASIIEL
IN TWO VOLUxMES Vol. II
LONDON
ISBISTER AND COMPANY Limited 15 & 16 TAVISTOCK STREET COVENT GARDEN 1 890
rriiacd by Ballantvne, Hanson Loiidon &^ Edinburgh
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XII
CHURCH PATRONAGE: PUBLIC WORSHIP REGULATION ACT
Committee on Church Patronage — P.W.R. Debate — Tyndall on Atoms — Competitive Ex- aminations— Church Extension — Rubrical Revision — Speech on Patronage Bill — Paper read before the Metaphysical Society — Visit to Rome — Letter on Ecclesiastical Prosecutions p. 1
CHAPTER XIII
THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION: ECCLESIASTICAL PROSECUTIONS
Permissive Bill, Free or Sober" — Letter on Suicide — Correspondence with Mr. Talbot and Mr. Shaw Stewart— Theological Colleges — Mr. Tooth — Burials Bill— Eastward Position p. 43
CHAPTER XIV
CONFESSION: PAN-ANGLICAN SYNOD
Society of the Holy Cross — Letter on Confession — Tyndall's Address— On Wearing a Cope — Mr. Bright on the Burials Bill — Metaphysical Society — Letter to Lord Nelson — Vincentian Rule of Faith p. 73
CHAPTER XV
NAVVIES' MISSION: DAY OF HUMILIATION: BURIALS ACT
Christian Evidence Society — Artists' Benevolent Fund — Anti-Vivisection Bill — Letter to Canon Argles — Harvest Thanksgivings — Consecration of Edinburgh Cathedral — Life of Bishop Wilberforce — Archdeacon Denison and the S.P.G. — Burials Bill Debate — Irish Land Bill Debate p. 110
vi
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XVI
LEICESTER CHURCH CONGRESS: CHURCH REFORM
Conseci'dtion of Graveyards — Mr. Dale's Imprisonment — Religious Tone at Oxford— Letters on Church Patronage — Reform of Convocation — Royal Commission — Ritualists and Church of Rome — Queen Anne's Bounty Bill — Death of Dean Stanley— Diocesan Difficulties — Future of the Church — Marriage Laws — D. W. S. Bill — Archbishop Tail's Funeral — Bishop Wilber force's Life p. 142
CHAPTER XVH
VISIT TO SPAIN: ILLNESS: SPEECH ON DISESTABLISHMENT
Prayers for the Dead — Cathedral Statutes Bill — Publication of Sermons — Ordination Examinations — Suffragan Bishop — Confirmation Arrangements — Evening Com- munion— Diocesan Conference — Letters from Bishop of Manchester and Mr. Gladstone — Temperance Questions p. 185
CHAPTER XVIII
CHURCH PATRONAGE BILL: MANCHESTER CHURCH CONGRESS
House uf Laymen — Parish Churches Bill — Parliamentary Work — Letter from John Bright — Letter on the Atonement — Imprisonment for Contumacy — Sermon at White- hall— Unauthorised Publication of Sermons — Mr. Gladstone's Logic . . p. 219
CHAPTER XIX
HUXLEY AND AGNOSTICISM: BETTING AND GAMBLING: SOCIALISM
Ordination Examinations — Diocesan Appointments — Diocesan Conference — Huxley on "Natural Rights" — Letter on Bishop of Meath's Sermon — "Lux Mundi" — Infants' Insurance Bill — Visit to Carrigart — Marriage of Divorced Persons — General
Booth's Scheme p. 258
CHAPTER XX
APPOINTMENT TO YORK: CLERGY DISCIPLINE BILL: DEATH
Address from Nonconformists — Ornaments Rubric — Enthronement in York Minster — Reception at Hull — Convocation — Illness and Death in Loudon . . .p. 295
INDEX p. 317
CHAPTER XII
CHURCH PATRONAGE; P.W.R. ACT
It will be seen from the following letters that the Bishop had determined to make an effort to get something done by Parliament to remove the abuses of ecclesiastical patronage. This subject was connected with his name to the end of his days, though his efforts never succeeded so far as to carry any Bill through hoth Houses.
On April 21, 1874, he brought forward his motion for a Select Committee in the House of Lords, and made an elaborate and powerful speech upon the subject.
The key-note of this, and of all his subsequent efforts to reform the law of patronage, will be found in the following sentence from this speech:
In a word, the aim of legislation should be to give practical effect to the principle that in the matter of patronage, property is the incident of a trust, and not trust the incident of a property.
["Speeches and Addresses," p. 151.]
Lord Cairns rose immediately at the close of the Bishop's speech and assented on the part of the Ministry to the appointment of a Select Committee, and thus prevented further debate.
Before this Committee was appointed the Archbishop of Canter- bury brought in his Bill for the regulation of public worship, constantly referred to in the Bishop's letters as P.^V.R.
I quote the following paragi'aph from the Bishop's speech on the second reading of the Bill :
We are told that we should govern the Church by fatherliness. Now I must be allowed to say there is something very one-sided in this cry for fathei'liness from the bishops when they meet with no filialness, and I should like to have some reciprocity. When a monition is to be flung back in my face, and I am to be told that I am " neither a gen-
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CHAP. XII
tleman nor a divine/' and that " my conversion is to be praj-ed for/' I must say that I should hke to see a little filialness on the part of those who are demandin<? this fatherliness. I honestly desire, as far as I can, to be fatherly towards these men, but when I hear this advice given to us I am reminded of the solitary instance in which a ruler attempted to govern in this fatherly fashion, and that his name was Eli, while his sons were Hophni and Phineas.
To J. C. MacDonxell.
"Peterborough, March 12, 1874 "I returned from town yesterday, after attending the service. I saw all the new Ministry, most of whom I know, and had a very instructive talk with one of them — Lord Carnarvon — respecting Church matters in general, and the coming Episcopal Bill in par- ticular.
" He was evidently alarmed by the leader in the Times of Tues- day. Probably you have seen it. It is a deliberate letting of our cat out of the bag of secrecy ; and must have been done by the Archbishop himself. This is burning our boats with a vengeance ; and that, too, without consultation with any one of us.
" Carnarvon hit at once the weak point of the measure, \'iz., the question whether power is to be granted to Bishop and Council of restraining things indifferent, or things illegal. The former, he clearly was of opinion, would never be granted. The latter, he thought, might. I told him that I and most of the bishops were for the latter only ; and further expounded the measure to him. He seemed relieved. But he and (I suspect) the Ministry, are terribly afraid of Church questions, and wish, evidently, to let them alone, and be let alone about them for as long as possible.
" The latter is impossible. But the wish for the former will make the passing of reform difficult. For Governments have a way of quietly strangling Bills they don't like without seeming to do so. The Church will never weigh with an English politician like Disraeli, against the interests of his party.
" The Archbishop's illness just now is really disastrous. Alto- gether I do not like the state of things just now. We are adrift, without a pilot, and within hearing of the breakers.
"I see in to-day's Standard an astounding announcement, from the Record, ' on good authority,' that the Archbishop is going to resign after Easter ! I trust and pray it is merely a canard of the Record's that has scared me, and the good Archbishop
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may be as little thinking of resignation as Disraeli is at this moment.
" Meanwhile, events march : the Times' leader settles the ques- tion of an allocution, that is the Primate's allocution ; and it is evident he means to sign no other, or he would not have issued it. I regret his decision, and I differ from him on the main point of the Bill * as he would have it. But I feel we must all stand by our chief, though, I must say, he makes it rather ha,rd for us sometimes to do so, by his impulsive dashes into print."
"Peterborough, March 14, 1874.
" Ingram f has, by this time, received a letter from me, giving him full information on the matters referred to in his letter, except- ing that of his collation (to St. Matthew's, Leicester).
" This I cannot do on Sunday, 12th. But I might do it after one of the Leicester Confirmations in that week.
" God knows, and He only, how I hate patronage. It is the most anxious, thankless, and disappointing duty that any man can be called on to perform.
" He is certain to disappoint nineteen out of twenty eligible men, and then it is twenty to one that the twentieth disappoints him !
*' I had a very pleasant letter from A. C. Cantuar yesterday ; in good spirits, and with no touch of resignation about it,
" You will find me or hear of me at Athenasum on Thursday next."
" Athenaeum Cldb, March 24, 1874.
"I have just run up here for one night to aiTange with the Duke of Richmond and Lord Cairns about my motion for a Select Com- mittee on Patronage. I found their lordships in a most unex- pectedly amiable mood, quite willing to assent to the Committee, only just a little nervous as to the ' extent' of my motion. Lord Cairns, especially, was cautious and conservative, and when I men- tioned it to him a fortnight ago almost hostile.
"I took the liberty of first placing my motion on the notice book, and then writing to the Duke of Richmond to consult him most deferentially as to details of time, occasion, numbers of Com- mittee, etc. I find this has answered very well ; and whether the Lords like it or not, the Committee is now certain. I find, too,
* Public Worship Regulation Bill. + Present Dean of Peterborough.
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CHAP. XII
that I have more power than I thought I had, as mover of the Committee, in decidino- who is to be on it. So altogether this part of the episcopal programme of reform is progressing well. What my speech will be or do is another question. But I am already inundated with letters from M.P.s, clergymen, lawyers, and others, full of suggestions ; showing at any rate that the question is ripen- ing for discussion if not for decision.
" As to the other matter of the ' Bishops' Bill,' you have doubt- less read Pusey's letters in the Times, also a certain contradiction of a misrepresentation of his as to the scope of the Bill, which appeared ' by authority ' in the Times and other papers. The latter is my doing.
" Move of this when we meet.
" I have been busy ' earwigging ^ noble lords of high and low degree on the subject.
" I only hope that A. C. Cantuar's speech may bear out all my sayings on the subject.
" My motion comes on Tuesday, April 21st.""
" Peterborough, March 27, 1874.
" I see that has announced a ' Three Hours'' Agony ' service
on Good Friday next, without even submitting the sei-vice to me for approval ; without which he cannot legally have it.
" I have been to town to see the Duke of Richmond about my motion. He was very civil, and we have arranged Tuesday, 21st April, for it. I remember now I told you of this.
"I find every one very nervous about the subject, and awfully afraid of any damage to ' property.' They do not yet see that identifying property with nuisances is not the best wav to preserve it.
" But I shall certainly have a very difficult card to play between speaking so as not to offend Conservative lords who are large patrons, and speaking so as not to oflFend the conscience of the Church by a bishop palliating gi-oss abuse.
"Worse than all, I shall, I fear, make a long speech — a mortal sin in the eyes of the Lords except in grand drets debates and set occasions."
" Peterborough, April 4, 1874. " I enclose you a characteristic letter of Lord Harrowby's to the Bishop of London, which you may keep till we meet. I have
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6
written to the good old man to reassure him as to my ' sarcastic powers.'
" I see I shall have to show the Lords that an Irishman can make a moderate speech. " W. C. P."
From LoRu Haerowby to the Bishop of London.
Grosvenor Square, April 2, 1874.
My dear Lord, — Sir Walter Farquhar, a few days ago, called to- gether a number of his friends, who are interested in the Church, for the purpose of considering the question of patronage, and in respect of the scandals arising from its present position. There was little or no difference of opinion. One thing, however, was very generally patent, that it was one very difficult to deal with. My own impression is, that the practical evils arising from the sale, in some shape or other, are much exaggerated ; and that sale in some form or other must exist. I believe it must be admitted and regulated. However that may be, a general satisfaction Avas expressed, that the Bishop of Peter- borough was about to move for a Commission to consider it. The difficulty, however, of finding a remedy, suggested to me the importance that the Bishop, in moving for it, should be very careful in his state- ments rather to understate the case ; lest, if ultimately a remedy should prove to be not attainable, the sting of his powerful attacks should be left behind for the use of the enemy.
It is not as if he was going to propose a distinct remedy to Parlia- ment in the efficiency of which he had confidence, and for the success of which it was necessary to make out the strongest case. It is only for inquiry, and for that (so patent is the scandal), veiy little state- ment will be required. You know the power of his sarcastic statement is very great, and his expressions might stick and survive the occasion.
Now I would willingly say this to himself ; but my acquaintance with him is but slight.
Perhaps you might have an opportunity, if you agree with me, of making some suggestion in this direction.
Your hands are ahvays very full, and I would not wish to trouble you for an answer. — Beheve me, my dear lord, yours very faithfullv,
Harrowby.
To J. C. MacDonnell.
" Athen^um Clob,
"May 14, 1874.
" I have such a long story of our town campaigns to tell you that I hardly know where to begin or end. Let us take the three
6
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CHAP. XII
divisions of time — past, present, and future — as regards the liistory of the P.W.R. Bill.
" When I came to town lately, I found the Archbishop, with only Gloucester and Bristol and Rochester, ' quite promiscuously ' at work in the ' Bounty ' rooms, discussing the Convocation amend- ments in the Bill. His Grace took me into counsel very graciously, and I succeeded in getting some things into and some out of the Bill, which I think materially improved it. The Archbishop was the more willing to take my amendments, as I found he relied on me to fight for him and it on the second reading. This I was most unwilling to do, and told him so, and had obtained, at last a promise that he would not call on me unless absolutely necessary to do so. He meant me, and I only meant, to reply to Lords Limerick and Bath, and that school. However, all our calculations, like most of those made before a debate, were dissipated by events. The Archbishop of York made a poor and injudicious speech, badly received by the House, where he is not popular. Immediately after him rose Lord Shaftesbury, evidently in for a deliberately prepared and smashing criticism on the whole Bill and the Bench to boot. The Archbishop ui'ged me to reply as he went on. But I was very averse to a second quarrel with Lord Shaftesbury, who had lately been reconciled to me, and had that very day written me a very civil letter on other matters.
I held to this, even after he had personally attacked me in his opening remarks. How ever, as he went ahead, tearing the Bill up, and with it liis own of two years ago, the Archbishop got so excited, and insisting, that I had to yield ; besides, the old Adam stirred in me as I saw Shaftesburv, after attacking me in front, exposing his own flank so deliciously. Accordingly I took my scat between the two Archbishops, they crannning me with facts and points in either ear, and I trying to listen to Shaftesbury with my eyelids. He made a really able and telling speech, rising at the close into a strain of grim and melancholy earnestness that \\'as almost eloquence. He evidently made a deep impression on the House. I felt I was in for a big speech, and not pi"epared for it. However, I think I may say that I succeeded— at least, if I may judge not only from cheering at the time but from special thanks after from the two Archbishops and such opposite men as Lords Grey, Granville, and Cairns. Lords Nelson and Bath followed, the former good-natured and weak, the latter ill-natured and strong. Lord Harrowby surprised us all by coming out in defence of Bill and bishop, there-
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bv indicating a split in the evangelical ranks, which has since widened and deepened into a rupture. Lord Hathcrley spoke from the old-fashioned High Church ground, well and tellingly, for the Bill. Lord Sclborne as Vir pictate gravis and dcus ex macMnd made a really thoughtful and judicious speech in favour of the principle, but suggesting such admirable amendments in the Bill as made me regret more than ever that the Ai'chbishop had not, as some of us suggested, taken him into counsel from the first.
" Salisbury was guarded, cold, able, and in some respects unfair. He evidently, under Beresford Hope's inspiration, hates the Bill. But his very reluctance showed that there is a case for the Bill he cannot gainsay, otherwise he would never have assented to its second reading.
" The Archbishop replied in the best speech I have yet heard from him. Except the one slip you noted, of too hostile a tone to Lord Salisbury, the speech was perfect. Dignified and weighty in manner, telling in argument, and rising at times into grave and lofty eloquence, it was a model of an archiepiscopal speech, and was received accordingly.
" The Duke of Richmond wound up with words that better indicated the aspect of the Cabinet than did Lord Salisbury. The Bill ]-)assed nemhie contradicente, and will now, / think, })ass the Lords this Session ; and not improbably the Commons. Altogether, since the Irish Church debate, I have not seen so stin-in<>- or so strange a night in the Lords.
" Every one seemed to have changed posts. Shaftesbury posed as the defender of the liberties of the clergy, and read much of his speech from a brief drawn by Stephens on behalf of the English Church Union. I appeared against him as the advocate of restric- tion of liberty, while Lords Bath and Limerick were loudly cheering Shaftesbury ; and Harrowby and Granville and Halifax and the Whigs generally cheering me.
" All things considered, I think that the storm has cleared the air ; and Bill and Bench came better out of it than we expected. One thing is now clear, ' something will be done ; ' and that is a great deal to have gained.
" Another thing not stated in the papers pleased me much. The Duke of Richmond thanked me in his speech for my suggestion as to self-regulation for the Church, and ' hoped I could give my mind to a practical working-out of such reform." This is very hopeful. Good will, I now think, come out of all this present trouble. But
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CHAP. XII
it is and will be a troublous crisis ; and the Archbishop is too much led by inferior men at this moment to make me comfortable as to his pilotage.
" However, all things considered, I am hopeful now, I was in despair ten days ago.
" I had anticipated your suggestion as to discussing the Bill at om* conference ; you will see a letter to that effect in next Leicester JoiLrnal.
" We shall have it out on the first day of conference. At any- rate this will ensure a full conference, and a very real and stirring debate. " W. C. P."
On June 2 the Bishop held his Diocesan Conference at Peter- borough, and the chief subject of discussion was the Public Worship Regulation Bill as it passed its second reading in the Lords.
The Bishop made an elaborate statement of the whole question ; and in the end resolutions in favour of the Bill were carried.
Unfortunately, when the Bill got into Committee in the House of Lords it underwent very serious changes ; which, in the eyes Oj. many, altered fundamentally the character of the measure and gave colour to the accusation, that the old ecclesiastical jurisdiction had been changed by Act of Parliament.
To J. C. MacDoxnell.
" Athenmu.m Club, June 9, 1874.
*' We ha<l a weary and dangerous voyage last night through the rocks and shoals of the Committee on the Bill. We have come out, on the whole, safe and well, and the rest is pretty plain sailing, except the rock ahead of the Athanasian Creed. The ritualistic peers fought us inch by inch most factiously and obstinately. Lord Bath was particularly spiteful and obstinate. But spite of him and others we got through everything of real importance in the Bill.
" Shaftesbm-y gave way as to the bishojis'' discretion, but at the last moment Salisbury took one of his strange freaks and proposed the omission of the clause giving the bishops the power of arbitrat- ing with assent of both parties. For a moment I thought all was over with us, especially as the Ai-chbishop of York, provoked by A\hat really was something like treachery on the part of the Government, who had promised to adopt this clause, and got our assent to Shaftesbury "'s judge on the faith of it, made an angry and
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injudicious attack on the Government, and brought Richmond, Cairns, and Shaftesbury, all three on him at once.
" By dint of reiterated and rather humiliating pleading on our part we carried the division, to niy amazement, against Salisbury, bv a majority of more than two to one; ninety to forty. This division did us good in many ways. We carried Granville and his party with us, and showed Salisbury he was not master of the situation. All went rapidly after that until we got to Clause 17, and then resumed progress. .Lord Oranmore nearly wrecked us by beginning what he told the Archbishop would be an hours speech on the Confessional. I got savage and hit him viciously, and the t" o leaders got him down with difficulty, and the House then sat on him.
" My amendment comes on to-night. It is hard to say what will come of it, nor do I much care now we have secui'ed the episcopal discretion. My only dread is the delay that it may cause in getting the Bill through. Truly a Bill in Committee is a battle, and no one can say where he will find himself at the end of it. The great difficulty is to avoid fighting for your own hand and at the nearest man to you, and not remembering the plan of the battle, ' losing touch,'' as militaiT men express it, ' with the main column.''
However, all is well that ends well, and I think that now the Bill may end well ; but we are not vet out of tlie wood.''''
" Stock Park, Ulvekston,
" August 4, 1874.
" I have been so laboriously idle since we came here, as to have had no leisure for other than business letters. A wet day, not the last by a gi-eat many I fear, gives me time to write you something more than a hurried line. Your last from St. Briac reached me three days since, and makes me almost regret our non-adherence to our original idea of a French holiday this year. Please keep a sharp look-out for a house that miglit suit us for next year. Please also note what manner of sea-fishing is attainable. I do not think that I shall get to you this year. We pa\- a tvenu^ndnus price for this place, and must economise accordingly.
" We are very pleasantly placed at the lower end of Windermere, with large but uncultivated grounds to the lake-side, and boating ad libitum, scenery fair, house too small, walks plenty, and fishing moderate.
" I have not escaped the atra cura of letters here. Three reached
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me this morning from bishops and peers, calling me to town for the division in the Lords' to-night on the Commons' amendment on the P.W. Bill, which gives aggrieved parishioners an appeal to the Archbishop. The bishops are in a great fluster about it, and I fear the Lords will reject it, with the very probable result of the loss of the Bill in consequence. This will be a very serious matter, serious for the Church which will be given over to lawless and violent agitation for six months ; serious for Parliament and Government, which must face this question again in February', with the Commons in a very angry and ultra- Protestant mood ; and serious for the Episcopate, who will be credited with having wi'ecked the Bill they themselves introduced solely because it trenched on the privileges of their order. I fear the worst, but faintly hope the best — viz., the Commons acquiescing in the Lords' rejection of this amendment. I am thankful I cannot be in town to-night, for I should have voted against nearly all my brethren. Certainly the temper of the House of Commons is the one fact in the history of this Bill for which I was not prepared. The Archbishop has turned the Ganges into our garden, and I fear it will sweep away other things than the ritualistic weeds.
" Gladstone is deeply mortified by his ignominious defeat,* and I hear, on good authority, fast ripening for Disestablishment. Evidently we are entering on a great crisis, and alas ! we do not trust our pilots, either of Cantuar or York. I never felt more un- comfortable or desponding as to the future than I do now.
" Diocesan affairs are just now very quiet. I got All Saints' raised to df 300 a year, and have transferred old Ray to it, and have offered St. Leonard's, ,£188 a year and no chm-ch or parsonage, to French of Kettering, a hard-working, moderate man, with some small private means and a great desire for mission work. I think he will take it. This is really all the diocesan news I know of."
" Stock Park, Ulverston,
" September 2, 1874.
" I am glad to hear of your safe return to your penates. We leave this the week after next, rather tired, I confess, of the Lakes — at least of the Lakes in a wet season. It is raining now as it only does rain in these parts, and is cold enough for November ; the fishing is bad, and the walking ditto, and boating, of course, out of
* Mr. Gladstone opposed the second reading of the Bill, and was obliged to •withdraw a series of resolutions upon the subject of which he had given notice.
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the question. Nevertheless the rest in that most unfre([uented of regions for ine, the bosom of my family, has done me great good, and I feel quite ready for work again.
" I quite agree with you as to TyndalPs late escapade ; it was as thoroughly unscientific as it was anti-religious. It is really time for men of science to be wai'ned oft' the grounds of philo- sophy and psychology as peremptorily as they warn religion off the territory of science. A purely materialistic student of the facts of science is simply impudent when he applies his scientific methods to things spiritual. It is as absurd as the old application of theological methods to science. Let him say what he Tcnows about his ' atoms," but when he attempts, as Tyndall says he attempts, ' to leap beyond the bounds of experiment ' and guess at the cause of his ' atoms ' he is just in the position in which Mr. T. places us — ' that of a man atteni{)ting to lift himself by his waistband.' But after all what a testimony to the need of a revelation is all this ! What is it all but what Job said long ago, ' Who can by searching find out God' The last word of science must be atheism, if science denies all that is not scientifically demonstrable; and just for that reason when science has said her last word, religion says her first, ' In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God.' I look on Stuart Mill's " Life " and Tyndall's manifesto as two valuable contributions to the evidence of Christianity ; the one showing man's moral need, the other his intellectual need of a revelation ab extra.
" Only imagine a world of Stuart Mills with no other revelation than ' Tyndall on Atoms ' ! I wish that I had time to try my hand at an article on ' Society reconstituted on the Atomic Theoiy.' M.eve force the only law, and mankind reduced to a herd of brutes, following the law of the evolution of the strongest, i.e., the survival of the biggest, noisiest and uncleanest brutes in the drove ! But I have other work to do just now.
"This P.W. Bill will try all our wisdom and courage in its working. I fear the result will be ejjiscopal dissidcnce and prac- tical indiscretions, or accusations of it, here and there, until at last the Pui'itanism and Erastianism of the House of Commons grows impatient, takes the reins in its own hands, and upsets the coach! The determined Erastianism of the Archbishop, the exas- peration of the High Church clergy, the dishonesty of the llitualists, the fanatical bitterness of the Evangelicals and the sublime un- principle of Dizzy, all point this way ; the bishops, too, ai-e sore at
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the way the Archbishop has over-ridden thein in the conduct of the Bill, and sore at the false accusations of the clergy, and will form a very rebellious team for his Grace to drive in January next. Altogether, spite of the healing influence of vacation, I do not like the out-look. But God rules and over-rules. May He guide us rightly ! But we sorely need a strong and yet a gentle hand at the helm of the Church, and the Archbishop has neither of these now.
" More when we meet."
" Peterborough, October 6, 1874.
" I have despatched something like 2000 copies of my letter to the rm-al deans. This ' mutual conference ' between bishops and clergy is rather an expensive system for the bishops.
" My brother of Chichester is just about this time ascending his uneasy throne at the Brighton Congress. With all the explosive eleuients gathered around him I can only compare him to the man who travelled from London to the Derby on a hot summer day, seated on a truck filled with gino-er-beer bottles ! What a frothing and popping of ecclesiastical wrath, bottled for the last five months, will be going on under his seat ! He will not be wanting in dignity. I rather doubt his firmness, but we shall see.
" I suspect that the mot cTordre of the Ritualist party at Brighton will be ' push on everything for the next six months ' as the best means of securing something in July next — a very dangerous game for them to play in the present temper of the English nation, but a very likely one. " W. C. P."
The following extract is from a speech delivered by the Bishop at a distribution of prizes at Leicester on October 30, 1874.
I am afraid I shall be thouglit rather a heretic, and gettmg over the edge of the neutral ground, when I say that I am not a very enthu- siastic admirer of the extent to which comjietitive examination has gone amongst us. I am rather afraid that we are riding the competi- tive hobby too far and too fast, and that some of these days it will slip down and give us a very ugly fall. I am veiy desirous that all prizes ill life should be within the reach of the very lowest members of the community, but I am greatly afraid this system is putting them out of their reach ; because competitive examination means cram for that examination, and cramming means money to pay the crammer. I am satisfied that as competition goes on, and the prizes grow larger, and competition grows keener and the questions put grow year by year
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harder and harder^ and cramming gets harder, the pay of the cranimer will grow larger ; and the result will be that the prizes of life that formerly were, as Ave were told, for the younger sons of the great among us, will be prizes for the younger sons of the rich. The competition between examiners and crammers is like that between the men who make armour-plates and the men who make guns ; but the worst is that they are not throwing about insensate metal, but the brains and hearts of boys and young men. We have this competition in our schools, and perhaps the time is not far off when a little child will be obliged to pass an examination in the alphabet before getting leave to go into words of one syllable.
Now I want to know in this system of cram what is to become of the dull boys ? What is to become of a boy not sharp enough to beat other boys .'' I am not at all comfortable about the practical result of all this, and I begin to Avish that some of our statesmen would think of establishing a colony for dull people, where men should go who never passed a competitive examination. Supposing we took the Fiji Islands, and of course got rid of the cannibals, and sent over there every man who could honestly declare that he never Avent in for a competitive examination ; you Avould have such a quiet, peaceable, happy colony, where solid, steady men quietly did their business every day, and did not trouble themselves about other people's business, that it would be altogether such a paradisiacal place that your fussy clever felloAvs would be shamming stupid to get into it. I am not sorry, there- fore, that your examination here has been in a great measure positive rather than relative, rather tells a man or boy Avhat he is than how he has gone and beaten others.
To J. C. IMacDoxnell.
"AxHENiEUM Club, November 19, 1874. " I have gone through a good deal of Church life and experience since avc parted. I have started a Church Extension Society in Northampton to raise ^25,000 in five years, and to create there- with four new parishes. It is, I think, fairly launched now, but ' Lord ! ' as Pepys says ' to see the strange state of men's minds in these days ! ' I had first to spend three days interviewing sundry local magnates separately, and ti'ving to get them all to come even to a preliminary meeting on the subject. I got them and about eighty others into a room last Thursday, from Avhich I Avisely excluded reporters, and then Ave had a royal exhibition of the narrowness and suspiciousness and bitterness of Evangelicalism on the vexed question of the patronage of the new churches ; it
14-
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CHAP. XII
was really pitiful to see and vexatious to endure. However, by waiving all personal claims, and by half chaffing, half scolding, I got them all in a decent frame of mind, and we parted good friends and with the Society formed. Since then I have been at an Episcopal Caucus at Danbury (Bishop of Rochester's). I must not tell even you what passed there, as it is stridlij suh sigillo. I will only say that the Episcopate in that section of it very faithfully rej^resents the Leicester Ruridecanal Conference.*
" I now fully believe that nothing ■will be done in the way of revision in Convocation. I trust that this may prove the safest course, if safe be the proper word for a choice between serious perils. But it is, at any rate, the only possible course. This strange alliance of Evangelicals and Ritualists against Revision, combined with the strong unreasoning Conservativism of many of the high and dry Church party, make so large a majority against revision as to lessen the effect of any revision that would touch any rubric involving the balance of parties, and no other rubrics are worth the risk and trouble of revising. Nothing will, there- fore, be done, as I expect ; for I trust the sensible men are strong enough to prevent anything else than revision being done, e.g., ' Explanation of Rubrics,"' or Canons, and such-like forcible-feeble devices which will only make us ridiculous. Then a fall back on the Prayer-book and the Law Courts, and the bishop's discretion ! I fear the latter will soon break down under the strain that will be put on it. Then comes general liberty of prosecution, general strife, chaos. Disestablishment and Schism.
" I had a long interview to-day with Stephens on Lord Shaftes- bury's coming Bill on Diocesan Fees. Stephens tells me that Lord Shaftesbury is greatly pleased with my late letter to him, and thinks me about the only honest bishop going. I should be better pleased at this if I were sure of the honesty of the narrator. At anv rate, he professed to adopt several of my suggestions and volunteered a promise to show me the Bill when drafted. I have set my own Bill (on Patronage) in the hands of the draftsman and shall see the rough draft to-morrow, so you see that no grass has been growing under my feet of late.
" I must not write more just now, under the glare of the gas- light. Tell me when you write how things are going on in the Irish Church."
* They (nearly all — Evangelicals, High Churchmen, and Broad Churchmen) deprecated the substitution of any new rubric for the old Ornaments Rubric.
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" Peterborougm, December 4, 1874.
" I enclose you our progi'amme for the two last days in the Ember week. I have found it very difficult to arrange satisfactorily.
" The difference between high-flown theories on preparation for orders, and possible realities, is much wider than spouters at Church Congresses can be got to understand. The part of our system that, so fai", works best is my own invention — the examination of the candidate priests by means of papers.*
" I go to town on IMonday to discuss my Patronage Bill with the draftsman and with W. Ebor; then will come Cantuar, Sel- borne, and Cairns ; then the Bishops, at Lambeth ; then the House of Lords ; then the Commons. By the time it gets through all these sieves, if it ever does, it may come out like ' the little end of nothing whittled down to a point.' Certainly there is a gi-eat deal of friction and waste power in the machinery of free Govern- ments. I am all for the occasional dictatorship both in Church and State. It is the only way out of constitutional deadlocks ; but, unluckily, if we had it, neither you nor I would be made Dictators. More is the pity !
" I hear the Daily Telegraph has been giving me a sensation leader for something I did not say last Sunday about science. Strange that a few obiter dicta in an extempore serm.on should get into the London papers and be discussed in leaders, while what I really took pains with in Leicester should fall dead and still-born. However, I do not mean to trouble myself with playing ' Brummv ' to the 'dog Physic' of the Telegraph. I am too busy just now, even had I the mind to do so, which I have not."
" ATHEN.EDM Clob, December 9, 1874.
"I have just met here Chas. Limerick, and had a talk with him about the three Csjf diocese of Limerick, and Bence Jones. I foimd him stirred up by a letter of Bence Jones's in last Guardian alluding to himself, and ready to contradict. I seized the oppor- tunity to urge him, at the same time he contradicted it, to explain to the English mind hriefly and clearly :
" (1) AVhat the three C's really are.
" (2) What they really do.
* These papers were sent out twice in the year to the rural deans, in whose presence the candidate priests wrote their answers, which were then sealed up and returned to the examiners. Every deacon had to pass two half-yearly examinations of this kind before being presented for priests' orders.
t Commuting, Compounding, and Cutting.
16
ARCHBISHOP MAGEE chap, xn
" (3) How far tliey have been really availed of.
" I left him quite determined to do this. It is high time that somebody should do it.
" I met the Archbishop of York on Monday night, and the editor of the Spectator last night, and neither of them knew what compounding' was ! The latter was very fair and kind as regards the Irish Church, but much impressed with the real mischief to the Eng-Ush Church that was being done by these misstatements. I can easily get him to print or notice Chas. Limerick's letter. So you see some good comes of bishops ' enjoying themselves in the great world of London and neglecting their dioceses.'
" I have gone over the draft of my Bill with Brunei the drafts- man and the Archbishop of York, and got the latter to assent to nearly all my ideas. This is important, as he is the legal adviser of the Bench, and his opposition would have been formidable.
" I have got to see Selborne, Cairns, and the Duke of Richmond, besides running the gauntlet of the bishops' meeting at Lambeth, and when all this is done I have only got to the second reading.
" Every foolish peer and member of Parliament will have a chance of gi-afting his little bit of folly into the Bill, and what we shall get in the end, if we get anything, heaven only knows.
" Everything I hear in these parts indicates a do-nothing policy as regards rubrics in the coming session. Parliament will be in the cold fit of its Protestant ague when it meets, afraid of meddling any further with Church matters ; and if Convocation does nothing, it will do nothing — so, at least, say sundry leaders of the Lower and Upper House whom I have talked with. This is all well until July next ; then the future of the Church will depend on two not very strong anchors — the discretion of bishops, and the forbeai-ance of Parliament if bishops prove indiscreet. However, sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.
" I am going home to-night by the five-o'clock train, and it is now past three o'clock, so no more from " W. C. P."
The two lectures upon the "Art of Preaching" and " Extempore Speaking," to which the Bishop alludes in the following letter, were delivered in the Trophy Room at St. Paul's Cathedral, in February 1875. Some of the pointed sayings and invaluable rules to be found in them were the result of his study and experience, chiefly in early life. Take for example his favourite classification of preachers and sermons.
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All preachers may be divided into three classes : First, the preacher you can't listen to, Second, the pi'eacher you can listen to, Third, the preacher you can't help listening to.
Sermons he divided into two classes, the vetiebrate and the inverte- brate.
He used to sav that the first requisite for a preacher w as arrangv- vient, the second arrangement, and the third arrangement, thus altering Demosthenes'" dictum that, of* the three requisites for an orator, the first was action, the second action, and the thii'd action.
He used to say that the power of speaking effectively depended upon the power of malcing points.* He believed this to be so much a natural gift, that it was almost impossible to teach it. This may have been in a measure the reason why he has nowhere written about it.
The essay style of sermon which prevailed generally at the begin- ning of this century is a complete illustration of what the Bishop wanted a speaker to avoid. He would himself have mercilessly discarded any point, however brilliant, that was not relevant to the prevailing ' idea of the speech or sermon.
He thus concludes his lecture on " Extempore Speaking " :
So far indeed you may feel yourself to be unfitted ; but you can make up for these deficiencies by the earnestness of your life, the devotion of your service, the loving-kmdness of your heart. You may never be able to preach a great senmon, but you are always able to live a great sei- mon. There are many men who have a marvellous power over their people who are not great preachers. The power of a holy life is some- thing that goes far to compensate for many deficiencies, and without this, the greatest success in the pulpit is only a miserable failure at the best.
To J. C. MacDonnei.l.
" Peterborough, January 4, 1875 " . . . . You have probably seen that Convocation has been postponed until after Easter. On the whole, I think, wisely, as time to cool is what is just now greatly needed by the Chm'ch ; and the less time left for possible collision between Convocation and Parliament the better.
" I am noia convinced that the working of the P.AV.R. Act
VOL. n.
See letter of August 26, 1847.
B
J8
ARCHBISHOP MAGEE
CHAP. XII
for a year or two will, on the whole, be not a bad guide for its future revision, and rather sedative in its effects than otherwise. I fully ex{)ect that some of the first cases under it — in private, at any rate — will not be ritualistic ones, but cases of bumptious and litigious rectors who have been nagging their churchwardens and bisho})s for years past.
"I have a case in hand just now of which the P.W.R. would make short work — and very deservedly too.
" I have a lecture on preaching to prepare for the London Homi- letical Society — 7ne miset~um ! so must say no more at present.
" The best and kindest wishes for this New Year to you and yours."
"Athen^um Club, February 22, 1875.
" I have been to the Lords to-night, and have ascertained that the second reading of my Bill is secure. So say, at least. Cairns, Selborne, Granville, Richmond, Beauchamp, and A. C. Cantuar. What they will, all of them, make of it in Committee is quite another question. Cairns objects to two or three clauses which are not, however, of the essence of the Bill ; if a Bill so much of details can be said to have any essence. Walpole will take charge of it in the Connnons. Cross and Ward Hunt are in favour of it. Granville distinctly told me he 'approves of it in the main." But what a deal of coaxing and earwigging it has taken me to get even so far ; and still I have all the breaker's and rocks of Committee ahead.
" I find I must fix Monday, March 15, at latest, for Committee. This will entail a postponement of four confirmations (a thing the clergy hate) unless I can find a substitute, which I will try to do. But in any case everything must give way to this Bill.
" I am very tired after preaching for fifty minutes yesterday at Whitehall, and have a heavy cold besides. I must, however, fight through until Thursday night, whatever come after.""
"Athen^um Club, February 26, 1875. " I send you a few lines on the eve of my starting for home, for a fortnight's rest and nursing, just to say that I am alive this morning after an hour's speech last night, delivered from inside of a porous plaister, and from a very seedy and weak sort of body alto- gether.
" The Times'" report of my speech is a very fair one ; and on the whole I have no reason to be dissatisfied with the reception of my
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Bill, though I do not, of course, like the reference of it to a Select Committee which cannot meet until after Easter. It looked, at first, like an attempt to shelve the Bill. But from all I can learn, this is not intended ; and the Government, i.e., Caii'ns, is disposed really to do something' to amend our patronage system.
"The objections taken are not, so far, at all serious ; and if no new ones are raised in the new, and therefore, ignorant Committee, I may get the Bill, ni its material features, into law by August. At any rate, I was in the hands of Government, and could only accept their terms, whatever they might be. I am satisfied, how- ever, that the cause of reform has made last night a decided step forward. And now, even if I have to wait another year, I shall at last get something; effected.
" The Bishop of Exeter's speech greatly displeased the Conser- vative peers. It was thought verv revolutionary, and far too deferential to Nonconformists. So far, it helped me, by making uiy proposals seem moderate by comparison. Lord Lansdowne spoke well and ablv for his side of the question ; and old Lord Harrowby ridiculously on behalf of ' pious shopkeepers' sons.'
"As I have said, however, on the whole, and considering the fact that I was addressing a House full of patrons, I have got as far and as well on as I hoped to do.
"The Times has yet to issue its leader on the subject. Half sneer, half cold commendation and carefully trimming, it will, of course, be. But even the Times will, I think, hardly denounce the Bill or me.
" Now I must be off.
" I am greatly vexed about this postponement of the confirma- tion. But the fact is, though it is not to be published, Clark thinks that this bronchial afi'ection, and working on under it, has made my heart rather irritable. Not in any way diseased, but weaker than it ought to be ; and so he commands positive rest for a while, and comparative rest during the next few months. Then, he says, I shall be all right. " W. C. P."
I quote here the opening paragraphs of the Bishop's speech, which will give a sufficient explanation of its origin and principle.
My Lordsj the Bill to whicli I am about to ask your lordships to grant a second reading to-night is an attempt to give legal effect to the recommendations of the Select Committee which your lordships were pleased to appoint on my motion last year to inquire into the subject
20 ARCHBISHOP MAGEE
of Church Patronage ; and I may state at the outset tliat the Bill neither goes beyond, nor fills short of, the recommendations of that Committee. It simply embodies the recommendations of the Select Committee of your Lordships' House on this subject.
Before, however, I pi'oceed to explain tlie details of the Bill, which is mainly one of details, I have to saj- a few words as to the principle of the measure ; and I do not think I can state what the principle is better than it is thus stated in the first paragraph of the Report of the Select Committee, which is in these terms :
As regards the first of these questions, the Ccmnnittee are of opinion that all legislation affecting Church patronage should proceed upon the principle that such patronage partakes of the natui-e of a trust to be exercised for the spiritual benefit of the parishioners, and that whatever rights of property originally attached, or in process of time have attached, to patronage, must always be regarded with reference to the application of this principle. All exercise of the rights of patronage Avithout due regard to the interests of the parishioners should, so far as possible, be restrained by law ; and the laAv should also aim at im- posing such checks on the exercise of his choice by the patron as should prevent, as far as possible, the appointment of unfit persons to the cure of souls.
My Lords, this is the principle of this Bill, that patronage is not mei'cly and not mainly property, that it is a trust ; and that if it be jiroperty, so far as it is property, " it has its duties as well as its rights," and that every patron is to be regarded as exercising a most solemn and important trust in behalf of the parishioners.
That the Bill did not go as far as the author wished Avill be seen from the following sentences near the close of the Bishop's speech.
It mav be asked, then, why I do not propose in this Bill to entirely prohibit the sale of the next presentation. My simple reason is that I was not so fortunate as to obtain the assent of your lordships' Select Committee to that proposition. On a division on this point there was a majority of one against me. I have no wish to conceal my disap- pointment ; but I may mention that the division to which I allude was not taken in presence of the whole Committee. Members were absent who would have voted with me ; but having moved for the Committee myself and having acted as its Chairman, I felt loyally bound not to propose anything in this Bill which the Committee did not recommend.
The following is an instance of one of the difficulties which the Patronage Bill was designed to remedy. The Bishop had heard privately that a clergyman of very bad character was likely to be
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presented to a living in lay patronage. A brother bishop gave full l)articiilars about the antecedents of the man to be presented, to the Bishop of Peterborough.
The person in (question wrote to the Bishop to say he had been
presented to the living of in his diocese, and to ask him to
fix a time for his institution. The Bishop wrote back asking him to call upon him in London. When they were together, the Bishop told him he had heard his whole story ; that at such a time and place he had done so and so ; at such another time or place he had been guilty of some other offence ; and showed that he knew minutely the story of his delinquencies. He then spoke to this effect : " If I refuse to institute you, you may apply to the Queen's Bench for a mandamus and involve me in a lawsuit. I may not succeed, and if I do it will cost me dClOOO or £2000 which I cannot afford. But I will do this : Parliament is now sitting ; and what- ever I say there is pi*ivileged. I will go down to the House of Loi'ds and move a resolution to give more power to the bishop to i-eject unfit clerks presented to livings ; and I shall tell the whole story of your life and delinquencies, giving name and dates. It will be published in the morning in every newspaper in the king- dom, and then, if you insist upon my instituting you, when you go down to your parish the very dogs will hark at you^ The guilty clerk shrank from the ordeal, and the affair ended in the parties to whom the patronage had fallen presenting a fitting clergyman, whom the Bishop willingly instituted to the "cui-e of souls" in the parish.
To J. C. MacDonnell.
" March 2g, 1875.
"I am decidedly better. But while these cold winds last I cannot get well. I am going to Buxton — or, rather, to a little sheltered riverside nook near Buxton — on Tuesday next Avith Charlie, for a little more change and rest.
" I started our Church Extension Scheme in Northampton fairly. A large meeting and good platform, and I think already nearly £5000 promised. This is, however, a long way off ^PSSjOOO, the sum needed. Any how, I shall get two out of my proposed four parishes.
" I go to town on April 5, for my Bill. Its prospects are not encouraging — cold sup2)ort from friends, and active opposition from vested interests, seem the fate of all reforms at first. My bitterest enemies are proving to be clerical patrons, who are, as the clergy
22
ARCHBISHOP MAGEE
ClIA!'.
SO generally are, given to panics, and incapable of seeing outside the edges of their own parishes. I shall go on, lio\\ever, steadily doing my best until I am stopped ; and then I shall throw mv hand up and let any one that likes take up the cards. The next reformer will be a rougher one than I, and so the clergy may find to their cost.
" The Cabinet is sick of all Church questions, and hates the very idea of Church Bills in the Commons. The result of this false Conservatism will be ecclesiastical revolution. Suppressed reform is like suppressed gout — sure to fly to the heart at last ; and then eoceunt omnes. I, too, am very sick of it all ; and begin to think the end much nearer than it seemed \.\\o Nears ago.''''
" AxHEN^UM Club, Api il 15, 1875.
" Convocation in our House is doing nothing with great dignity and calm. In the Lower House it is doing nothing practical with great heat and fury. They have five resolutions under discussion there anent the two rubrics, and the first and least debatable will not be voted on until this afternoon ! So nuicli the better for us, who are playing a waiting e:ame.
"Nearly all I said on explanatory rubrics was burked in the Guardian. But they, at any rate, have got their quietus ; and \\-e shall reach July 1 with the rubrics as they are 'phis the law courts minus the episcopal discretion.
" I think we are gravitating towards an understanding not 1 o allow prosecution for the eastward position. Even the Archbishop tends this way now. The position will be deliciously illogical ; but that will not matter if we can only hold it against the pressure of the Puritans.
" I am hard at work in Select Committee on my Bill. Cairns and Richmond are behaving ver?/ fairly ; not at all cushioning or obstructing the Bill, but honestly trying to improve it according to their lights — and, in some respects, decidedly doing so according to mine. We shall finish our work, I expect, in two more sittings. But we onlv sit on Wednesdays, to acconnnodate Cairns and Selborne. ' " VV. C. P."
The Bishop was a member of the Metaphysical Society, whicii included many scientific men of every variety of opinion and belief, and sometimes read a paper at their meetings. How he could have fomid time for these in the midst of his varied labours it is
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hard to understand ; but he took a delight in exercising his fine j)o\vcr of logic, and crossing swords with men from whom he totally differed.
One of the best specimens of argument and ridicule is to be found in a paper which he read before this society on April 18, 1875, in which he discusses the propriety and morality of maintaining hospitals for incui'ables, showing that, upon the theories of life advocated by many, it would follow that the incurables ought to be painlessly put to death.
Before reading the paper, the Bishop had sent a copy to Dr. Salmon. The following letter shows how fully he appreciated it :
From Dr. Salmon.
Trinity College, Dublin,
April II, 1873.
My dear Bishop, — I had read the " Incurables " with great pleasure, and was rather dull not to have guessed the authorship. The "greatest happiness of the greatest number " particular!}' tickled my fancj'. But as far as I can judge of a stream of tendency, the force of your argu- ment, considered as a reductio ad absurdiim, will be lost by the accept- ance of the absurd conclusion.
I suppose you read some magazine articles on Euthanasia a little time ago. They looked with favour on the Indian mode of disposing of our aged fi-iends by taking them down to the Ganges, covering their mouths with mud, and bidding them an affectionate farewell. We, on the contrary, when a person is recognised to be dying, think it a duty to keep him alive in a semi-conscious state, by pouring brandy down his throat, perhaps some twenty-four hours longer than his natural time ; and though we appi-ove of a physician administering narcotics to a person suffering torture in hopeless disease, we should condemn him if he purposely made the dose so sti-ong as to give the most effectual relief. . . . . — I remam very faithfully yours, George Salmon.
It will be seen from the following passage in one of the Bishop's letters that Dr. Salmon's prediction was correct, and that some of the Bishop's opponents accepted what he considered as the absurd conclusion to which he had reduced their principles :
" .... I read my paper, and Tyndall and Greg calmly adoj^ted my ? edtictio ad absurdum, and were for killing the old woman !
" W. C. P."
24 ARCHBISHOP MAGEE chap, xii
HOSPITALS FOR INCURABLES CONSIDERED FROM A
MORAL POINT OF VIEW.
[Paper read at the Grosvenor Hotel, April 13, 1875.
I propose in this paper to attempt the practical appUcation in a single instance of certain theories of human life and morals recently set forth Avith much weight of authority. I shall^ in the first place^ state the conditions of the problem to be solved, in their simplest and most elementary form ; and, in the next place, the respective theories by the help of which I propose to attempt its solution.
Problem to he solved.
Given an old woman afflicted with incurable cancer — certain to die, say, in twelve months from the present date — and meanwhile unable from poverty to obtain proper nursing, medical alleviation of her suf- ferings, or even the means of sustaining existence, without the aid of others, while I, on the other hand, am able to supply all her wants in these respects.
Given further, the following conditions :
A. That there is nothing supem&txixaX in either of us — i.e., nothing in which our nature essentially differs from that of any other known animal, our differences from other animals being purely anatomical, as, for instance, that she and I are possessed of thumbs, of great toes of a peculiar shape, of hipjiocampus majors in our brains, and of certain useless intestinal appendages, by virtue of which we claim to be supe- rior animals, but animals merely.
B. That there is nothing supernatural outside of us — i.e., that there is no being distinct from us who has created us, and whose relation to each of us as creator might be for us the ground of certain relations and mutual obligations, or who could have given us either information or direction as to these relations and obligations, or as to any design of our being, by accordance with or discordance from which the moral qualities of our dealings with each other might be tested.
The question arises. What, under these conditions, is my duty to- wards that old woman, and what is the duty of the State towai'ds us both as regards hospitals for incurables .''
I have obviously before me the proverbial three courses. I may — ■
(1) Provide her with medical and other comforts for the remamder
of her days ; or I may
(2) Leave her alone ; or I may (.'5) Terminate her existence.
I may comfort, neglect, or kill her. Which of these three courses
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ought 1 to take ? If this question were to be decided on tlie ground of authority only, I should probably choose the second of these courses, wliich has in its favour the example of the great majority of mankind in all ages. But inasmuch as each of the other two courses has in its favour the example of considerable minorities of mankind, and as the third has not only the prestige of great antiquity, but the presumption in its favour of a power of survival which has preserved it to the pre- sent day, the argument from authority, powerful as it is in questions of morals, cannot here be regarded as conclusive. It cannot, I think, be pressed farther than to show that no one of these three courses can be reffarded as inhuman or unnatural.
We must have recoui-se to other bases of morals in order to decide which of these courses is the right one to follow.
Three Bases of Morals.
Of these bases of morals there are three, by the help of each of which I would pi'opose to consider in this case the jiroper course of action.
These are :
1. The Mechanical. 2. The Utilitarian. 3 The Perfectionist. Let us take each of these in their order.
According to the first of these, if I understand it rightly, all of us, both men and brutes, are conscious automata — machines, that is to say (though improperly so called, inasmuch as a machine implies a me- chanist), machines all whose actions are mechanicalhj necessary — the inevitable and in voluntary' result of certain mechanical agitations incur brains, accompanied by, but in no way whatever caused by, certain sensations, one of which we call volition, but which volition has nothing to do with the genesis of our actions, and is itself as mechani- cally and as necessarily generated by circumstances wholly beyond our choice or control as they are.
On this theory I confess myself utterly unable to see anything save the absolute moral indiSerence of these three courses of action. I feel myself necessarily Impelled by the molecular agitations which logic produces in my brain to say that there can be no moral responsibility attaching to the mechanically necessarj' movements of machines, the consciousness which accompanies these movements being as mechanical and as necessary as the movements themselves.
If I were to drive a knife into the heart of this supposed old woman, no one would dream of blaming the knife for its share in that trans- action, it being not only an involuntary, but an unconscious agent If a stronger being than myself were to fasten a knife in my hand and drive it against my will into her heart, no one would dream of blaming
ARCHBISHOP MA GEE
CHAP. XII
me (or my share in that transaction — I being, though not an uncon- scious, yet an involuntary agent.
If my consent or will happen to go with that act of the stronger being, or if I perform the act myself — the consent or the action being in this case as completely beyond my control and as purely mechanical and necessary as the motion of my hand in the former case — I cannot see how, in this case, I am one whit more morally responsible than my arm in the second, or than the knife in the first case.
Nay, there is even a secondary and improper sense in which we might blame the knife, and in which we cannot blame the man. We might say of the knife, if it did its work bluntly and ineffectually, that it was a bad knife ; but we should say this because we regarded the knife as a machine, whose maker designed it for a particular end, viz., sharp cutting, and therefore in a metaphorical and analogical sense, Ave might saj"^ of the knife which failed to answer the design of its maker that it was a bad knife. But it is clear that we could not say this of any human being, unless we suppose him to have had a maker and to be made with a design. Any application, therefore, of moral epithets to human actions should be carefully eschewed by those who reject the idea of a designer of humanity, inasmuch as they certainly tend to foster this idea.
I know that I am warned against these conclusions by high authority as savouring of " logic," of which I am told I am to " beware," — a warning which seems to me, however, as reasonable and as hopeful as that of the driver of a train who, having driven it to the edge of the precipice, should jump off as it was going over, with the warning to the passengers, " Bewai'e of steam ! " Logic is as real a fact as steam. Once on the two grooves of the Major and Minor of a syllogism, we must go on whither they lead us, in spite of all the warnings of the man who has laid down the rails and got up the steam.
Admitting, however, for argument's sake, the moral quality of me- chanically necessary actions, there is much to be said in favour of the third of these three courses. Undoubtedly, if we had in like case to deal with one of those animals which we are pleased to call inferior, we should not hesitate to shoot it, either in order to put it out of its misery, or to save ourselves the cost of keeping it, or the pain of wit- nessing its agonies. Now, assuming that this old woman is simply an animal, and no more, I fail to see how the fact that she is a superior animal should give her any exemption fi'om the fate of an incurably diseased horse or dog. I can see no more sacredness, on this theory, in the one form of life than in the other. The assertion that there is seems to me fraught with dangerous and even (if I may use the word " moral " in this context) immoral consequences. For if the superior animal, simply because it is superior, may rightfully kill the inferior
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animal, I cannot see why a very superior man may not rightfully kill a very inferior man, supposing in both eases, of course, sufficient reason of convenience or comfort to the superior were to call for this killing — as, for instance, why Babbage and Leech might not rightly have killed the organ-grinders who were killing them ; or why a Sir Isaac Newton might not rightfully kill a cretin, between whom and Sir Isaac there would probably be more difference than between the ci'etin and an in- telligent dog.
And if it be alleged that human nature revolts against the idea of destroying diseased and repulsive human beings for our own convenience and comfort, or even to relieve them from misery, and that therefore such an action, if not immoral, is at any I'ate unnatural and odious ; we must remember that human nature, or what we practically mean by that term — namely, our English human nature — has for many centuries been under the influence of certain beliefs as to the sacredness of human life — which, if they are ever dispelled by pure science, might leave a human nature by no means so averse to the killing of human beings as ours now in most cases happens to be.
There are, howe\ er, certain considerations of enlightened self-interest which tend, I admit, rather in the direction either of leaving this old woman alone, or even of placing her in a hospital for incurables. It may be urged that the knowledge of the best means of alleviating in- curable disease acquired in such an hospital might prove useful to our- selves ; and also that the principle that one human animal may, for its own greater convenience or comfort, kill an inferior human animal, might, if generally acted on by inconsiderate or ignorant persons, have unpleasant consequences for ourselves. To the former of these jileas, however, it may be replied that it might, after all, be better for our- selves, that if incurably diseased, we should be painlessly extinguished, than that we should be alleviated. As regards the latter of these, it might be urged that, at any rate, it could not apply to the extinction of diseased lives, under proper precautions and with due solemnities, by the State.
On the whole, therefore — on this mechanical theory of human life — I incline to the ojjinion that if there be any morality in the case, the balance is rather in favour of the extinction than of the preservation of the incurably diseased life ; if not by the individual, yet, at least, by the State. I do not think, however, that on this theory we should be justified in pronouncing either of the two other courses to be innnoral.
Tlie Utilitarian Tlieorij.
Let us, in the next place, try this question on the Utilitarian or "greatest happiness of the greatest number" theory, and as this theory
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is confessedly too difficult of application to be a guide for the actions of individuals, I shall test by it my second question — whether the State should allow of hospitals for incurables.
I confess, however, to a serious practical difficulty in the way of applying this theoiy to an}' actions whatsoever. It gives us no defini- tion of what is this " greatest number " whose happiness is to be aimed at. Is this the greatest number of sentient beings, no matter of what kind or quality, or is it the greatest number of human beings } If the former, then undoubtedly the State ought to extinguish all cancerous old women, inasmuch as the number of sentient beings who would find happiness in devouring them after death would be incalculably greater than the number of persons so extinguished, even if we add to it the small number of persons who now find their happiness in minis- tering to their wants. On the same principle, we may observe that the resistance of a tribe of Africans to the locusts, who find their "greatest happiness " in eating green crops, would be decidedly immoral. If, on the other hand, we limit the right of " greatest happiness " to human beings, we can only do so on the principle that the right to happiness depends, not on the number, but on the quality of the sentient beings concerned — men, for instance, because they are men, i.e., higher animals, being more entitled to be happy than locusts.
But this limitation is obviously fatal to the "greatest number" theory, inasmuch as it proceeds on the exactly opposite principle, that a lesser number of superior beings, and therefore of superior human beings, have a better right to be happ}' than a greater number of in- ferior ones, a theory which we know was long insisted on in defence of the enslaving of black naen by white ones.
Assuming, however, that this greatest happiness is the right of the superior members of the human race, and that the State should aim at this, it may be questioned whether this is not merely a roundabout way of saj ing that the State should aim at making good men happy ; and if so, the answer to the question whether the State, on this principle, should allow of hospitals for incurables depends on ascertaining whether their existence gives happiness to good men. But inasmuch as if these hos^iitals are not good or right institutions, good men ought not to approve of them, we get here into the vicious circle of testing the goodness of an institution by the goodness of the persons who take pleasure in it, and then of testing the goodness of these persons by the goodness of the institution that makes them happy.
Assuming, however, this "greatest happiness of the greatest number" to mean that of the greatest number of human beings simply, it seems to me clear that hospitals for incurables should be suppressed by the State, as decidedly immoral institutions. For obviously, on this theory, the quantity of happiness for humanity is limited, and a good Govern-
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ment is, therefore, bound to sacrifice the happiness of tlie lesser to that of the greater number of its subjects. But if happiness be a limited quantity, so also must be many of its factors, e.g., wealth, comfort, lei- sure, amusement, cheerfulness, gaiety, and the like. Clearly, thei-efore, all diseased, helpless and repulsive forms of existence detract from the general stock of human happiness — indirectly by contributing nothing to it, directly by withdrawing from it the wealth, leisure, cheerfulness, or gaiety which otherwise would go into the general stock of happiness. All such existences are injurious to the State, they are the boucltes iiiu- iiles in the great siege which humanity sustains against misery and should be dealt with accordingly. Indeed, they may even be reckoned among the classes dangereuses. An old woman with a cancerous dia- thesis is as truly, though not as seriously, inconvenient to the State as an old woman with a mui'derous diathesis. The molecular constitution of each is socially mischievous, and though it is true that the mui'derous constitution is more dangerous than the cancerous, yet, on the other hand, the former is presumably curable, and may be treated by ajijiro- j)riate remedies — the latter, being incurable, can only be dealt with effectually by extinction. These arguments for the extinction of in- curably diseased lives by the State are strengthened considerably by those which have lately been urged in favour of suicide.
It is argued, with much plausibility, that it is the duty of those whose lives are hopelessly burdensome to themselves and to others, to jelieve themselves and society of this burden by self-extinction. Clearly, therefore, to assist such persons in prolonging their lives, is immorally to aid and abet others in an immoral neglect of duty. It is only carrying this principle one step fui'ther, to say that the State should at least forbid such aid, as being socially mischievous, even if it do not go the length of requiring such persons to do their duty to themselves and their families, or if they fail to do it, of doing it for them.
It may, however, be urged, on the other hand, that such a course of action on the part of the State might tend to produce a hai'd and un- compassionate temper of society, and that as compassion is undoubtedly an emotion of great social utility, such a proceeding would be contrary to sound Utilitarian principles. The answer, however^ is obvious. The emotion of compassion is undoubtedly of high social utility. But the indiscriminate graf 'ificatioii of that emotion is undoubtedly most mis- chievous to society, while the restraint of its exercise to proper objects no more tends to weaken the emotion itself than the narrowing of a stream tends to make it shallow. Once let it be clearly understood that incurably diseased paupers are not proper objects for the exercise of compassion, and the pi'olongation of their lives will excite, in all pro- perly regulated minds, the same indignation that is now excited by in-
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discriminate almsgiving — an indignation which is felt, as we know, by persons of the most warm and active benevolence.
There is, I admit, one fatal objection to the whole of this argument, namely, that it assumes the moral right of the greatest number to be happy, and that this again assumes the moral right of any one indivi- dual to be happy, and that this again assumes, as its only possible basis, that argument from design which modern science so decidedly rejects. This objection, however, lies outside the scope of this paper, which only pretends to apply — and not to discuss — the theories with which it deals.
The Perfectionist Theory.
Lastly, we may apply to this question the theory of a scientific basis of morals set forth in a paper lately read before this society. On this theory, the ultimate standard of morals is not utility, but perfection, society, we are told, tending naturally and inevitably towards this per- fection by the development of a tribal self, whose office it is to inform and guide the conscience of the individual self, whose " piety " con- sists in willingness to submit to these external revelations of the tribal self, and who, if he "impiously " resist them, may be "dealt with by appropriate methods" on the part of this tribal self. In attempting any practical application of this theory, we encounter, as it seems to me, two serious practical difficulties.
First, this theoiy supplies no definition of that " perfection " which is its ultimate standard of morals. Does this perfection, or does it not, include the idea of morality .'' If it does, then we are at once involved — in deciding any practical question of morals — in the vicious circle of first making tribal perfection a test of morality, and then of making morality a test of tribal perfection. Clearly, if we must know what morality is in order to define perfection, the knowledge of perfection can be no great help to us in defining morality. To call that a basis of morals of which morality is a part is equivalent to saying that morality rests on morality, a basis which seems to me to lack the rigorous exact- ness which we expect from science. If, on the other hand, the defini- tion of perfection exclude the idea of morality, then we are thrown back on that Utilitarian theory for which this has been proposed as a substitute.
Secondly, this standard of morals fails us exactly at the point where we most need it, namely, where there arises a conflict of moral judg- ment between the individual and the tribal self; such, for instance, as might conceivably arise between a tribal self and the diseased pauper it was about to immolate. In every such case it is clear that it is a fallacy to speak of the moral judgment of the majority as that of the tribal self. For it is clear that the individual who dissents from
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that judgment is a part of that very tribal self that is to j udge, the tribal self being nothing but the sum of the individual selves of which it is composed. The judgment, therefore, of the majority of a tribe is not that of the tribal self, but only of a part of that self ; and, there- foi'e, as the tribal self in this case cannot possibly have spoken, I fail to see the " im2:)iety " on the part of the individual in resisting the judgment.
It is true that the tribal self, that is, society, may deal with the in- dividual in that case, " by appropriate methods," i.e., may hang or imprison him ; but unless might make right, or unless majorities are infallible and, therefore, individual reformers always impious, it does not follow that society is right in doing so. My difficulty (in one sen- tence) is, that whenever society and I differ, I cannot possibly get that judgment of the tribal self which should inform my conscience. Further, the individual may, I think, fairly allege, that as society is, on this theory, not perfect, but only tending to perfection, he may, for aught he knows to the contrary, be advancing that perfection by in- dulging to the fullest extent his own propensities, whatever these may be— certain that in the end the strongest propensities, and, therefore, on this theory, the best, will prevail, by a process of natural selection.
On this theory, therefore, I confess myself quite unable to say any- thing respecting the morality or immorality of hospitals for incurables, or indeed of anything else. All that I can say is, that if there be any "ought " in the case, it is that each person ought to do as forcibly as he can whatever he feels the strongest impulse to do, satisfied that thus he is best contributing his share to the ultimate perfection of the tribal self.
Summary.
To sum up, therefore, the result of the attempt to apply to the case of hospitals for incurables the mechanical, the utilitarian, and the per- fectionist theories of lite and morals. According to the first of these, such hospitals most probably ought not ; according to the second, they certainly ought not, to be supported by individuals or tolerated by the State ; according to the third, we ought each of us to please himself, and when the State has come to an absolutely unanimous judgment on the matter, we or our posterity shall know who was right.
Hospitals for incui-ables, and all other works of pure mercy and com- passion to our fellow-men, can, I fear, be logically justified only on the assumption that the conditions I assumed for my problem are not cor- rect ; that there may be something supernatural in man, something essentially different from all qualities of all other animals — which can- not be ascertained by comparative anatomy, or brought under the rule of merely physical laws ; and also that there may be, without and
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apart from man, a supernatural author of his existence, out of whose relations to him ai-ise certain relations of all men to each other, which make the real and essential difference between nations of men and herds of brutes ; and that from this Being man may have derived those rights to live and to be happy which it seems so difficult to establish on any scientific basis. Nay, that He may even have given to man some information as to the existence of these facts and of these rights which might be more useful to him than the external revelations of the tribal self — that is to say, that there may be a supernatural revela- tion of a basis of morals suited to a supernatural creature.
To J. C. MacDonni,:ll.
"41 Devonshire Street,
" Portland Place, May 5, 1875.
" Mr. L. need not have been so uneasy.
"(1) The clause in the Bill to which he and others object was not to have been retrospective, and would not, therefore, have touched him or any one who had bought before the passing of the Act.
" (2) The clause has vanished from the Bill !
" I agree with you in thinking that clerical patrons are acting- very unwisely for their own interests in opposing the whole Bill so bitterly as they are doing.
"(1) They will never have a milder one, that is certain.
" (2) The longer they delay the Bill, the longer they keep up the agitation on the subject, and so continually depreciate the selling- value of their own property.
" (3) They place themselves in a very invidious position as clergymen, and, I think, a very dangerous one as owners of property, in fighting against any and all reform of admitted evils and abuses, on the ground that those are inextricably mixed up with their property !
" The result will be, sooner or later, that men will not preserve the abuse for the sake of the property ; but get rid of the property in order to get rid of the abuse.
" Certainly nothing can well be more damaging to the Church than the fact — if it turn out to be a fact — of the existence of such a blue book of damaging facts and evidences as last year's report of my committee, and the fact that all reform of these was stopped by the clergy of the Church. But clergy in a panic are like horses in a stampede — nothing will hold them. The Bill cannot possibly'
1 87 4-7 6 CHURCH PATRONAGE 3Ji
<>L't through the Coimnons this year. Tlie oj)})o.sitiou of tho.se men will force a counter-agitation and discussion, and the more of this there is the worse for them. Their real wisdom would be to pass this Bill (juickly and have done with it. Its real defect is, not that it does too much, but that it does too little.
" However, under these circumstances, I elect to wait for petitions until next year, when I will fairly try what I can do in the way of sttimping the Church, and we will fairly fight it out ; and then, if I am beaten, I am, and no more about it, as far as / am concernetl. You can tell L. the facts I mention as to the natui-e of the clause he objected to, and the excision of it from the Bill; and say, at the same time, that / am in no hurry, and that, if they think it for tlieir interests to protract this contest, / can wait, and have no %\ ish to take, or seem to take, an unfair advantage of the clergy in t'lie matter."
"Athen.sium Club, June 3, 1875.
" I am staving with Mr. Rathbone, the Radical member for Liverpool, and meeting at his house all manner of heterodox folk. Sir W. Law^on, Sir W. Harcourt, Sir C. Dilke, all dined with us last night, and a very pleasant party we had. Fawcett and (Gladstone are to dine on IMonday next. It is really a curious experience meeting such antagonistic elements, and noting the amount of effervescence that follows.
" I go down to Peterborough on Saturdav, and come up on IMonday for, I hope and trust, the third reading of this Aveary Biil. I feel like a very little boy holding on to a very big kite that is dragging him about and nearly off" into space. I wish I were off" for my holidays, and you too. We both want it."
" June 10, 1875.
"My Bill, as you say, went down to the Commons with fairly flving Colours. I refrained from scarifying Houghton and Somerset, greatly against my own wish, but partly in deference to the entreaties of the Archbishop, and partly because the Peers wanted to go to dinner, and partly because I wanted to give as much the air of unanimity and good will to its departure to the other House as I could. It will not pass, I think, this session."
"Peterborough, July 1, 1875. " I fear are not likely to meet now before my departure for Wales, unless vou come to me. I go to-morrow to Haileybury to VOL. n. c
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see my son Willie and be at their speech-day ; and Saturday I spend in town for sundry small affairs. On Tuesday I go to ]\Iears Ashby, Wellingborough, for a churchyard consecration, and on Wednesday to West Iladdon, near Rugby, for ditto. I hope to be back here on Thursday, unless something very urgent turns up at Convocation, and to stay until Monday, 12th, when we start for Anu'oth Castle, near Tenby, M here we have pitched our tent until September 27, and where I have to indite my charge and recruit my health.
"I mean deliberately to avoid Convocation if possible just now. The time for consultation and compromise is past ; the time for action has come, and we must each of us bishops judge and act for himself. The whole drift of discussion now in Convocation is purely mischievous. I am resolved not to commit myself bv any utterances on the vestment question, on which I may now at any moment be called on to act as a judge.
" The Lower House will probably carry their recommendation for episcopal permissive veto of vestments, and our House, if we have a grain of sense left us, will refuse to accept it ; but I do not wish to take part in a discussion in which it would be impossible to avoid saying many things which are better left unsaid just now.
" The Archbishop's Bill I'elating to ecclesiastical fees is to be in committee to-morrow night ; he has never once consulted us about it. I should have to say this and something' more in the House of Lords if I were there, and so I shall stay away. Unless my vote is absolutely required, therefore, to prevent some dangerous concession as to vestments, I will stay away altogether from deliberations which can do no good and may do much harm."
" Peterborough, July 4, 1875. " My suit against a criminous clerk is, I ain sorry to say, now in full progress. The Commission is to sit in about three weeks. Oh, that I could find 'a lodge in some vast wilderness."' The only lodo-es now to be had are Masonic and shootiii<^ lodg-es, the former too cheap and nasty, the latter too dear, for !)ishops.''
"Amroth Castle, Tenby,
"September 2, 1875.
" I am glad to hear your flourishing accouiil of yourself and your belongings after your vacation. ]\Iine has not been an equal success. This place is expensive, dull, and uninteresting; no scenerv save that of the shore and sea, which soon pall on you ; no
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inland walks or objects of attraction, and a very relaxing climate. I have felt the influence of all this terribly on my charge, which I have only this day finished; I could not give my mind to it, and yet I could not give it up and enjoy my holidays. I seemed strangely languid and below par all through this summer. I ought to have gone to Switzerland or the Tyrol instead of daundering about the shore here — uKtwv -rrapd Q'lva.
" However, the charge is done, flabby and long and unsatisfactory as it is ; and I have yet three weeks to try and get myself up for coining work."
" September 15, 1875.
"I am not able to take your prescription of more bracing air, as I am rather tied here by the London printer and the slips of my charge. How I wish that the said charge were never to be required of bishops ! I am, however, in perfect health, and, they tell me, getting stout ; but I feel that I wanted bracing and have not got it. I must only work on now until next year, and try a little foreign travel without the worry of a charge. I fear the said charge will be like a pill for the toothache I used to take long ago — half butter and half pepper.
" I have dealt rather sharply with some of my critics anent the Patronage Bill, and shall have bracing enough presently in the way of an east wind of pamphlets and letters. What a hornets'' nest he kicks over who tries to reform abuses, and especially clerical abuses ! The clergy being, like women, safe from all physical consequences of their speech, use it accordmgly."
"Peterborough, February 1, 1876.
" I go to Uppingham on Satiu-day to hold an ordination on Sunday of one candidate. I mean to leave that for London on ^Monday 7th for Parliament and Convocation. I shall be probably absent for a fortnight.
"The weather just now looks squally for the Church. The Archbishop has cut the ground from under our feet as regards the Burials Bill by his unfortunate and ill-timed utterance at Canter- bury. He so entirely believes in Parliament, and so entirely ignores the clergy, that he is really becoming, with all his noble qualities and great practical sagacity, a great jjeril to the Church. He regards the clergy as a big Sixth Form, and the outer woi'ld as the parents and trustees of the big school, the Church, and acts accordingly. He and our dear brother of Lincoln, with his ultra- clerical sympathies on the other side, have between them pretty
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nearly carried the Burials Bill. Neither of them in the least realises the effect on the imagination of men of the acts of those in power ; and yet " C^est Vimagination qui gouverne le monde^'' wa.s Napoleon's wise saying. I get sadder and sicker every year as I witness the Church buying her Sibylline books, each year at a higher price. Her bankruptcy is far nearer at hand than country parsons and Erastian archbishops dream. I feel, too, so helpless to do any good. Were I not an Irishman — or rather Irish Univer- sity man — I might perhaps be listened to. But there is a calm, quiet ignoring of all non-English University men by those who are so, which I am only beginning to understand. We outer barbarians are supposed really to know nothing of English Church affairs. The result is, I am regarded as a Celtic Cassandra amongst mv brethren, when I talk of what is coming as surely as I am writing this, and nearly as fast too. I shall live to have my revenge as a prophet by my disestablishment as a bishop.
" We shall have an Ecclesiastical Fees Bill in the first week of the session, brought into the Lords by the Archbishop. It con- tained a clause actually giving Penzance a preference share, in the shape of a guaranteed salary out of the Fee Fund ; while all the other offices were left to their chance of what the fund might yield, pro rata ! It would have set the clergy all fairly mad ! Two or three of us who saw this, insisted on it being struck out, and succeeded accordingly ; and now the Bill has a decent chance of passing, and at any rate will have a decent appearance when we bring it in."
"Athen^um Club, February 7, 1876.
"We are to have a bishops' meeting to-morrow to reconsider the Fees Bill. I find very timid counsels urged on the Archbishop not to proceed with this Bill unless he can secure the active support of Government. That is to say, to announce the utter uselessness of bishops in the Lords. I trust that he will hold firm. I am quite tired of creeping into Cairns' pockets. It is quite time for the episcopate to have a mind and to show that it has one, and in this case it actually has one, mirahile dictu ! I mean to say this to-morrow ' if occasion should be given, and need should require.'
" I had a letter from Walpole lately, renouncing charge of my Bill, avowedly, because it allows parishioners a voice in the selecting of pastors, which it does not, only a right of objecting on defined grounds, and secondly, because it interferes with sales of advowsons and presentations, with which it in no way meddles. Really, because
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liis clerical constituents have been threatening him ! Really and truly the conduct of the clergy on this question is very dis- creditable.
" The reform of patronage which they really want is one in the intex-est of the clerical ordei-, securing better promotion, not one in the interests of the parishioners or the Church, securing better men. I am very sick of the whole thing. The editor of the Gtiai'dian is privately urgent with me to 'go on ' ; and he has earned the right to advise by vei'y loyal support all through last \ ear. But how am I to ' go on,' when I can get no man to take up the question in the Commons ; and when it would be obviously absurd to re-introduce the Bill in the Lords ? Truly we are coming very fast to the condition in which Captain Parolles represented the Duke's army as being, when he said that there were ten thousand of them ; but that one half of them ' dare not shake the snow from off their cassocks lest they shake themselves to pieces ! '
" I am beginning almost to long, I have been for some time looking, for Disestablishment. It will very nearly di'own us ; but it will kill the fleas.
" Fancy an archdeacon gravely writing to us a solemn appeal against the Fees Bill because it abolishes apparitors ! these being, in his sapient judgment, ' most valuable officers.' After that I expect to hear a proposition from somebody for the rebuilding of Noah's ark.
" However, I need not give you any more of my soeva indignatio. I ought to have been the editor of a Radical newspaper, instead of being a Conservative bishop. You ought to have been the bishop ; and oh ! how I should have pitched into you as the indignant Rector of Walgrave !
" To-morrow we don Barons' robes and hear the Queen ; and in a day or two I may have some news to give you."
To Mrs. Magee.
" ' Mason's,' Northampton,
"Sunday, February 21, 1876.
" I am quietly resting after my two sermons, and have a few cjuiet moments to tell you how all has fared since I came here.
" The Mission seems, by the account of all engaged in it, and even by its half hostile critics in the anti-Church press, to have been a marvellous success. The churches hei-e have been crowded
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to overflowing at every service, and great numbers have come who had never entered any place of worship before. The whole muss of the people seem deeply and strangelv stirred ; and that by no remarkable eloquence of the missioners, who arc, none of them, very , famous or eloquent men ; but simply by earnestness and faithfulness, and, as far as I can learn, by great and diligent pains taken by the clergy beforehand.
" I addressed a large gathering of woi'king men yesterday, in a foundry in the suburbs near the railway station. They were most attentive and reverent. This morning !• preached in the temporary church at Farcotton — a large barn fitted up as a church. It was filled to the verv windows, and the worship was hearty and earnest.
" This afternoon I saw a remarkable sight — fifteen huntlred men — and men only — in St. Katherine's Church. Most of them working men. Hundreds had gone away unable to obtain ad- mittance. I was very tired. But the sight inspired me, and I ])reached to a most silent and attentive audience for forty-tive minutes. Certainly the Mission is a great fact, and has done me good, I trust, as well the people.
" I am fairly well, and not much tired now. I have two addresses to give to-morrow, and then Confirmations and Church- yard Consecration on Tuesday. " W. C. P.^'
In November, 1875, Dr. Nevin, the Chaplain of the American Church in Rome wrote the following letter :
I am highly gratified to hear that you Avill be with us, and preach for us, on the occasion of the consecration of " St. Paul's-within-the walls," as our church begins to be popularly called. I answer at once that your sermon shall be assigned to Sunday, 26th March, as you wisli. .... On page 222 " History of the Episcopal Cluu-ch in America " (Bishop Wilberforce) it is stated that, in 1787, on Sunday, the 4th of FebruaiT, in the archiepiscopal chapel of Lambeth, the two pi-esbyters William White and Samuel Provoost, of the Church in America, were consecrated bishops by the two Archbishops and the Bishops of Bath and Wells and Peterborough ....
The Bishop started on March 14, with two of his daughters, for Home to fulfil his engagement there. One English and two American bishops took part in the consecration ceremony, a fitting })ublic testimony to the communion between the two Churches. The Bishop and his party then went to Venice and returned after an absence of little moi e than a month.
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To J. C. MacDoxxki.i..
" RowsLEY, April 26, 1876.
"I want very much to have a talk with you about the Irish mode of deahng with glebe-houses and dila[)itlations. I expect to be examined before the Select Committee of the House of Commons now sitting, and want to bring forward my plan of renting glebe- houses, and freedom from all dilapidations, and this is, I think, the Irish plan now. Can you tell me anything about it ?
" I know nothing of the haute politique either of Church or State, as I have not been to headquarters since my return. We are, I suppose, as usual, drifting' and getting nearer and neai'er to our Niagara; Cantuar at the helm, quite satisfied that a good strong iM-astian wind from St. Stephen's is carrying us steadily and safely along, the crew mutinying, and the deck cargo of antiquated abuses shifting perilously ; while no one dares so much as to put a pennyworth of tar in the yawning seams in the ship's side ; or, if any one, like my unlucky self, ventures to propose this, he is straight- way heaved over as a Jonah.
" There, that is a pleasant sketch of the good ship, Church of England ; becalmed oft' Disestablishment point, and drifting on shore in a strong current. By our special artist ; who is also, yours ever affectionately, " W. C. Peterborough."
" Athen.-eum, May 4, 1876.
" I never remember such weather, nor, I think, does any one else. Not merely cold and wintry, but in some way atmospherically and organically unhealthy. We had a nairow escape at Rome. Of the two American bishops, who took part in the church opening ; one has nearl} died of typhoid fever, and the other, besides being- ill himself, has lost a son-in-law of fever, after a fortnighfs illness. Rome seems to have suffered from meddlino- with its drainao'e. No wonder after 2500 years ( I put £ because I ha\e been before a committee all day on £ s. d. as to Dilapidations) of exci-etorial deposit. ' Imperial C«sars dead and turned to clay left the river and cloaca in a very pestiferous state before they departed. But Italy is becoming most malarious in all its cities ; and I am thank- ful to be safe at home from my visit there.
" I have spent three hours to-day before a Select Committee of House of Commons on Dilapidations. I found them very reason- able and fairly intelligent for men dealing with an unfamiliar
40
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CHAP. XII
subject. I think that they rather inclined to niv theory of an annual payment and no dilapidations. I confess I was gratified at liearing the chairman announce that sundry clerical witnesses had testified to the 'fairness and mildness'' of my administration of the Act. I suspect that some of my brethren have left this too much to secretaries and surveyors ; and ha\ e put too little of rule of tliumb into their administration.
" I am glad you are coming to us on the 16th inst, " I return home to-morrow, to return here next week for Con- vocation."
"Peterborough, May 14, 1876.
" I am purposely avoiding the debate to-morrow night. I cannot fight Lord Granville and the Lower House of Convocation at the same time. The clergy have gone mad on the eve of the political battle ; and I do not care to fight in the van of a line of mad elephants, whose tusks will be through me then and afterwards, while I am trying to face their adversaries.
" The Lower House of Convocation has outdone itself in senseless and gratuitous bigotry and episcopophobia ; and I am really too diso-usted and disheartened to be the advocate of the clerav in a place where all their foolish utterances will be cast in my teeth. I have paired against this resolution. More I cannot do ; so we will have a quiet evening, and I will ' insinse ' you into the stupid, profitless history of this last week in Convocation.
" W. C. P."
The following letter on Ecclesiastical Prosecutions was written by the Bishop to the Times :
Sir, — "An English Churchman," in your columns, challenges, and, I think, completely refutes, the claims advanced by certain of the clergy " that the Church of England shall govern herself in spiritual matters without any interference from the secular authoi'ity." He does so by showing — what every student of ecclesiastical histoiy knows perfectly well — that the State has repeatedly interfered by way of legislation in the spiritual matters of the Church of England. Whatever may be said of this as a matter of principle, it is undoubtedly a matter of historical fact. It would seem to follow from it that those who accept benefices in a Church whicli has for centuries accepted and submitted to such legislation ai-e not exactly free, so long as they retain their benefices, to refuse obedience to all laws wliich have been so enacted. The claim, however, of these gentlemen for freedom from secular
1874-76
CHURCH PATRONAGE
41
interference in spiritual matters goes a good de.il beyond the denial of" right of secular legislation for the Church. It goes to the denial of any right of secular interprelalioH of the laws of the Church. Mr. Tooth, in his present manner of conducting divine service in his church, is not merely denying the right of Lord Penzance to inhibit him ; he is inhibited because he had previously disobeyed the interpretation of the law of the Church given by the final Court of Appeal. Tliis disobedience is justified by many of Mr. Tooth's party among the clergy, on the ground that they, as "spiritual persons," will not, and ought not to, obey the decision of any secular, or, as they like to term it, " State-made court " whatever. I have no doubt that these gentle- men are actuated by the loftiest of motives in the view which they thus take of their position as presbyters of the Christian Church. I fear, therefore, that they will regard as very low and utterly secular the view which I ask leave to present to them of their position as beneficed clergymen of the Churcli of England. It is, however, I can assure them, a view which is taken by a good many plain-tliinking countrymen of theirs at this moment. It is simply tliis — that they are claiming to hold property by law, and at the same time to defy and denounce the law by virtue of which they hold it. Every beneficed clergyman in the Chui'ch of England, by law established, j)ossesses certain rights of a very secular kind indeed. He has, for instance, a freehold right in his benefice and vicarage, and he possesses, in riglit of his benefice, certain endowments, as, for instance, rent, i-ent-charge, tithe, Easter dues, and the like. In the possession and enjoyment of these he is secured by certain "secular" laws wliich give him the authority to defend and enforce his rights respecting them on all and sundry by the interference of secular courts of law, and further, if need be, by the aid of secular bailiffs and policemen. The whole authority and power of the State, in shoi't, is placed at his disposal for the enforcement of his legal rights. It is so placed, however, upon one very clear and express condition — viz., that he shall, "in public prayer and the administration of the Sacraments, use the form prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer and none other." It was on the faith of a solemn promise and contract to this effect that each one of these " spiritual persons " obtained admission to the temporalities of liis benefice.
Now, if any parishioner of any one of these gentlemen were to refuse to pay him his tithe or rent-charge on the ground that such payment was (as a great many parishioners nowadays assert) the result of an undue " interference of secular authority in spiritual matters," he would veiy soon find his pastor would have no scruple of conscience as to invoking against him the secular authority of "a State-made court " for his breach of the conditions on which he received his joroperty- —
42
ARCHBISHOP MA GEE
CHAP, xn
namely, that it was chargeable with certain payments to the incumbent of his parish. Maj- I ask, then, whether the parishioner has not precisely the same right to invoke the " interference " of the same " secular authority " to compel the incumbent to fulfil the conditions on which he received his property — namely, that he shall perform divine service in his parish church according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England, and not according to such rites as he may please to evolve out of his inner consciousness for himself as a pi'iest of tlie Holy Catholic Church? And if this be so, has not the State the same right and " authority " to try, in a secular court, the question whether the clergyman has or has not fulfilled the contract by \drtue of which he holds his benefice, that it has to try the question of the fulfilment of any other contract whatsoever ? What, in short, is the much abused " Aggrieved Parishioner" doing, who sues his incumbent in a " State-made court," but suing for breach of contract ? And if so, what is the meaning of all this outcry against "secular interference in spiritual matters " ? Do those who make this outcry really suppose tliat clergymen of the Church of England alone of all other Englishmen are to be allowed to possess property by secular law, and to enforce against their fellow-citizens by ''secular authority" all the rights and privileges incident to such possession, and nevertheless are to be completely exempt from all aj)peal, on the other hand, to secular law to compel them to dischai-ge those duties on condition of discharging which they have obtained their property ? If this be the " freedom from the interference of secular authority in matters spiritual " claimed by certain of the clergj', I fear they are not likely to get it so long as there is any law, or secular authority to enforce law, left in England. If it is not this that they claim, would they have the goodness to say distuictly w hat it is ? A Perplexed English Citizen.
CHAPTER XIII
THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION; ECCLESIASTICAL PROSECUTIONS
There have been very sharp controversies about the Bishop of Peterborough's action and sayings upon the temperance question. Controversies, in the first instance, as to what he cUd say ; and then as to the truth or propriety of his words. It seems better to treat of this subject once for all, and collect into one chapter some of the Bishop's utterances, and the connnents of his opponents upon them.
The Bishop was, throughout his episcopate, a consistent and earnest advocate of temperance societies, with a strong preference for the Church of England Temperance Society. What he advo- cated in public he practised in private. He often would not touch wine in aiiv form till his day's work was done ; and if he took anything- it was a little claret and water. He was at variance with nianv of the advocates of temperance, not about their objects, but about the legislative measures which they proposed for attaining their objects. He was from the first a decided opponent of the Permissive Bill or " Local Option,"" as it is sometimes called. The occasion which connnenced all this controversy was a speech delivered in the House of Lords upon the Intoxicating Liquor (Licensing) l}ill,* in which he said :
I entirely agree with the noble lord who preceded me (Lord Houghton) as to the mischief^ and I would even say the absurdity, of the Permissive Bill. I believe such a Bill would be not only absurd, but mischievous, and that it would tend to exasperate all the difficulties of this question ; that in towns where it was most needed it would be inoperative, and that where it was most operative it would be least needed. It proceeds on this most vicious political principle — that the tyranny of a mere majority, not of representative men, but counted
* May 2, 1872.
44<
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CHAP. XI II
merely from door to door, slioukl govern any people. Such a principle is most pernicious. I hold it is the right of Englishmen to be governed by the Estates of the Realm sitting in Parliament, not by a haphazard majority collected by agitation and canvassing. This is one of the dangers of all democracy — it ignores the rights and privileges of the minority as against the majority ; and therefore I believe the tendency of all modern legislation ought to be towards protection of the rights and privileges of minorities. Therefore I entertain the strongest dislike to the Permissive Bill. I cannot, perhaps, express it in a stronger form than by saying that, if I must take my choice — and such it seems to me is really the alternative offered by the Permissive Bill — whether England should be free or sober, I declai-e, sti'ange as such a declaration may sound coming from one of my profession, that I should say it would be better that England should be free than that England should be compulsorily sober. I would distinctly prefer freedom to sobriety, because with freedom we might in the end attain sobriety ; but in the other alternative we should eventually lose both freedom and sobriety. But, though I am strongly opposed to the Permissive Bill, I do wish that the ratepayers should have some voice — not an absolute and sole voice, but some voice — in the regulation of the liquor traffic. — "Speeches and Addresses," pp. 119-120.
These words involved the Bishop in much controversy. The words "England free or England sober"" were torn from their context and quoted with approbation or censure by both the opponents and advocates of the Permissive Bill ; and with equal unfairness by both. Rightly understood (and it seems hard to express his meaning more plainly or guard it more carefully) these M ords connnend themselves to every Englishman. Quoted by frag- ments, and twisted to suit the purpose of reckless partisans, they were made to contradict their original purpose and meaning. As the Bishop said in a speech in the House of Lords on June 30, 1876 :
When the subject of temperance was brought before your lordships on a former occasion, I obtained an unexpected and undesirable notoriety in consequence of an observation I then made. As, however, I retain veiy strongly the opinion I then expressed, I fear I must incur still further unpopularity by stating that my opinion is unchanged — rather strengthened — by what I have heard since. Nothing but a very deep conviction of the soundness of those opinions would induce me to incur fresh unpopulai-ity by repeating them on the present occasion. I then ventured to say, not as a simple and genei'al proposi- tion, that I preferred freedom to sobriety, as if there were any natural antagonism between freedom and sobriety, and as if a man could not
1876-77 TEMPERANCE ; PROSECUTIONS
45
at the same time be perfectly free and perfectly sober, but that if I should ever be compelled to make my choice between freedom and sobriety, then in that case I should prefer freedom. I never could support unwise or injudicious legislation which tended in the direction of suppressing freedom, even if by that legislation were gained the advantage of sobriety. We might gain this advantage of sobriety by imprisoning every man and woman and keeping them on bread and water but that would be a degree of interference with the liberty of the subject which would induce the strongest advocate of temperance to say he preferred freedom to sobriety. — " Speeches and Addresses," pp. 123-124.
Those who wish to see a fuller statement of the Bishop's object- tions to the Permissive Bill ought to read the part of this speech beginning with the following words :
It would be out of order to discuss a Bill not before your lordships, but I have been a great deal taken to task by the advocates of the Permissive Bill — who reserved all their intemperance for their speeches — and I should therefoi'e like to say in a few words why I oppose this measure. — "Speeches and Addresses," p. 126.
But the Bishop was worried to the end of his days by misrepre- sentations of his words ; and even since his death they have not been forgotten. In an article in the Contemporary Revieio for October, 1892, written by Archdeacon Farrar, in which he shows a full appreciation of Bishop Magee's genius and character, he hai-ps in the end upon the epigram of England drunk or sober as a ''^ flittering sophism,'''' as a form of words which it is so " difficult to disentangle, and so impossible to maintain when it is disentangled ; as involving a radical falsity, and even an interlinked concatena- tion of many falsities." I would rather say of it what the Bishop himself said in another speech at Northampton (" Speeches and Addresses," p. 135), that so far from " being a startling proposition this seems like an obvious truism."
I so far agi'ee with the Archdeacon that "the form of the Bishop's epigi'am would have been much better avoided" ; and so thought the Bishop himself in the light of subsequent experience.
To J. C. MacDonnell.
" AXHEN^UM, July 17, 1876.
"I am very glad you so much approve of my reply to Bishop Abraham.
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CHAP. XIII
"If 7/o« did not understand the ground of my objection to the Permissive Bill, it is clear that multitudes besides must have mis- understood it too. And this will make me more patient of what seemed to me the jiersistent misrepresentation of many of the advocates of the Bill. At any rate I have now made clear, I think, to all reasonable men, what it was I really meant. AVhcther that is right or wropg is, of course, another question.
" I am, as you may suppose, deluged with letters, vituperative and otherwise, from men who seem to have -water on the brain so badly as to be incapable of understanding the simplest argument. — Yours in much haste, and deliquescent heat, ever affectionatelv,
" W. C. Peteuboeolgh."
"Peterborough, July 21, 1876.
" I have offered Eydon to Chapman, and St. Luke's, Leicester, to Flood of Northampton. I shall still have to find an active young man for Flood's small incumbeucv at Farcotton, Northampton — i?150 a year, no house, and hard work.
" However, I am at last getting my preferment list out of the haphazard condition in which I found it ; and filling my best livings with middle-aged or elderly men, and my poor and toilsome ones with young men, to be moved on in their turns. LTiis is a svstem that never seems to have occured to Bishop Davys, nor, probably, to Bishop Jeune. But it has enabled me to make thirty- seven appointments out of the seventy-two in mv gift in eight years, and thus to increase greatly the circulation of the diocese."
" !MuLGRAVE Cottage, Whitby,
"August 3, 1876.
"I was, like yourself, much shocked by the news of 's death,
and the manner of it. I was not, however, surprised by the fact of suicide, under the circumstances. Lung diseases, when severe, not uncommonly terminate in delirium. The venous blood, unoxy- genated from the inaction of the lungs, goes poisoned to the head, and produces the same effect as the delirium of intoxication or drowning. I have known two cases of a similar kind ; one, that of a man dying of decline, who knew he had not a week to live, and was in a perfectly resigned and even happy frame of mind, but w ho suddenly destroyed himself in an access of delirium. The strange thing, however, to me has always been — why delirium or insanity should so often take the suicidal or even the homicidal direction. The latter may be perhaps the reversion of the man to the original.
1876-77 TEMPERANCE ; PROSECUTIONS
47
merely anivial type ; the brute, which alas is in us all, acting out its brutal instinct of destruction unrestrained by reason. But why suicide? No animal ever connnits suicide except man. There seems to be no instinct to cause it. It is a strange fact in our human nature, and an awful one. Not that a sane man should destroy himself; once remove the check of belief in a future life, or even, perhaps, because of that belief in some cases, and I can imagine nothing more natural and sane than suicide. But why should delirium or insanity, not acting on reason but impulse, tend to self-destruction This always seemed to me to open a glimpse into the spiritual world around us ; and gives me always strong- reason to believe in the action — purely malevolent — of evil spirits.
" The first chapter of Job is, I suspect, not all parable or poetry either. As to good men being allowed to suffer such assaults, it does not seem to me more difficult to understand than the fact of good men being exposed to murder at the hands of bad ones.
" — was a good man, if ever there was one ; but that would not have hindered a bad man from killing him ; why then shoukl it have hindered an evil spirit from moving him unconsciously to destroy himself.''
" God help and keep us all. How little do we imagine all that may be around us as well as in us, of evil and danger, bodily and spiritual.
" We are here, a party of twelve, including four school-boys ; two of the Percivals having come with us. So vou may suppose we are crowded, hungry, and noisy ; but nevertheless happy. Best love to all yours."
" MuLGRAVE Cottage, Whitby,
"August ig, 1876.
'■^ Best thanks for your well-timed and well-written letter. It is exactly what I should have w ished to have been said ; and it is, besides, very tactical.
" I had not seen last week's Leicester Journal ; it having been, oddly enough, the only one which has not reached me. But I fully anticij)ated howls more or less prolonged and acute. I agree with you, that those in Leicester whom I have so materially aided ought to say a word in my defence. But I never expect gratitude ; and after all, nothing they could say could silence the Blaby and Countesthorpe bowlings. There is no feeling stronger in English life than parochial jealousy. It is more intense even than that of
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CHAP. XIII
counties , and these appointments are, therefore, always at first intensely unpopular ; and in this case the unpopularity is enhanced by the Countesthorpe Home Rulers. However, I have two great comforts in the case.
" (1). The thing is done.
" (2). I am sure I did right.
"After that I must just wrap my cloak round me, under the shower of newspaper abuse ; helped, howevei', by the loan of vour fi"iendlv umbrella of ' fact.'
"We are greatly enjoying our holidays here; and it is, as the Scotch say, ' a far cry ' from this to Blaby-cum-Countesthorpe.
" I am glad you have Richard with you.
" I find, year after year, the increasing pleasure of one''s boys becoming companions and not merelv playthings or cares.
" ^Ve have a boat here, and fish and bathe largely."
"It just occurs to me, that if the apportionment of part of the means of Blaby to poor parishes be ' disendowment,' equally so is every augmentation or new parochial endowment granted by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.
" These are all of them nothing else than ' apportionments ' of means from episcopal and capitular endowments to poor parishes. Equally so are the first-fruits to Queen Anne's Bomity. I presume that if Blaby had been a poor parish, it would not have objected, on the score of principle, to endowments from the above sources. You may remember, perhaps, how Sydney Smith denounced the whole Ecclesiastical Commission on this very ground of ' spolia- tion."
" This is a point which, if you were to continue yom- con-e- spondence, you might perhaps work to ad\ antage.""
" MuLGRAVE Cottage, August 28, 1876,
" We are very quietly vegetating here ; the late cold and rough weather rather having interfered with amusements of all kinds, and especially with boating. A northerly or a south-easterly wind raises a very heavy and dangei'ous surf here. Just now it is raining heavily.
"I do not think that I told you that I was invited, and declined, to preside at the Social Science Congress at Liverpool in October next. I was rather tempted to accept. But I confess that I shi'ank from sacrificing the best part of my vacation to composing the opening address for said Congress. A charge once in thi-ee yeai's is
1876-77 TEMPERANCE ; PROSECUTIONS 49
({uite eiioiio-h for one who is no writer ; ami who detests ' Hterary composition' of all kinds.
" I do trust that either Plunket or Ueichel may save the Irish Church from the ridicule of numherin<>; amonost her bishops.
" The Evanji-elicals certainly love to invite brambles to be king.s over them ; but is a bramble who cannot even produce black- berries. Plunket would make a respectable and ])opular bishop ; Ueichel an able and un})opular one ; vniless recognition and pros- perity soften him as repression and adversity have probably some- what hardened him."
" MuLGRAVE Cottage, Whitby,
"September i8, 1876.
" I doubt if the whole history of democracy, rife as it is with instances of passionate injustice, supplies a grosser one than the cry against the Ministry of the last three weeks.
" Heaven knows the Turk is bad enough, but he is no worse now than he was, and was knoran to be, twenty-four years ago, when the English nation hissed Prince Albert because he doubted the wisdom of our fighting for him.
" I detest massaci'e, but I detest nearly as much the dishonesty of making political capital out of it ; and I am disgusted with the blatant and mischievous nonsense that our platform spouters are uttering at every meeting on a cjuestion of which they know abso- lutely nothing.
"We have just returned fi'om a short visit to William of York, a very pleasant one. I think I saw in my intercourse with the great man evidence that he very little realises the present critical state of things in the Church. Archbishops, I su])pose, do get into that balloon into which bishops are accused of getting now and then. But it is certainly a misfortune at this moment to have two Primates nearly alike in Church views, and singularly alike in their want of imagination, and therefore of })ower of sympathy with others or anticipation of events.
"Add to this a curiously like-minded Lord Chancellor, put these three on the judicial committee to decide the burning question of the day, and you have an awkwai'd conjunction of planets from which to cast the horoscope of the Church."
" Peterborough, October 21, 1876.
" I had a very satisfactory reply to my letter from the Archbisho}> of Canterbury. He is as easy to move in })riyate as he is hard to
VOL. n. D
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CHAP. XIII
move in public. He has written to Cairns enclosing niy letter, and evidently thinks it better to delay the hearing of appeals, as I suggested. The persuading of Cairns, however, is a very different matter. I have stirred up others of my brethren, therefore, to write to Cantuar and W. Eboi", in the hopes that their letters also may go on to Cairns, and kec]) him from going on.
" You have probably seen Cowie's and Talbofs letters in this week's Guardian. I fully expect now that the hearing will be delayed ; but the provoking thing is that Cantuar and Ebor should have needed all this ' opening of their eyes ' to w hat is so very obvious and serious a danger. That is, however, just the fault of both ; neither has a particle of imagination, and without that there can be no foresight.
" The result in this case will be that the delay will be attributed to the remonstrances of Dickenson and Cowie and Talbot and Co. ; and the Archbishop and we also get the credit of being ' willing to wound,' but at last ' afraid to strike.' This comes of having a ruler who is not a leader. I foresee great mischief coming of this, for the episcopate first and ultimately for the Church. I am getting very rebellious in consequence, and may soon attempt local ' auto- nomy,'' in my own diocese at least.
I saw Disney at Stamford, and have arranged to be with him at 5 P.M. by train from Leicester, where I sleep the night before, having to preside at a temperance meeting in the evening!
You see Plunket goes to Meath ; on the whole, a fair appoint- ment, and a merciful esca})e from . Henry Jellett was fourth
in the running, with twenty-one clerical and thirty-three lay votes. He is asked to preach three sermons before the University of Cam- bridge, and wants to get oft' ; but I will not let him ; he must be foi'ced to the point.
"I got home late last night from Leicester, being detained on the road by a train which had, they said, ' got loose on the line.' Fancy a train on the rampage ! "
" Peterborough,
" November 4, 1876.
" You see that the appeal cases are ' unavoidably postponed.' 1 am having a rather interesting con-espondence with Shaw Stewart, one of the joint authors of the late protest in the Guardian on the subject. Words cannot express his bitterness against the Arch- bishops, and he evidently speaks for his party."
J876-77
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51
To J. G. TAT.iiOT, Esq., :VI.P.
"The Palace, Peterborough,
" October ig, 1876.
" Dkar ^h\. Tai.hot, — I have just read in the Guardian your and Mr. Shaw Stewart's letter relating to the appeals pending in the Court of Judicature.
" The subject has by no means escaped the attention of those who, like myself, have to carry out the decision of the Court ; and strong representations have been ere this made upon the subject.
"I have good reason to believe that these have been very favour- ably considered in the quarter to A\ hich they were addressed. But I think it probable that the difficultv to be overcome lies in the ■lai/ rather than in the ecclesiastical portion of the new court ; and that at this moment the ecclesiastical portion mav need to be strengthened in opposing what I agree with you in regarding as a most disastrous course for the peace and even stability of the Church. May I therefore venture to suggest that a jjrivafe remon- strance, strongly worded, should be addressed by yourself and Mr. Stewart — possibly by others — to the Archbisho]3 of Canterbury ? I should think it more than probable that such a remonstrance would reach other eyes than his, and have good effect at this moment. May I venture to add that I think this likelv to be more effectual than public letters, which sometimes have the effect of hai'dening the purpose of men of strong will, and making them refuse to yield to denunciation (or what they mav regard as denun- ciation) what they might yield to private remonstrance ?
" I trust to your known love for the Church, and for her peace at this juncture, to forgive the freedom of this, and am very faith- fully yours, " W. C. Petekbokouc;!!.''''
"P.S. — I have no objection to Mr. Shaw Stewai't seeing this letter conjiclentialhj, if you think it worth showing to him.
"W. c. p."
From J. G. Talbot, Esq., M.P.
Falconhurst, Eden Bridge, Kent,
Sunday, October 22, 1876.
Dear Bishop of Peterborough, — I need not say that I am very much obliged, not only for the very interesting letter you have sent me, but for the confidence of which it is a proof.
I will do what I can, in conjunction with my co-signatories, to carry
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CHAP. XIII
out your suggestions. I use the plural because, as you will see in the next Guardian, it was only by a slip that Lord Devon's name did not appear also ; and I hope I have acted in the spirit of your permission by showing your letter also to him.
I am a little puzzled as to what points to insist on in a private letter to the Archbishop, but I suspose I shall not be doing wrong if I confine myself to two :
(«) The undesirability of hasty decision if there is any hope of
arrangement ; and (6) The wisdom of leaving the appointment of assessors till Parliament shall have had an opportunity of pronouncing upon the mode of their selection. If you have any further suggestion to make, I shall be very grateful for it, and probably the letter will not go to the Archbishop for two or three days. — Believe me, with many thanks, yours veiy truly and respectfully, John G. Talbot.
From J. A. Shaw Stewart, Esq.
13 Queen's Gate, London, S.W., October 24, 1876.
My dear Lord, — I thank you very sincerely for allowing me to see your letter to J. G. Talbot. I shall, of course, preserve its strict privacy ; but I am indeed thankful to know that at this most critical juncture your lordship's eloquent and powerful voice will be I'aised against any hasty or precipitate action.
It is well that those in authority should know that the general body of clergy who may be affected by recent legislation look upon the two Ai'chbishops as partisans, and they would consider that their presence in court would vitiate any judgment that might be delivered.
The recent utterances of the Primate will cause many sober-minded laymen to endorse this view.
We know that men of strong will and statesmanlike craft will influence and bias even a strong court ; and we trust that many of our fathers in God will awake from the panic and scare of 1874, and not implicitly bow before and accept the mandates issuing from Addington and Bishopthorpe.
I write plainly because we feel strongly, and incalculable harm may follow a false step at present. — I am, my dear lord, very faithfully yours, J. A. Shaw Stewart.
To J. A. Shaw Stewart, Esq.
" The Palace, Peterborough, October 26, 1876. "My dear Sir, — I have to thank you for your kind reception of the suggestion I made in my letter to Mi'. Talbot.
• 876-77 TEMPERANCE ; PROSECUTIONS
53
" I ain, ill coninioii with many others of my e))isco|)al hrethreii, most anxious that there should be no j)reci})itate action in respect to the comiiio- decision on the ecclesiastical appeals now pending.
" I am not without hope that this may now be averted.
" I am only too well aware of the feelings entertained and expressed by many of the clergy of one school in the Church respecting the Archbishops.
" I deeply regret them, because I believe them to be in a great degree unfounded ; and the constant and bitter expressions of them to be mischievous, in more wavs than one.
" If there be a tendencv to partisanship in any man's mind, it is hardly likely to be lessened by incessant and violent abuse on the part of strong partisans on the other side.
As regards my own jiosition and that of my brethren of the episcopate, I think I can assure you that there is not and has not been any disposition to surrender our independence of thought and action in matters ecclesiastical.
" My own support, for instance, to the introduction of the F.AV.R. was rendered deliberately though reluctantlv from a conviction which I still entertain, that the dangers of entirely unrestrained license were greater than even the obviously great dangers of some measure of restraint ; and I certainly was influ- enced in my action then by no servile submission to any superior authority.
" I write thus frankly in reply to the frank expressions in your letter (for which I thank you) because I think it would be most imfortunate that an impression such as that expressed in your letter should prevail at this moment, vh., that the bishops had surrendered themselves to any dictation from either of the (juarters you refer to.
" Such an impression must be fatal to all hope of peaceful solution of present difficulties, as it would destroy all chance of resort on the part of the clergy to that fatherly discretion aiul governance which, in disputed cases, the P.W.R. provides for ; a provision which I am convinced may, if wisely availed of, do more than legal decisions to ensure peace and prevent schism.
" I have no need, I am sure from the tone of your letter, to ajjologise for the freedom or the length of this letter, and I am, my dear sir, very faithfully yours,
" W. C. PeTK1!HOI{OL^GH."
54
ARCHBISHOP MA GEE
CHAP. XIII
To J. G. TAi.iiOT, Esq., M.P.
" The Palace, Peterborough,
"October 26, 1876.
" Mv DKAii Mi!. Talbot, — I am sincerely glad to hear the news you gave me of the postponement of the P'olkestone case. I wish with you that the interval thus obtained might be used in the interests of peace. I fear that it may only be used in ' getting ready for war.' If only both sides would agree, hc/brc the judgment is issued, to accept it as final, and obey it, zohen called on to do so^ there would be peace. But I fear this is only tantamount to saying that if all men were reasonable and peaceable there would be no war. And yet I can see no other way out of our present diffi- culties, save the enacting of an entirely new Ornaments Rubric by the Church in Convocation, which should be liberal and compre- hensive and yet definite. This was what I proposed nearly twa years ago, and carried a resolution in favour of in the Upper House of C'onvocation. It was however violently denounced by extreme men on both sides then ; and Convocation has since done nothing in this direction.
" To attempt this, after the judgment shall have again exasperated men's minds on one side or the other, is, I fear, hopeless. Nothing therefore seems left to the friends of peace save acquiescence in the last word of the Law Courts. I wish I saw a better outlook for the Church than this, but I do not. — Yours most truly,
" W. C. PETKUliOKOU(;H."
To J. A. Shaw Stkwakt, Esq.
" The Palace, Petf.rborough,
" November i, 187G.
" My DEAH Siu, — Before replying to your letter let me thank you for its plainness of speech.
" We bishops so seldom receive such a token of respect that we prize it all the more when it is given us.
" J'or the most part we find that plain speech respecting us is used o/" rather than to us. The result is that opportunities of frank explanation such as that given by your letter are I'arely afforded us. Let me avail myself of that \\hich you have now afforded me.
" Your view of the position and motives of the episcopate is, I fear, that of many others, and tends, I fear, to influence their action
1876-77 TEMPERANCE ; PROSECUTIONS
55
ill matters of" moment to the Church. I believe it to he a very mistaken one. Let me oive you what I regard as a mucli truer view.
" And first, as to the position of" the late liishop ^Vilberf"orce. It was undoubtedly one of" connnanding power and influence amongst his episcopal brethren as in the Church at large. AVhether it was not too much so for the good of the Church may be doubted. I myself believe that it led him to trust too much to his own great power of personal influence to keep all parties in stable e{[uilibrium forgetting that such power must die with himself, and that in the long run the Church must be rided by law antl not by the personal influence of great prelates.
" I kiunc that in his latter days he was beginning to suspect the mistake he had made in this respect.
" He expressed to mvself more than once great uneasiness at the growing lawlessness of the clergy, and his belief that some legis- lation would be necessary to restrain it.
" My last conversation with him, a few days before his death, was to this eff"ect.
" He was beginning to see that even his tolerance and catholicity was being abused, and that he was being manugrd by those whom he had believed that he was rnanug'mg'.
" I greatly doubt therefore, whether, had he lived, he would have opposed the introduction of some such measure as the P.W.R. ; though doubtless he would have left his mark upon it in Pai lia- ment.
" (2) As regard the ejnscopate and the two Primates : " Pardon me if I say, that your idea of a timid and yet ambitious episcopate half awed into submission by the Priniates, half tempted to silence by hopes of becoming primates in their turn, and alto- gether thus ' outgeneral led by the statecraft'' of their chiefs, is purely mythical. I do not know anywhere a more independent body of men than the English ej)iscopate ; and as to hopes of the {)rimacy, I cannot of course gauge the hearts of other men, I can only judge them by my own ; and I can truly say that never — even as a dream — has such a thought crossed my mind. Assuredly it has never prevented me from difl"ering with or (as you may perhaps remember) opposing and defeating the Primate in Parlia- ment when I felt it my duty to do so.
" I am persuaded that I am not more single-minded than my brethren in this respect, as indeed their conduct on the ([uestion of appeals to the Primates under the P.\\Ml. sufficiently proves.
56
ARCHBISHOP MAGEE chap, xm
"I wish vcrv much that those who like vourself" arc in a position to influence others could once for all dismiss this idea of a cowed and ' out-generalled episcopate " caucussed (with but few exceptions) into tame submission bv two craftv and strong-minded chiefs. It is not only unjust to them and to us, but fatal to all really cordial and therefore useful relations between us and a large body of loyal Churchmen, such as yourself.
" Prav believe that when the bishops act with the Primates it is because thev agree with them ; and that when and where they differ from them they act accordingh".
3. As regai'ds what you so kindly sav of myself and mv position amongst mv brethren, I fear that vou have greatly over-estimated both. But were mv influence even tenfold gi"eater than what vou rate it at, I could never realise your wish that I should 'champion'' any one party in the Church.
" I do not really and entirely belong to any one Chmx-h party, and as the result I am pretty evenly abused bv each in turn.
" I am of no other party than that of the Church of England, as I find her in her Prayer-book and her history. I tolerate — I hope htrgrhj — all that even bv a stretch of charity, I can fairly see to be within these limits. I am idtcrhj intolerant of all on any side that goes beyond them.
" Now I cannot even with the utmost charitv help seeing that the extreme Ritualists go, and avowedly aim at going, bevond these limits.
" I see and Icmnc of the deliberate adoption of dlstim thj Roman doctrines, practices, rites, ceremonies, devotions and even phrases and turns of expression. I see this joined with deliberate and insulting defiance not of the merely legal authority of bishops, but, as I personally know, of their earnest and paternal remonstrances and entreaties, far more frequently resorted to than we are given credit for.
" I see, therefore, clearly and plainly, a determination on the part of some men to Romanise, or, failing that, to revolutionise, our Church. I see too, with deep pain, the great historical High Church ]5arty — jiartlv from generosity, partly from a certain amount of theological sympathy with what they regard as only exaggerations of their own views, partly, I fully own, from disgust at the fatuous impolicy and bitterness of many of the opponents of these men who strike at Hioh Churchmen through them — more and more identifying itself with men w ho are utterly untrue to its best
1876-77 TEMPERANCE ; PROSECUTIONS
57
traditions, and who sneer at and vilify its noblest names, and scout its miserable AngTicdu'isni.''
" Seeing and deploring all this as I do, I cannot identify myself with — still less hope to lead or champion — those High Churchmen who, though themselves truly loyal to our Church, throw their shield over those whom I cannot honestly regard as loyal to her.
" On the other hand, I shrink with unconcealed dislike from the vulgar, bittei", ignorant Puritanism that is engaged in the persecu- tion of these men. 1 see that by their incredibly foolish attacks on things j)erfectly harmless and dear to many a loyal Churchman (e.g:, the eastward position), they are forcing on that alliance between the High Churchmen and the extremest Ritualist which a common danger naturally impels to.
" I see how narrow, how schismatical, how uncatholic is their line of action. I have opposed it and denounced it, and been bitterly reviled by them for so doing.
" But I see also one thing more, that in this bitter strife of parties both distrust and hate the bishops, mainly, I do believe, because they honestly endeavour to be just to both in turn.
*' I see, therefore, how hopeless it is for any bishop, who icill not be a party man, to attempt to moderate or restrain any party.
" I can only endeavour honestly and fairly to administer our present most ambiguous laws and imperfect discipline in the diocese over which I am called to rule ; and to continue to do so when the last word of the Law Courts shall have given a final decision on questions which can now unhappily be decided in no other way than by law suits.
" No one can now })lay the role of Bishop ^Vilberforce. Were he now alive he could no longer play it himself.
" Church parties are now so embittered, so committed to inter- necine strife, that they will listen to no voice save that which calls to war.
" The clergy who defied their bishops, and demanded to be governed only by ' monitions which they would send to their lawyers,"' must now abide the issue which they have deliberately challenged.
" Those of the other side who have so eagerly rushed to law, rejecting the mediation of the bishops as that of ' traitors and fautors of Ritualism,'' nuist submit to possibly very unexpected
58
ARCHBISHOP MAGEE
CHAP. XIII
and unwelcome interpretations of the law to which they are so confidently appealing.
" The Church, which in Convocation refused to alter disputed and ambiguous rubrics, by a hair's breadth, must now see their
rubrics os-si/icd by hard-and-fast legal interpretation, when they might have been softened by wise and comprehemivc legislation. And quiet and peaceful and loyal Churchmen must find their liberties abridged by the results of litigation which they neither invoked nor desired.
" The end of all this is neither far off nor hard to foresee ; ' nec vitla )HT roncdia pati poMi/mus" sums uj) our present position; and what can that end in but dhsohitioii ? When that comes to pass, men will of course bitterly blame the bishops ; when its history is fairly written the blame will be more fairlv apportioned.
" Meanwhile, we must only nmc each follow out his own convic- tions in doing or suffering as it may be. We cannot cldoroform the Church for the coming critical operation in the Law Courts. Whatever amount of ' shock ' may result to the patient, it is quite certain the operation will take place, and men xooidd ' have it so.'
" God grant us all a better issue out of our unhap})y strife than we, any of us, deserve.
" This is a very long letter, an almost cruel revenge on you, you will say, for what you quite needlessly call the ' freedom ' of your letter. Let me venture to add even a further infliction by asking you to read the latter portion of the accompanying charge, in which I endeavoured to define the position of bishops versun rubrics and Law Courts. May I ask its return, as I ha\'e no other copy — Believe me, very faithfully yours, " AV. C. Peterhokough.'"
From J. A. Shaw Stkwaiit, Esq.
13 Queen's Gate, London, S.W,,
November 8, 1876.
Mv DEAR Lord, — I have delayed answering your letter of the 1st, because I was yesterday to meet Lord Devon and J. G. Talbot, and I think you will be glad to know that we have decided at present to address no further remonstrance to the Archbishop. The object we wished to attain, vi~., the avoidance of undue haste, seems to be gained, and we thought any further interfei'ence might only tend to irritate.
Allow me to thank you most sincerely for the very kind and frank way in wliich you have received my presumptuous approaches.
1876-77 TEMPERANCE ; PROSECUTIONS
59
I am extremely glad to have read carefully the manner in whicii you address your clergy on the Public Worship Act. I think such an im- partial and judicial tone will go far to make it a sleeping Act in your diocese ; and such paternal treatment will do more to quiet, and render sensible and amenable the extreme men, than any amount of threats or coercion.
I fear, my dear lord, I, like many others, have said hard things of our spiritual rulers, even whilst addressing one of them. May I end by assuring you very truly how grateful I feel to God for giving us in these most troublous and anxious days so many true-hearted, devoted, self-denying, and thoroughly Christian and fatherly bishops, as are to be found in our present Episcopal College } — Yours very truly,
J. A. Shaw Stewart.
To J. C. MacDoxkki.l.
" Peterborough, December 5, 1876.
" I intend offering Paston to Andrew, the rural dean, but it will be but a })oor gift. A curate must be kept to reside in the adjacent hamlet of Dogsthorpe, and this will reduce Paston to very little over ij^SOO a year and a house, and a house too of an expensive kind to keep uj). Whom I am to find to fill Andrew's parish of =^200 a year and no house, and Werrington, ecjually houseless, with c£^220, is not so easy to say. Subdivision of livings, and re- distribution of Church property, is fast reaching its extreme limit. The Church wants some new i lotli, and can go on no longer pieceing and turning her old clothes.
" I had a nice letter from Plunket in reply to niy congi-atulations ; he is to be consecrated at Armagh on the 10th inst.
" Our great crux about episco])al assessors is at last settled, and perhaps in the best way ])ossible. The three ex ajficio assessors, Cantuar, York, and London, sit in rotaiioii, tt)gether with the four junior bishops. This will :
"(1) Exclude Durham.
" (2) Exclude from the re-hearing of the Purchas case its princi[)al author, W. Ebor.
"(3) Give the Ritualists Chichester and Ely, the other two being St. Asaph and St. David's ; the former knowing as nuich about the subject as I do about conic sections, and therefore really counting for nothing ; the latter fairly con- versant, as things go, with the ritualistic controversy, and rather High Church than otherwise. Altogether it is a very fair tribunal.
60
J KCH BISHOP MA GEE
CHAP. XIII
and the Ritualists will make a false move in the game if they refuse to plead before it, as I hear rumours of their intending to do.
" ^Vhen I remember what seemed impending in October last, a judgment before the court was fully constituted, with Durham for one of the j udges, I feel as one of the officers of a ship j ust ' clawed off""' a lee shoi"e, and thankful for that mercv, even though there is very rough weather to windward still.
" Chiu'ch Extension at Northampton is really progressing at last, Laus Deo ! Indeed, thanks to God's goodness, this year 1876 closes as brightly for the diocese as any preceding one, and more so than most of them. I do really bes'in to feel as if I were g-ainino; some hold at last on the diocese, and seeing some fruit of my Avork. Would that I could hope that the storms of February next, blowing from the Judicial Committee, may not wreck all and throw us into utter strife and confusion. Quod Deii.s avertat J""
" December 26, 1876.
" Thank you for your welcome Christmas letter. We have all spent our Christmas happily and peacefully at home together, un- troubled by candidates, who were all ordained and away on Thurs- day last. Christmas Day falling on a ^Monday necessitated this abridgment of the ordination arrangements.
" I am rather ])ainfully struck with the growing ujncard tendency of the said candidates. The theological training colleges* presided over, for the most part, by very High Churchmen, are rapidly turning out a number of voung .sem 'uiarjj priests ; all moulded on the same pattern, set up with about the same amount and kind of reading, and using the same party shibboleths and catch-words, often, of course, without understanding their real meaning.
"The English Church is feeling now, and will long feel here- after, the \\ant of a University Divinity School where men might have been trained in broad daylight, and under the influence of the broad free thought and life of a great University, by men who had a great public position, and whose teaching was public and re- sponsible.
" These little darkened side chapels of theological colleges, Avhere esoteric teaching is given to bands of selected disciples, will work and are working serious mischief.
" I hardly know how to deal with the men who come from thein. Their answers to my doctrinal (juestions are almost always within,
* See also letter of June 17, i88g.
1876-77 TEMPERANCE ; PROSECUriONS
61
though perhaps ///.vi; within, the allowable limits of tlie Cluiivh of Eiio-laiul teaching ; and when they are not, the n)en genei-ally recant them or put a (^uite orthodox meaning on them, with even too great and suspicious alacrity. Not that I think them dishonest in so doing, but rather, for the most })art, ignorant of the real nature and tendency of their own opinions, and of course all the more in danger of 2;oin<>' a "'reat deal fui'ther in a year or two when the catch-words they have adopted gradually reveal their true meaning to them, anil they are too far committed to and influenced by their use of them to be startled by finding out the real meaning of all they have been saying, or by being asked to follow out their views to their legitimate conclusions.
" All this bodes a rapid growth of young, hot-headed, and ignorant sacerdotalism, to be followed ultimately by sceptical reaction.
" I wish I could see a remedy for this, but I do not. Sceptical knowledge and ignorant pietism seem to be crystallizing thought and religious life in England around them, as they have long since been doing on the Continent. However, this is getting a long way off* from Peterborough and Walgrave Christmas parties. I am glad you have all yours round you, even though it be for the last time for at least some years to come.
" This flitting of the fledged younglings from the old bird's nest is very trying ; and yet is it not a wisely appointed weaning of us old folk preparatory to our final flitting It would be hard to be called away from the home all filled with the light of dear faces and sound of dear voices ; but when the light is gone, and the voices hushed, and the fire low on the hearth, we ai'e, or ought to be, moi-e ready to rise up and go, and leave our place to others.
" The only amari aUqu 'id for me of the closing year comes in the shape of a correspondence between a Leicester attorney (acting on behalf of the Countesthoi-jie parishioners) and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.
" What a hornefs nest he brings about his ears who does not ' let things be,' however bad they are, but nuist needs try to mend them ! He gets all the stings, and any honey going goes to those who give him neither thanks for the honey nor pity for the stings.
" As a solatium for all this, however, Northampton Church matters are very hopeful. I ha\e now four good men at work, or all but at work, in each of my four new parishes ; churches, of a sort, in two of them, and the third now being built.
62 ARCHBISHOP MAGEE chap, xm
" The boys ave delighted at the thought of going to you after New Year's Dav or week ; we will settle the day soon. I wish that as an old boy I too could come for one night at least. Perhaps I may manage it about January 11, when I am to be at a Church Exten- sion ^Meeting in Northampton.
" With all best and kindest Christmas wishes for you and yours from me and mine."
" Belvoir Castle, Grantham,
"January i6, 1877.
" You will have seen from the papers that the extraction of Tooth "'oes on. I wish the Church could be chloroformed for the operation. Out he must now come, though what will be the result on the patient is doubtful. I see that all the press, save the Satiirchiij, is against Tooth ; and even the Saturday is not so much Jbr him as against the P.W.R.
" The English Church Union hold their great demonstration to-night. But the wind has been greatly taken out of their sails by Loixl Penzance's speech in court on Saturday last. Still, they ai'e a strong body, and will fight hard. Disruption may come of it, but, I think, hardly yet.
" We have a little Cabinet Council here — Gathorne Hardy, Cross, Lord J. ]VIanners, S. Northcote, and Dizzy's private secretary. Turner. The Cabinet ]Ministers seem rather uneasy about this wretched Tooth drawing ; Hardy especially, who, of course, hears a good deal from his clerical Oxford constituency.
" I hear that Liddon and others of the High Church jiarty are planning a series of calls on Tooth in prison ! "What childish and yet mischievous folly ! ^
" Peterborough, January 26, 1877.
"I thought you might like to see the enclosed from Hassard. Put it in the fire when you have read it. The I'ecent rebellion of the English Church Union against all action of the Privy Council, and their withdrawal from the suit, so altered the position of the Archbishop that I think he did rightly in sitting on the case. If the judgment be a liberal one, his concurrence in it will give it great weight, and tend to the acquiescence in it of the Low Churchmen, who are just now left out in the reckonings of many, but who, in the end, nuist come to be reckoned with, and may prove quite as troublesome and more powerful than the Ritualists.
"I touched on the subject at our rural deans' meeting here on Thursday, urging generally the wisdom of keeping quiet and not
1876 77 TEMPERANCE; PROSECUTIONS
63
oetting up or joining in manifestos or declarations on one side or the other just now. I was glad to find this suggestion aeee])ted heartily. Yard tells nie there is a split in the Knglish Church Union on the (luestion ; and I think this is borne out by the wording of their resolutions, which are as full of ambiguous com- promises as the litigated rubrics to which they refer.
" Please send me the copy of the ' National Portrait Gallery ' of which you speak. I have not seen it. I have little doubt that, whether for good or evil, it is not a good likeness. But I am curious to see myself as others see me.
" You may see another likeness in this week's Leicester Journal, signed Clericus, anent the Countesthorpe matter.
"Willie has just gone to school, leaving our household nearly as small as vour own. It is melancholy rather, all this coming and going ; but what else is all our life, until we reach the abiding city !
" I suspect that the want of vigour as to Donnellans of which you complain arises from the fact that the subject has grown cold in your mind. I greatly doubt whether any man ever re-Mrote his own works very lovingly or successfully. These productions of ours must be struck oft", like the French shoemaker's little boot, 'in a moment of enthusiasm." The creative fire goes out afterwards, and it is dull work raking the ashes. I suspect you would find vigour enough if you took up a new line of thought.
" I hope your thought at the moment is clear as to your coming here on next Monday, and staying at least imtil A\'^ednesday, when I may go to town to see the eighty-ton gini fired early on Thursday at Shoeburyness, to which function I am invited by my wife's cousin, Harvey, of the Artillery. The charge \\ eighs nearly a ton, and / have a fancy for big charges — at least, so savs the Rocl:.
" My friends at are coming out with a grand statement of
their gi-ievances against me and W., their vicar. He is a goose, and they are regular John Bulls. Between them they have got the farm-yard in a row, and I find it hard to quiet the animals. I cannot ' make summer of the winter of their discontent," as Shakespeai-e has it."
"Peterborough, February 15, 1877. "We are all 'waiting for the judgment,'' like the rest of the Church. And it was the universal opinion amongst us that just now there was nothing else to be done, and that the less we said the better. There is a certain amount of disintegration going on
64
ARCHBISHOP MA GEE
CHAP. XIII
in the Eno-lish Cluurh Union, and very little enthusiasm for Tooth ; and we thought that any intermeddling by us just now might only check the former and stimulate the latter, and so we agreed to a 'masterly inactivity" until Easter next, when the 'judgmenf will appear. No one can predict its nature. But the Aix-hbishop evidently wishes it to be an open one as regards eastern position. He is now (juite alive to the importance of this to the peace, and almost to the stability, of the Church. Vestments will, I hear,, very possibly be legalised, if not decided to be compulsory.
" I declined to meet in conference Wood, Carter, and some other extremists. They proposed that we should discuss with them, not the conditions on which they would suiTender to us, but those on which we should surrender to them — viz., a new Court of Appeal consisting of — what do you think — all the bishops, aided by assessors from the Lower House ; and the decision of the Court to be final ! Fancy going to Parliament and to the Evangelicals with such a })roposal ! And fancy its being made by men who have persistently vilified the bishops for the last ten years ! Of course, if it were (per impossibile) established, the next demand would be that it should decide according to ' Catholic tradition,"" and then, next, that the bishops who had to act as final Appeal Court in Church (luestions should not be chosen by the State. In fact, they are bent simply on doing what they like by hook or by crook. I am resolved that, at any rate, they shall not have the help of mj/ iTook in this attempt. This conference has fallen through, and I think happily. It would just now look to them like weakness, and to the Evangelicals like treachery. So, as I said, we all lie on our oars and wait for the Ilidsdale decision. After that the deluge !
" ^Ve spent a pleasant three days at Addington in company with Bishop of Exeter and his bride. Bishop of Winchester and wife and daughter, Dean Stanley, Browning the poet, Smith (editor of the Quarterly), and sundry dii minores.
I left town on Saturday last for a Church mission at Rushden, and left that on Monday for a church-opening at Castle Donnington, Leicestershire, on Tuesday. I met Archdeacon Fearon there, bright and cheery as usual, like a dear old evergreen as he is.
" I got home here to Shrove Tuesday dinner, very tired, but all well."
" Peterborough, March lo, 1877. "I have to preach at Whitehall Chapel on Sunday week. Alas! I have not yet got my text.
1S76-77 TEMPERANCE ; PROSECUTIONS
G5
" I read your letter in the Guardian with great satisfaction, so also have sundry of the clergy who talked to me of it on my tour.
"As I have just completed twenty confirmations in thirteen days, you must not expect a very coherent letter. My head is going- round like a top, with a kind of confused feeling, such as a miller's horse might have after going round in the mill for a day or two. My ' innards,' too, are in a highly ' mixed condition ' after twenty luncheons and dinners with dubious sherry and questionable f?«/;-rt'.9. However, the tour, as regards better things than these, has been very satisfactory and hopeful.
" The rest when mc meet."
" St. Martin's Vicarage, Leicester,
"Saturday, March 24, 1877.
" Our meeting yesterday for augmentation of small benefices was fairly satisfactory ; upwards of £^0Q was subscribed in the room, and we have thus made a good beginning. But how tired I do feel of being always the mainspring of the diocesan watch. In good old days the bishop was only the balance ; now, nothing is done by the hands unless he moves and keeps them moving. I begin to feel that I cannot carry on much longer at this pace. The worst sign of exhaustion is when rest does not pick you up, and when illness, \vhenever it comes, clings. However, all this is wTitten under the influence of influenza, for which I must make allowance — more than any one ever makes for me."
"Bedford Hotel, Brighton,
"March 31, 1S77.
" The weather has changed here, just before my arrival, from May to March. It was blowing a stiff" sou'-wester when I attempted a walk on the Marine Parade. I hope I may be more fortunate to-morrow. I wish that I dare worship to-morrow at the extreme church here (Wagners), just to see with my own eyes Ritualism in full blow. But I dare not — and I think I ought not — for a good many reasons.
"I must show you, when we meet, Cantuai''s reply to Canon Carter's letter. It is very good. But it will exasperate the extreme men all the more for its cogency ; while there are streaks of Eras- tianism here and there in it which are, I think, unfortunate, and will be ' exploited ' abundantly by the Ritualists. After all, what a strong man he is. Resolute and self-contained and persistent. He will never be a leader ; and his office is not powerful enough
VOL. II, E
66
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CHAP. XIII
now to make him a ruler who is not also something of a leader too. But he would have been a great ruler fifty years ago. I see that he leans nevertheless to reform of Convocation, and to its emancipation on matters of detail from Parliament. This is more than he ever said before, and may form the germ of important reforms vet.
" I saw Brunei, the episcopal draftsman, to-day at the Athenaeum. He tells me that the report of Penzance''s resignation is not true ; and yet it was so circumstantial that I almost believed it. But really the ecclesiastical atmosphere is just now dark with canards. They fly in flocks and cackle horribly. The last was in the Church Times, that the Queen insisted on Tooth's liberation, and declared that if he were not set free by Penzance, she would exercise her royal prerogative on his behalf, and set him free at once. I suppose these stories really go down with those for whom the Church Times writes. But, as old Pepys would have said, ' Lord, to see how simple some men are, and how other men do gull them.'
" I have sent the Duke of Richmond and Gordon an amendment on his Bill, allowing a service for those over whom our present service may not be read. He promises to submit it to the Cabinet, and has sent it to Cross. For this mercy he claims a speech from me on the second reading of the Bill. As I could hardly have avoided this in any case, his claim makes no great difference. But it will be walking on eggs. I agree neither with Granville nor A. C. Cantuar, nor the clergy generally ; and a triangular duel is only an amusing thing in Marryafs novels. In the reality it is awkward and dangerous. I fear I shall please nobody, least of all mvself.
" How sick I am of speaking, preaching, talking, and working generally ! How I long for the side of a trout stream, or a boat on Loch Inagh, with no letters, no after-thoughts, no nothink.
" Surely ^akya Mouni, the great founder of Buddhism, must have been a bishop of some sort when he invented the heaven of Nirvana. Even lotus eating must have been the idea of some sore worried Greek priest, who had probably to attend many temple ' restorations ' and take part in many processions, and had Greek
\Y -s to manage, and dreamed one night of ' the land where it
is always afternoon.' Alas for me ! my lotus just now is quinine, and my ague fit comes on regularly each afternoon, in spite of the said ([uinine. However, I hope to have the refreshment of a talk
1876-77 TEMPERANCE ; PROSECUTIONS
67
with you on Wednesday next. Will you take a day or two with Charlie and me at Rowsley, close to Haddon Hall and Chatsworth? I think you would like it, and I am sure it would do you good and me too.
" This is an awfully long letter ; but I do not often get time to write one. I trust you are all recovering yourselves at Walgrave."
"41 Devonshire Street,
" Portland Place,
" May 15, 1877.
" The plot ecclesiastical and political is thickening fast enough up here.
'•^Imprimis — as regards the Burials Bill. The coalition between the two Archbishops and Granville and Harrowby is now a known fact ; and it is, moreover, very likely to be successful. I find the Government is, or professes to be, very much annoyed by it; some members of the Cabinet really so — Duke of Richmond, Cross, Hardy, and Salisbury, have all said so to me. Dizzy, as usual, plays the Sphinx, and very cleverly too. He has put up Cantuar to make his speech before going into Committee ; and last night he put me up to reply to him. He (Dizzy) meanwhile lying by to see which way the House inclines. Of course I know that I am his catspaw ; nevertheless, I have accepted his proposal. For I must, in any case, speak, and could not do so w ithout ojDposing the Archbishop. Now, by assenting to reply to him at once I get the best place next to his in the debate and a good time, and a secure hearing before dinner-hour. So I am to fight my own Archbishop — a most difficult and awkward thing to do at any time, and in this matter specially so. However, I am in for it, and must go through with it ; though it will be the most critically delicate thing I have ever had to do in the way of speaking. The Government will withdraw their seventy-fourth clause, and probably vote against the Archbishop and Harrowby. They will make the Bill a mere sanitary one therefore. This I am sorry for. But the extreme course taken by the two Aixhbishops has upset everything. I am going down now to a bishops' meeting, to discuss these and other matters.
" To-night I dine with the Archbishop. Thursday night I fight him. This is a little like Ulysses and Polyphemus : —
He ate his mutton, drank his wine, and Then he poked his ei/c out —
68
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CHAP. XIII
only archbishops'' eyes are not so easily poked out, and only that in this case I fear that I shall be really oi;-tc. However, we shall have a lively time of it, and you will have some lively reading on Friday next/'
" AxHENiEDM Clue, May 19, 1877. " You will have seen ere this the debate and division in the Lords on the Burials Bill. Result, a wretched fiasco for the Government and a final defeat of the Church. The two Arch- bishops, with a following of some fifteen Conservative peers, and the abstention of as many more, carried the day, w hile the vacilla- tion and uncertainty of the Government made it all but impossible for their advocates, like myself, to support them. Clearly, they ought never to have put in the seventy-fourth clause. But when they did touch, as they did in it, on the religious question, they should liave devised a better one. As it was, they offended every one and pleased no one. I did my best behind the scenes, and had nearly succeeded. I told Richmond and Salisbuiy that the Archbishops'" amendments were the key of the position ; and that if they knocked them out the Ai-chbishops dare not vote for Har- rowbv. Unluckily, at the last moment they gave the Archbishop one half of his, and then were di'agged on to the other half logically, and so lost by sixty to sixty-five. After that, Harrowby's triumph was nearly certain ; and a triumph it was, though a tie. My ova\ speech* was, as you guess, given under tremendous difficulties, moral and physical. They tell me that it was a good one. (It is miserably reported, even in the Times). But I confess I did not like it myself. Probably it told, for it desperately angered the Opposition front bench, Selborne in particular being actually offensive, and accusing me of wishing to degrade Christianity. The Archbishop, like a high-minded gentleman and Christian as he is, shook hands with me when I had done. I said two or three sharp, and they say, humorous things ; and the speech, in which these are quoted and much of the rest suppressed, has an air of levity which really did not belong to it. However, this is enough as regards myself.
" As to the future, it is clear that the game is up ; and what surprises me is, that the Church, clerical and lay, takes it so quietly. T suppose they are simply stunned.
" What Government \y'\\\ do now no one knows. But I think that the sooner they give effect to Harrowby's resolution in a Bill * " Speeches and Addresses," p. 177.
1876-77 TEMPERANCE; PROSECUTIONS
69
of their own the better. The next Election may bring in tlic Liberals, and they will give the clergy nothing.
" I was greatly struck Avith the tone of suspicion and dislike of clergy and bishops that ran all through the debate. If the clergy wish to see ' lay alienation ' they should come to the House of Lords. Truly they have brought a great deal upon themselves by their impracticable and obstinate folly. And yet I feel that, be they what they may, these are the men whom we shall have to work the disestablished Church with ere long, and the Arch- bishops do not see that in the least. I wish they did."
To Rev. Christopher Wordsworth.
"Peterborough, May 25, 1877.
" I have never required the clergy of this diocese — even before the recent judgment — to stand at the north end. The eastward position is in my opinion now practically legalised, and the clergy are free to take it if they think fit. This freedom, however, I am sure you will feel ought not to be exercised if by so doing the clergyman is likely to give offence to his people.
" The question of the position being in itself a matter of in- difference, the adopting it or not becomes as it seems to me purely a question of expediency and edification. In answer therefore to your question, I should say, that in your place I should be guided by the feelings of the congTegation and specially of the com- municants.
" If gratifying my own feelings and wishes in the matter did not pain or alienate them, I should take the eastward position. If it did, I should sacrifice my feelings for them, and believe that by so doing, I should ^ in upon their regard and attachment to myself and to the Chiu'ch.
" I hope you are getting comfortably settled in your new resi- dence.— Believe me, very truly yoiu's,
" W. C. Pktekborough." To J. C. MacDonnell.
"Athen^um Club, July 9, 1877. " I send you a few lines on the eve of starting for Ardrishaig, not that I have much to tell you. I kept clear of Convocation and am glad I did so ; they did not want me, and did very well without me. They have, I think, got rather into a wrong groove
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in condemning books and societies. Just now it tells well, as we are coming down on the S.H.C.* Hereafter, however, it may give us serious trouble.
" I preached last night at Westminster to an enormous crowd. I succeeded, I think, in ' exploiting,' as the French would term it, the Modern Sadducee. He and his brother culprit, the Pharisee, between them took me fifty minutes ; but for some remains of ague I ought to have disposed of them in forty.
" I had a very interesting time with Dean Stanley, and heard sundry good things, the best, however, being the little mortal himself. A strangely fascinating, queer, solitary, sad bit of Church history he is, and wonderfully well set he is in that old quaint deanery and in the great historic abbcv.
"My wife and daughters got to Ardrishaig thirty hours after they left Peterborough, having been detained by the breaking down of a luggage train near Glasgow. I expect this will not occur twice in the same season, and so I hope to arrive without adventure to-morrow. They are greatly pleased with the place.
" There is no news of any kind stirring here."
"AiTECHUAN, Ardrishaig,
•'July 30, 1877.
" The rain and mist are almost incessant, and have left but little chance of explorations or excursions as yet, nor does there seem, so far, any chance or sign of improvement. This is the more trying as the country round about is evidently well Avorth exploring, the scenery being very fine and wild ; sea lochs, inland lochs, moor and mountain abounding. The only drawbacks besides the weather, are : First, the civilisation of our neighbours, which involves calls and luncheons and the other impedimenta of polite life, and prevents that relapse into savagedom which is so essential to real holidays for a hard-worked man whose work lies so mvich amongst the civilized classes, and one of Avhose hardest labours is eating of luncheons ad nauseam. Secondly, the demands of the Bishop of Argyle here for sermons, for which he has an unlucky claim, owing to my having utilised him once for confirmations. However, spite of all this we are not badly oft'.
" The boys are come and we have a sailing boat, and they fish and get lots of worthless sea fish ; and when we do get out the scenery is certainly charming.
* The Society of the Holy Cross.
1876-77 TEMPERANCE; PROSECUTIONS
71
" I am hesitating about a run to lona, disstant two days from this, with a peep at Staff'u. I suppose I ought to let my ' piety oTow Avarmei-,"' as Dr. Johnson's did, 'among the ruins of lona' and be able to say I have seen it when I return.
" The folk here are very Gaelic both in speech and garb. Fancy being called on by a real live Highland laird in full costvune, kilt, bare knees, sporan, skene dhu, and all the rest of it. All the said lairds are Campbells. We had twenty-three Campbells in church last Sunday. They are all accordingly known by the names of their lairdships like so many peers ; in short the whole thing is like a page out of Waverley, only of a later edition.
" The Church here is in a curious condition, mainly consisting of these lairds and their households ; though in some of the islands there are congregations of the poorer sort, mostly attached Epis- copalians who have clung to their old faith for centuries, and are now building themselves churches and rejoicing greatly in the visits of a bishop.
" I am to be present at the Synod of this diocese next week. I suppose some thirty souls will constitute it, and yet it will have a dignity beyond that of our Diocesan Conference or even Convoca- tion, in that it will legislate and not merely express opinions. The ' living voice,"' which is only a voice, is sadly apt to degenerate into a scream or sink into a whisper ; when it makes laws it is more grave and natural, and less hysterical and garrulous.
" I hear nothing of interest from the diocese of Peterborough, a good sign of affairs there."
"Ardrishaig, N.B., August 21, 1877. " I had two letters from Thicknesse describing Hull's institution and acceptation by the congregation on Sunday last. Nothing, according to his account, could have gone off better. Lord (Jverstone's letter to the churchwardens seems also to have been very gratifying ; altogether it is tliere what it is not here, post nubila Phcehis. Everything now depends on Hulls judgment and caution, and I have good hope of both. If he succeeds I have fairly floored the Evangelicals in Northampton as I have already done in Peterborough and Leicester. What a pity though that they should need to be floored ; why will they prove themselves every- where and always so impracticable and irreconcilable I suppose that they feel themselves an expiring party, and are hair-sore and jealous accordingly. Heaven knows I came to this diocese no High Churchman, and willing enough to co-operate with the
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Evangelicals ; but they are driving me more and more, spite of mvsclf, into the arms of the High Churchmen, who, yet, I suspect, know very well I do not thoi'oughly belong to them. How easy it is to be a party bishop pure and simple, like Durham. No one misunderstands him, and as for abuse, he gets all on one side ; like a traveller on an Irish car with the rain, and can at least keep one side dry^ — more than I can do, who catch it all round.
" We may have a row about the ' Priest in Absolution,' in October, but I have a little doubt which way the gi-eat majority of the Conference will go. On the whole this ' Priest in Absolution ' has hurt the Ritualists much, but perhaps, I fear, the Church of England quite as much. These Ritualists will 'rend her sore' ere they go out, if they ever are forced out ; still, there are signs that the line of demarcation between the sound and the gangrened parts of the High Church school is developing itself. Such a resolution as Roberts's has its value in this respect, and more of like kind will, I expect, follow. A real danger, however, mav be the Impatience of the laity at the slowness of this process, and some attempts in Parliament to quicken it. A movement for Liturgical Revision in the House of Lords would be a very awkward thing indeed, and it is by no means impossible. These ninety-six peers who signed the I'ecent anti-confessional memorial to the bishops may vet prove dangerous in that direction if thev find a good leader ; and it is hard to sav \\'hat line the Archbishop of Canterbury might take in that case. At any rate between an alienated laity who may go in for Disestablishment, if the Ritualists are not cast out, and Gladstone, who will go in for it if thev are^ we shall have nice steering between Scylla and Charybdis, and a fair chance of a wreck on one or the other of these.
" W. C. P."
CHAPTER XIV
CONFESSION; PAN-ANGLICAN SYNOD
The following correspondence brings out very clearly the Bishop's views upon Confession, and also his estimate of the Society of the Holy Cross. The one was the outcome of his life''s study and thought ; the other was the result of a very careful examination of the Societ}''s rules. In order to gather together his most important utterances upon this subject, I add a letter to one of his clergy who consulted him upon a particular case. It is an example of his application of the jirinciples explained before.
To Caxon Lowe.
" Palace, Peterborough,
"September 13, 1S77.
" . . . . My objections to the Society are founded on a careful study both of the book which it adopted and circulated — 'The Priest in Absolution'' — and also of the rules imposed on its members. As regards the former — ' The Priest in Absolution ' — its teaching respecting confession, as well as on the other points, appears to me to be definitely and unequivocally that of the Church of Rome as distinguished from that of our own Church. It distinctly asserts in more than one passage, and evidently assumes throughout, the necessity of private and sacramental confession, and of the enumeration by the penitent of all his mortal sins at least, and consequently the necessity of that minute and detailed examination of the penitent in which this book aims at instructing the confessor. As regards the ' rules ' of this Society, the least strict of these which is obligatory on all its members binds them to ' say Mass ' and to ' practise sacramental confession at least once a year.' This is Roman language and the Roman rule ; it is not the language nor the rule of the Church of England,
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The fact that this was not the original rule of the Society, and that it was subsequently altered in this distinctly Romeward direction, shows, to my mind, a distinct Romeward tendency on the part of those who sway its counsels. I am aware that some of its original members disapproved of, and were in consequence exempted from, this rule in its altered form ; also that many of these disapprove strongly of ' The Priest in Absolution."
" It seems to me clear that those who do disapprove either of these rules or of 'The Priest in Absolution'' ought publicly to sever themselves from a society which continues to impose these rules and which has publicly refused to condemn this book. Certainly, until they do this, they cannot complain if they are regarded as approving of both. Such public withdrawal from the Society of the Holy Cross seems to me more especially incumbent upon those to whom parents in om* Church are invited to entrust the education of their children. At any rate, speaking for myself, I must plainly say that, so long as any institution claiming to be conducted on the principles of the Chm'ch of England is connected in the person of any one of its officials with the Society of the Holy Cross, I cannot as a bishop of that Church give to it my public recognition or support."
To J. C. MacDonnell.
" Peterborough, September i8, 1877. " I do not want to trouble you with any mental exercise during your holidays, but I should like you to read carefully a certain correspondence in this week's Guardian between Canon Lowe (head of Denstone Schools) and myself, dealing mainly with confession and the S.H.C., as I fully expect to have what the Americans call a ' rough time ' of it with some of the S.H.C. men as soon as they appear. I should like you to tell me how far my letters, in your judgment, hold water, and where are their weak points. You will see that I attack ' The Priest in Absolution,' not on the gi-ound of its indecency, which I always thought a false issue, and more so now that I have carefully studied it, but on the ground of its Roman doc- trine of Confession. Of course on this ground I am more open to challenge than on the other, as the Ritualists dare not invite quota- tion of what is indecent. They will be only too pleased, at first at least, to try the other issue. But on this I am satisfied that the case against them is really far stronger. The book, for a book of the
\
1877-79 CONFESSION ; PAN-ANGLICAN SYNOD
kind, is far from being an impure one, either in fact or intent, but it is thoroughly Roman in its doctrine and phraseology. The fact too, of the change in the rules of the Society (I have the original and the altered rules), to which I refer is curiously significant, and to my mind, more convincing of Romanising than the book itself. At any rate, please read and perpend ; also tell me, if, under the circumstances, you think I did well to allow my name to be added to the list of supporters of the Denstone Schools. I have besides an awkward case in hand of a clergymen who is a member of the S.H.C. being presented to a benefice ; this will keep until I see you again, but I am at ])rGsent disposed to require him to submit to examination before I institute him."
To Rev. F. L. Bagshawe.
Having regard, then, to these portions of the existing rule and statutes of your Society, I am bound at once to connect my former statement and to substitute for it this : The rules and statutes of this Society (1) require from all its brethren the ' saying of Mass,' and (2) enjoin the ' saying of Mass ' on certain occasions for the ' souls of the departed ' brethren. (3) They require from laymen, as the condition of affiliation, the adoption as their Rule of Life of the Roman rule of confession 'at least once a year." (4) ' They recommend ' this rule in its most distinctive Roman form to all their brethren ' for adoption."' I readily give your Society all the benefit M hich it can derive from this correction, though I confess that I cannot see the importance which you attach to it. I have only to add that it in no way alters — in some respects it strengthens — the opinion I have already expressed, that the tendency of your Society is distinctly Romewai'd."
To J. C. MacDonnell.
" Peterborough, September 28, 1877. " You will see a second epistle of mine in this week's Guardian. It was A\ ritten in reply to one I received from the Master of the S.H.C ^vhich he told me he was sending to the Guardian. On receiving my reply he wrote to say that he wished to withdraw his letter. I at once telegi'aphed to the Guardian to withdraw mine, and also to him to tell him I had done so, and give him time to publish his if he wished, if my telegram came too late, as it did. This, however, he did not, or could not do, so mine
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comes out alone. The whole matter is very curious. At first I was disposed to impute some mala fides, but I think the truer account of the matter is this :
" That the S.H.C. had fallen under the control of Mackonochie & Co., and that Bagshawe, who is a somewhat more moderate man, was lately apjiointed Master in Mackonochie's place, by the more moderate section, and has been trying to tone down the statutes a little. Naturally he did not wish to be drawn into a controversy with Mackonochie and the extremer section, and so wished to suppress his letter and mine. I infer this from a correspondence I have been holding with a ]\Ir. Wilson of Merton College, Oxford, one of the committee of the S.H.C, on the same subject. There are evidently two parties in the Society and for a time the Romanisers had the upper hand. Both Bagshawe and Wilson write like gentlemen, and the letters of the latter are very interest- ing ; I will show them to you the first time you come here. They show how far men's minds may become so unconsciously saturatetl with Roman doctrine as to be quite unconscious of their own divergence from their o\\\\ Church.
" I have also had a very interesting correspondence with the Rev. J. Oakley of London, an advanced High Churchman, but not a Ritualist, but hitherto a supporter of them. He thanks me warmly for my letters, and admits the need of some restraint on the extreme men. This is a good symptom, and I wrote accordingly in reply.
" I am not yet abused in the Churcli Times, but I fully expect to find myself gibbeted in to-morrow's issue of the said print. I am more afraid of being praised in the Rock or the Record. Altogether I cannot but hope that I have done some good ; certainly the views this matter has given me on the inner policy and life of the Ritualists are very instructive and curiously interesting.
" Orby Shipley, who had just asked me to join him in a course of sermons in London, writes to notify that at some future time he may notice my letters. I have been reading all my old Trinity College studies on this point, and think I am fairly ready for him.
" Ciu'iously enough, while this was going on, I had to deal on the other side with RoUeston of Scraptoft, who was delated to me for engaging to preach in a Dissenting Chapel in Tunbridge.
" As the delator \\ as a fierce High Chui-chman, and had written
1877-79 CONFESSION ; PAN-ANGLICAN SYNOD 77
a letter to make capital for his side out of the matter with reference to the Public Worship Regulation Act, and also was writing to the Archbishop, in whose diocese Tunbridge is, with the same intent, the case looked ugly. Happily I sat upon Rolleston so severely that he withdrew his sermon, and so ends crux number two. Then turns up crux number three in the person of S. M., ultra-low Churchman and half heretic on the annihilation of the wicked, who is announced to preach in this diocese. Luckily for me the facts of his story in London are not clearly known or stated, nor his views, and as he is to preach the day after to- morrow, I ' have not time to make the necessary enquiries.'' But oh ! how we bishops have need to pray St. Paul's prayer for deliverance from unreasonable men.
"The fact is the Church is hair-sore just now all over, and the least touch anywhere causes a scream of anger. Certainly the Archbishop's Burials Bill will not act as an emollient. I do not envy him his coming presidency at Croydon.
" I am rejoiced to find that you think my letters and my line of attack on the Bits, are sound."
To Rev. .
" Northampton, November 25, 1877. " My dear Sir, — The case on which you asked mv counsel is a difficult one. Not because I feel any difficulty as to the principles which should govern it, but because I am hardly in a position to say how those principles may best and most safely be applied in this particular instance, for the spiritual good of the person con- cerned.
" The case seems clearly to be one of a morbid conscience en- feebled by the constant use of the medicine of confession as food, and not as a medicine.
" The danger already is that if you too hastily or severely apply even sound principles to such a case, the result may be, not that your patient may adopt your treatment and so recover, but may have resort to some other spiritual physician and so grow Avorse. On the other hand, you clearly cannot and ought not, in order to prevent this, take any course inconsistent with what you believe to be the teaching of the Church of which you are a minister.
" Speaking generally — as to all cases of persons claiming to confess to their parish priest — I should say, that he is not entitled to refuse to I'eceive such confession, provided it may be made strictly in
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accordance with the rules of our Church in this matter. And these are that the penitent, before bringing his grief to his pastor, shall
" (1) Confess his sin to Almighty God, and
" (2) If it be also against his neighbour, shall confess it to him. Then, but only then, if by these means he shall not have obtained peace, is he allowed by our Church to open his grief to his minister.
" (1) If I were asked therefore by a parishioner to hear a con- fession, I should ask : ' Have you, before coming to me, complied with oiu' Church's rule, and first confessed to God, and also, if necessary, to your neighbour ? If not, I must require you to do ■ this fully, truly, and completely, before you resort to me.
" (2) If the penitent say (as yours, I suspect, would not say) ' I have done this, and yet cannot find peace,' I should then say ' Tell me what is that sin, or what those sins, and only those, which still weigh upon your mind.' I should hear the confession of these, and of these only, and I should firmly but kindly check all attempts at what is called a ' full confession.' I should further ask no questions as to the circumstances of even them, but should question the penitent solely as to the nature and degree of his repentance. I should endeavour in this way to fix his mind upon the thought that it is the fulness and completeness of his repentance, and not the completeness of his comnnmication of all his sins, on which his for- giveness depends with God.
" (B) If I am satisfied of the sincerity of his repentance, I should say to him : ' I fully believe that you are forgiven by God, and I, as His minister, assure you of this. You may now go, so far as I can judge, with a clear conscience to the Holy Communion, and there you will receive " the benefit of absolution." As to priest's absolution the Chui-ch has not provided me with any form for it — save in the case of the dying. She has provided for those in health, in public absolution in the communion office, and this all true Churchmen admit to be a perfectly valid absolution. There is no special or exceptional virtue in priest's absolution, even were I authorised to give it you. Meet me, therefore, before the holy table, and I will " absolve " you there.'
" (4) Such a course would, I believe, not only be strictly accord- ing to the rule of our Church, but also strictly in accordance with the best and most truly Catholic precedents of the Early Church. For whatever may have been the probability of priest's confession
1877-79 CONFESSION; PAN- ANGLIC AN SYNOD 79
having been allowed or practised in the Early Church, certainly there was no such thing known then as priest's absolution. The whole disciplina penitentice was assuredly public, even though, in order to prepai'e for it, penitents may have told in private to the pi'iest the sins which he may have then directed or counselled them to confess in public.
" A priest's absolution would in the Early Church have been re- garded as an unlawful evasion of penitential discipline.
" I hold, therefore, that a priest of the Church of England is acting strictly in accordance with her rule, and strictly in accord- ance with truly catholic precedent, who takes such a course as that which I have sketched. I think that in the case you describe, this would be a wiser course than that of simply refusing to receive the confession, which indeed our Church would hardly warrant you in doing, while it also affords you the opportunity of endeavouring to restore the mind of this parishioner of yours gradually to a healthier tone, and to more of ,9<'_i^-examination and ■S£'?/-discipline than she has, I fear, of late been used to, as well as to a happier sense of her own nearness to her heavenly Father, and her right to tell Him, and Him only, all her sins.
" I have thus given you such advice as with fullest thought occurs to me in this difficult matter. Earnestly praying for you that you may be wisely guided in it, I am, very faithfully yours,
"W. C. Peterborough.
" P.S. — On reading over again your letter, it has occurred to me that the young lady in question may be too much of an invalid to attend the Holy Communion in public. If this be so, I should say that you are bound to administer to her the Holy Communion in private, and that as this of course contains the absolution I referred to, she would have in the most direct and personal form the benefit of such absolution whenever she communicated.
" You are not bound as a licensed preacher to use the Visitation for the Sick. But if you do use it, you would, I think, be bound to hear her confession if she told you that her conscience ' was troubled with any weighty matter.' And in that case there is a form of absolution provided.
" But unless the use of this Service of Visitation for Sick was specially demanded at your hands, I would, in your place, endeavour to persuade the invalid to content herself with the equally valid absolution of the Communion Office."
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To J. C. MacDonneix.
" Peterborough, October 4, 1877. " I have read TyndalFs address. It is a very interesting and v aluable one for Christian apologists ; it shows the absolute im- possibility, logically, of any resting-place between Christianity and Atheism for us Christians. His arguments for the necessity of all actions and feelings and motions are unanswerable, I think, by the Deist who rejects revelation and denies the possibility of prayer for any physical good, while allowing praver for spiritual blessings. Tyndall & Co. are proving scientifically that the spiritual sphere is as much under the domain of necessary law as the physical, and thus cutting the ground from under the feet of such sentimental Deists as Martineau and Francis Collier and Newman. I find a prophecy of this in one of my notes on Newman's ' Phases,"" written years ago.
" TyndalFs allusion to Butler is a favourite one with him, and obviously fallacious. He says : ' The argument from necessity did not frighten Butler." Certainly not, as it affected Butlers argument, Avhich was for the moral government of the world by rewards and punishments. Of course Butler's answer to the plea of the necessi- tarian against the doctrine of responsibility was unanswerable : that the punishment was necessary as the crime. But Butler, I suspect, Avould have been a good deal frightened as to the argument from necessitv in its bearing on quite another point, v'lz.^ the idea of duty (as distinguished from that of fear of punishment) as a moral force actins; on the conduct of men.
" If men are in all respects mere machines, there can be for them no real duties, no right or wrong in their sense of obligation ; though there may be abundant motive in the fear of punishment or suffering still remaining.
"Indeed, the objection to TyndalFs theory, in its moral bearing on the question of duty, is not that it does away with all restraining motive against crime, i.e., offence against national law — it leaves ample room for this — but that it does away with the very idea of sin as the free act of a self-determining being, and therefore with all morality in the proper sense of the word.
" If I fear to put my hand in the fire because I know it will burn me by necessary law ; or if I fear to lie or murder because I believe that by equally necessary law I shall burn for ever in another world ; the restraint in each case may be very powerful : but the idea that
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I have done a wrong act, an act which I ought not to have done, and wliich being done I ought to feel sorry for, is as unreasonable and inconceivable in the one case as in the other. In fact, the word ' ought ' vanishes, in its proper sense, altogether from human language. Unfortunately, however, for Tyndall's theory, it does not vanish from the human heart. What he has to account for is the fact that when we break one law of nature, the physical, we suffer pain but no remorse ; and when we break another law of our natui'e, the moral, we do suffer remorse ; we feel not only that we have incurred but also deserved punishment.
"The practical effect of Tyndall's theory on human morality must, of course, be fatal. It abolishes morality absolutely and completely, and this would certainly ' have frightened Butler.'
" I hope that this flaw in his reasoning will be noticed by some student of Butler. I wish you would try your hand in a letter to the Spectator ; or, if you are too lazy, poke up Reichel to do it. I am far too busy just now even to think of it ; work is beginning to crowd in on me spite of all my resistance, nearly as much as ever. I have not a day now, from Monday next until December 1, free from work, and yet I have refused nearly as much as I have undertaken. Some of this, however, is aiTears of my spring illness.
" I am sorry to hear of your cold, but this weather ought to cure you soon. It is glorious here, though tantalising when I think of our wet vacation.
" I see that the S.H.C. ' makes no sign ' in to-day's Guardian. My last letter has, I find, gi*eatly consternated them. They had no idea that the secret history of their society was known to any bishop. It certainly is most instructive, and fully justifies, I think, Cantuar's charge of conspii-acy against the leaders of the society. What startles me most in the matter, however, is, not that Mackonochie and Co. should have made this Romanising change in the society ; but that really loyal Churchmen should have accepted it so easily, for others at least, if not for themselves. It argues a want of sensitiveness against Romanism that reminds me of Pope's lines about vice :
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endurCj then jnttj, then embrace.
" It is all very serious and anxious for those who have to govern the Church, and indeed for all of us."
VOL. IX. F
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To Canon Aiigles.
" Peterborough, October i6, 1877.
" I am desirous of stating for the consideration of your Chapter the conclusion to which I have come as to the effect of the recent decision in the Ridsdale case on the question as to the proper dress of the celebrant in cathedral churches.
" Previously to this j udgmcnt I had, as you are aware, worn a cope when celebrating on the great festivals, believing as I did that this dress was required by the Purchas judgment to be worn by me on those days. The judgment, however, in the Ridsdale case seems to me to require that the use of the cope by the celebrant in cathedral churches shall extend to all cele- brations.
"Accepting, as I do, this decision of the Supreme Court of Appeal in a fully argued case as binding in law and in foro con- scientioc, I feel bound to obey and to set a public example ot obedience to it. It is my intention, therefore, for the future to wear a cope on all occasions when celebrating Holy Communion in our cathedral.
" I am sure that the cathedral authorities would desire that, if possible, we should all of us observe in this matter, as in others, a uniform use. I venture, therefore, to draw your attention, and that of the Chapter, to the passages which I have marked in the accompanying copy of the Ridsdale judgment, and to express the hope that should your Chapter put upon these the same construc- tion as myself, they may direct that the wearing of the cope bv the celebrant in the administration of the Holy Conmiunion shall be our cathedral use for the future.
" The question as to the proper colour for our copes, though not altogether immaterial, seems to me one of no very great importance. Possibly white might least offend the susceptibilities of some members of the congregation to whom the cope itself may be a rather unwelcome novelty. If your Chapter should be of this opinion, I should be happy to adopt that or any other colour they may prefer. I am persuaded that the decision of your Chapter on the whole question will be influenced by one only desire, namely that of discharging faithfully their grave responsibility as the officers of the principal church of this diocese. Believe me, my dear Canon Argles, very faithfully yours.
" W. C. Peterborough.'"
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In the latter end of November in this year, the Bishop had a j)assage of arms with John Bright. I preface these letters Avith the story of their first encounter, \\hich I had from an eye- Avitness.
When Dr. Magee was Dean of Cork, he met John Bright at dinner, in the house of a mutual friend. Mr. Bright knew little of the man who sat opposite to him ; and his contempt for Church dignitaries was not likely to be less in the case of an Irish Dean. He had the conversation very nmch to himself, and lectured all round him with his usual ability, and Dr. Magee listened atten- tively, without showing much disposition to take any part. How- •ever, the subject of Ireland and her political condition turned up, and Mr. Bright made some contemptuous remark upon the ignor- ance of Irishmen of their own country, casting a glance at the Irish Dean. This was too much for Dr. Magee, and he put in a sharp thrust. Before long all other conversation stopjied, and all listened eagerly to the argument between the two. The verdict of some who were present was that Mr. Bright got the worst of it. Long subsequently they agreed in their discontent with the English (not the scholarship) of the Revised Version of the New Testament; and the Bishop often said that it would have been very much better if John Bright had been one of the revisers ; and that at all events they ought to have had some colleague like him, who did not know Greek, but would judge the translation solely from the standpoint of pure English.
Lord J. Manners j esterday laid the foundation stone of a new parish church at Loughborough. At the luncheon which followed. Lord J. Manners proposed the health of the Bishop of the diocese, and, in referring to the division in the House of Lords on the Burials Bill^ said the panic among the suppoi-ters of the Church was due to their leaders having gone over to the enemy. The Bishop of Peterborough, in responding, said he thought upon the whole in these days bishops were rather looking up, and coming to the front, because they were not only honoured and graced occasionally, as they were that day, by the presence and co-operation of a Cabinet Minister, but they wei'e occasionally favoured with the candid ci-iticism of ex-Cabinet Ministers. Mr. Bright, at Rochdale, had been kind enough lately to bestow upon the clergy and bishops of the Church of England no small amount of pains, and a considerable amount of very valuable criticism. Now he said it was valuable criticism quite unaffectedly, because it was good for them all occasionally to see themselves as others saw them, and he
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■was sure that an observer so keen and shrewd as Mr. Bright might occasionally have words to say to them which might have their value to tliem. If he might presume to enter upon a comparison — which he feared might shock Mr. Bright very much — Mr. Bright was somewhat like Lord Cliancellor Eldon, who seldom came inside the church, but boasted that he supported it like a buttress from outside. ... It was his fortune, or his misfortune, to have been in the gallery of the House when Mr. Bright was delivering what appeared to him to be an exquisitely beautiful and touching speech upon a sorely vexed question —the Burials Bill. He never heard a speech more full of pathetic beauty and power ; but when speaking on that subject it occurred to the great orator to stop and to sneer at the observances of the Church of England, and speaking of his own buiial grounds, to say : " They have not been — what do they call it ?- — consecrated." He confessed when he heard that, it seemed to him to be an entirely unworthy jeer, unworthy of the speaker, unworthy of the subject, and unworthy of the place — a jeer at the cherished religious feelings and observances ot many who stood around him. He felt so far grateful to the speaker that he had proved to him, if proof were needed, that bigotry and illiberality were not always the monopoly of Churchmen. . . . Well, Mr. Bright accused the clergy of being largely indifferent to the aspirations of the people. He was sure that Mr. Bright did not mean by that that the clergy were indifferent to the social, moral, and higher aspirations of the people. He supposed Mr. Bright meant that the clei'gy of the Church of England were opposed to the political aspira- tion of the people. Well, he was glad to say that the clergy were not keen politicians on the one side or the other, and he hoped that poUtical strife might never deeply taint or deeply injure the spiritual tone of the Church. He was quite sure that there were many of the clergy whom Mr, Bright would call Liberals, and whose aspirations, to a certain extent, at least, must agree with Mr. Bright's own. He was not sure that they agreed entirely ; and perhaps he could not better illustrate this than by a story on the point. He happened about three years ago to be passing through the cloister of his cathedral on a summer's evening, and he saw a very worthy mechanic in a state of what he might describe as not exactly very bigoted teetotalisra. As he was viewing the cathedral in all its beauty, and steadying himself with some difficulty, the man looked up at the building and said : " Ah, my fine fellow, John Bright will have you down some of these fine days." Well, he hoped the clergy, even the most Liberal of them, might be pardoned if they did not enthusiastically welcome one of these aspii-a- tions of the people which might find an echo in the breast of Mr. Bright. — Extract from the Times, November 20, 1877.
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From John Bright, Esq., M.P.
Rochdale, November 23, 1877. Dear Bishop of Peterborough, — I have read your speech, and write to make one correction in it. You refer to my speech on the Burials Bill, to which you give too much praise, but you condemn what you term the ' sneer ' intended in my mention of the ceremony of consecra- tion. I assure you there was no sneer intended. The speech was entii-ely unpremeditated. I had no intention of saying anythmg on the question when I went down to the House, and what I said arose from feelings excited during the debate ; when I came to the word " conse- cration," it entirely escaped me, and for the moment I could not recall it. In my difficulty I turned to my friends on the bench near me, and said : " What is it called ? " or, " What do they call it } " One or more of them answered " Consecration," and one or more laughed, I suppose at my ignorance or forgetfulness, and this laugh, which was some- what ill-timed, made that seem a sneer which was never so intended by me.
This charge has been made against me more than once, but always, I think, in party newspapers to winch I did not think it needful to reply ; but coming from you, I write now to correct an eiTor and a misrepresentation which perhaps I ought to have corrected before.
You will not blame me if I do not believe in the virtue of consecra- tion. I cannot believe in what is called " holy ground," any more than you can believe in " holy water," and for the same reason, that there is nothing in it ; but it is not necessary to ridicule all that one cannot believe, although it is certain that ridicule has had its share in clearing the world of some portion of the superstitions which have misled and afflicted it. — I am, with great respect, veiy sincerely youi's,
John Bright.
To J. Bkight, Esq., M.P.
" Northampton, November 27, 1877. " Absence from home on a confirmation tour, dui'ing which your letter followed me, has prevented my earlier acknowledgment of it. I hasten now to thank you for it, and to say with how much pleasure I leai-n from you that I had misunderstood the purport of the expression in your speech on the Burials Bill, on which I com- mented at Loughborough. It certainly did sound to me, when I heard it, as a sneer at consecration, and my mistake on this point was the more pardonable as it was evidently shared by a consider- able number of your hearers in the House. Their loud cheers and
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approving laughter evidently showed that they regarded you as expressing better than they could have done their contempt for a oeieniony, the real nature of which they had probably never taken the trouble to ascertain. I need not say how implicitly, or how gladly, I receive your assurance that their praise and my blame — for which I beg to express my regret — were equally misplaced. Let me at the same time thank you for the personal kindness and courtesy of your explanation. As regards your disbelief in ' holy ground,' I share it fully, if by this you mean, as I conclude you do, ground which has ' in it,' by virtue of its consecration, some infused quality of holiness, such as constitutes a holy person. But no Churchman that I know of ever supposed that this was the ' virtue of consecration.'' By the term consecration, we understand simply the setting apart of men or things to holy uses or functions ; not the making of either the men or the things in themselves holy. In this secondary and relative sense of the word, I think that a con- secrated churchyard might fairly be called holy ground, though I have never heard it so called by Churchmen. Doubtless such belief in the relative sacredness of things and places is liable to superstitious abuses against which it is weW that you and others should occasionally warn us. I doubt, however, whether ridicule has the power which you attribute to it of overthrowing these or any other superstitions. I cannot help thinking that on this point the effect has very often been mistaken for the cause. Superstitions are successfully ridiculed when they are expiring; they do not expire because they are ridiculed. Be this, however, as it may, you will I am sure agree ^vith me, that the use of ridicule when dealing with things held sacred by others, involves, like the use of all sharp weapons, considerable responsibility on those who resort to it. But to return to the main subject of your letter. I am naturally anxious to make you the fullest amends for my mistake, and I am quite prepared, should you ^\ ish it, to do so publicly^ Believe me, with much respect, very truly yours.
" ^V. C. Peterborough."
To J. C. MacDoxxei.l.
" Peterborough, December 5, 1877. " I have just returned from a day in London, where I went with my wife furniture hunting. I spent an hour at the Athenaeum and was amused at the interest taken by sundry clubmen there in my skirmish with Bright. I got a dropping fire of thanks from clergy
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and bishojis, which shows that, on the whole, the affair has done uic no harm and the Church some httle good.
" To-morrow I go to Lord Exeter's for two days, to speak at Stamford Girls' School, and to meet Cross, who is also to figure there. I want to meet him to hear his ' sentiments ' anent Tooth, Mackonochie & Co. Have you seen Carter's letter to Mackonochie in to-day's Times ? It is remarkable for two things :
"(1) Carter's approval of the ritualistic gew-gaws Mackonochie has set up.
" (2) His plain condemnation of Mackonochie's illegal defiance of the Bishop's authority, in retaining them against his command."
" Peterborough, Febi-uaiy 4, 1878. " I see that the clergy have been silly enough to fall into Liddon's trap for them by signing the clerical declaration against war for Turkey, which really means the ritualistic declaration of war with Dizzv to revenge the P.W.R. The clergy have just now a strange mania for signing declarations. I think I could manage to get three-fourths of them to sign a declaration against an eclipse, if I could only })ersuade them that in some obli<[ue way it expressed some party feeling which they happened to be indulging in at the moment.
" Howevei', war is prevented, for the present at least; and though England be ' isolated ' she is still safe, and, what is more, the Establishment has had a few years added to its lease. For these mercies, no small ones, let us be thankful."
" Athen^UM, February 8, 1878.
" I have just done my duty at the levee, and am starting for home. I must give you my impressions of the last week, as gathered mainly in the gallery of the House of Commons.
" (1) The British Constitution is very dear at the money. Free institutions are becoming unworkable.
" (2) A poorer, pettier, meaner scene than a democratic parlia- ment in a fury and a funk alternately can hardly be imagined. Crimination and recriminations, small personalities, miserable gossip, anger, and faction disgraced and degraded us as a nation for the last five days. It is Philip and the Athenians over again, only with all the oration on the side of Philip.
" (3) And this is the most serious fact of all ; the revolutionary party in the Commons received its leader last night in the person of W. E. Gladstone. After Hartington's declaration that he would
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no further oppose the Government, Gladstone rose, pointedly declared that he would, made an elaborate and most mischievous speech, attacking Austria and the Austrian alliance, and finally marched into the lobby with his army of the future, 124< in number, including all the advanced Liberals in the House ! This means a bid for the Radical premiership ! and it is so regarded by many in the House. Lord Hartington, I hear, does not conceal his indignation ; and some Liberal meeting to consider the situation is to be held to-day, or on Monday. But no meeting can alter the fact that, either from ambition or from passion, or more likely from a union of both, Gladstone has taken the lead of the ultra-Liberal party in the House ! What bearing this will have on coming domestic legislation it is not difficult to foresee. Disestablishment comes nearer by a great deal in consequence of it, and moreover Disestablishment by Gladstone the Radical, and not Gladstone the Liberal. Marry, ' this is miching mallecho, and means mischief.''
" Athen^um, Fehritary 13, 1878.
" I have been busy, after the fashion of Convocation business, for the last two days, and have actually found some interest in it, spite of the absorbing interest of public affairs.
" This morning we adopted a unanimous resolution requesting Cantuar and Ebor, to effect such reform as to clerical representation in Convocation as lay in their legal competence. Subsequently in private session I had a fair stand up fight with his Gi'ace and beat him ! The question was as to the appointment of a gi-eat Standing Committee of both provinces, which he and Ebor had agi'eed last year to constitute, and which Ebor did constitute for York, and coolly told the York Convocation would be done in Canterbury. I prevented this last year, thinking it, for sundry reasons, most mischievous. To my surprise Cantuar brought it on again and pressed it very hard. I fought him inch by inch, and though London went with him, yet by help of Norwich and Gloucester and Bristol and Lincoln I carried my point so far that it is dropped for the present. I dare say I shall have to fight it all over again.
" Public affairs are most critical. The air is full of canards ; one, affirmed by many rather trustworthy persons to-night, is that Derby has resigned ! Certain it is that a large caucus of Con- servatives have demanded stronger measures and less vacillating policy from Lord Beaconsfield. This is the gossip of the horn-.
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To-morrow may dissipate it all, but it shows at any rate in what a feverish state men's minds are now, when everything seems possible and few things improbable.
" I quite agree with your opinion, that Gladstone''s alliance with the extreme Rads. hurts him and them for the present ; but they are the party of the future, and they know their own minds, which is more than can be said for the moderate politicians just now on either side of the House. 'Thim is my sintimints.' Time will tell whether they are wise or foolish.
"I breakfasted with Lord Beauchamp this morning and with sundry M.P.s. My patronage efforts are producing good fruit in the House of Commons. The patrons and clerical agents will live to wish they had taken my Bill."
" Athen^um, February i6, 1S78.
" I ought to be at this moment (9 o'clock p.m.) preparing my sermon for St. Paid's to-morrow night, the said sermon being by no means so advanced as it ought to be ; but somehow I cannot settle down to it, partly, I suppose, because my head is full of the Eastern, the Burials, and the Convocation questions, partly, I fear, because I am losing my power of concentrating thought and memory upon any great effort : and this, I fear, is a sign of decaying mental force such as, I suspect, comes to all preachers after fifty. Parlia- mentary speakers keep their forces far longer because of the incessant variety and engrossing and irritating interest of the. haute politique ; but I confess that though the interest of oxu- great themes does not lose itself as I grow older, yet somehow the interest in preaching, in addressing men from the pulpit, declines year after year. I believe and hope that this is physical and not moral decline ; but anvhow it means this, that I am Mriting to you now instead of working at my sermon.
" Did I tell you that I dined on Tuesday last at the Metaphysical Society ? Loi-d Selborne, my assailant in the House of Lords of last year, was in the chair, and after a slight shyness at meeting me grew chatty and civil. Mark Pattison, essayist and reviewer, read the paper for discussion. Imagine the mummy of an opium-eater resto]"ed to life and dressed in the dinner dress of the nineteenth century ; that is M. Patt ison, Hec tor of Lincoln College, freethinker and free writer, but certainly not free speaker. He read in a dreary way a queer paper, the object of which was to prove the impossi- bility of dogma from the indefiniteness of words. He listened in silence to our criticisms, uttered a few sepulchral words in reply, and
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then seemed to vanish like a sceptical ghost. It was really very strange, and savoured to me greatly of opium. Next him sat Ward, of Tractarian memory, now a Romanist layman, very solid and John Bull like, hut very ahle and metaphysical. Then Tennyson, with long hlack hair and with a white clay pipe between his lips, silent on the discussion and dull before it. Then Martineau the Unitarian, brother of Harriet jMartineau, elegant and refined and scholar! v. Then Harrison, the Conitist, who argued stoutly for dognin against Pattison ! Then Lord F. Russell, silent. Then Mivart, a Roman Catholic naturalist and anti-Darwinian, very ac- complishetl and thoughtful. Then Professor Clifford, elaborately courteous, composed and dull. Altogether the scene was vei-y curious, and the discussion disappointing. I had some interesting- talk with Selborne on Church matters.
" In Convocation we have made decided steps towards reform of it. and also towards a modus vivendi between Parliament and Con- vocation.
" I nearly carried the resolution of the Lower House in favour of allowing cope with permission of bishops, and forbidding' vestments. This was, at first, accepted by nearly all as a wise eirenicon. Ultimately, however, London's dread of London Rits. and Norwicli's wise caution, and A. Cantuar's intense dislike of cope, and of Con- vocation too, so divided the House that I withdrew my motion for this Session. Lincoln, however, will take it up, and possibly carry it in the next.
" The Burials debate was, by all assents, very tame and languid ; at one time the House was nearly counted out. I suspect the real reason for this was the certainty on both sides that nothing \\ ould be done in this Session, or in this Parliament.
" Political nezos there is none ; canards abound. I suspect the real truth is that we have been done, and that having no trust- worthy allies we must grin and bear it, and wait for a shuffle and new deal a few years hence ; as Russia did when she lost the game twenty years ago.
" I hear that our sending up the fleet at last has greatly delighted the Russians ; Schouvaloff says so at least. Plis observation is, ' (Ja nous vaut un milliard.'' I can imagine his saying and thinking so. If we had kept it up when we sent it first, it might have pre\ entcd the occupation of Constantinople, now it excuses it.
" I stay in town until Wednesday night for sundry engagements, ijiter alia for the cross-examination on Tuesday of the secretary
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for the Permissive Bill before the Committee on IntenipcrHiico. I owe him a clay in harvest, and I mean to pay it.
" Now you have had a dish of gossip, and I must go to my unlucky sermon."
" Athen^um, Febi'uaty iS, 1878.
" I preached at St. PauPs to near 6000 souls last night — text, Luke xvii. 37 — on which I did not preach an anti-Turco sermon, pointing to Turkey as the carcase, but a sermon to show that wherever there is Trrw^a, there will be the atrot ; and that, therefore, instead of judging Turkey or Russia we had better look at home.
" It is a cm'ious proof of the soreness and tension of even great men's minds just now, that Lord Salisbury, whose sister-in-law had heard the sermon, when she told him the text, said, ' The carcase, of course, was Turkey.'
" I should not be surprised to find some ignorant reporter making a political sermon for me in the papers, and compelling me to set myself right with the public."
" Peterborough, March 4, 1878.
" So peace is signed at last. Time for it, for the sake of English decency and self-respect.
" Can anything be imagined more odious and ridiculous at the same time than the scene in H\ de Park last Sunday ? A Christian clergyman standing side by side on a public platform with the most obscene and foul-mouthed atheist in England, to harangue a mob of London workmen, on Sunday, respecting foreign politics of which nine-tenths of them knew and cared for perhaps a little more than they did of and for soap and water. And then another band of un H ashed patriots smashing the thick heads of the aforesaid as an expression of free enlightened public opinion. And all this while. Parliament, which is sujjposed to represent the nation, is sitting ; and the said Parliament quite ready to quote on either side the savings and doings of these rival mobs as the ' voice of the country.' It makes one long to emigrate to Siberia or Dahomey, where, if there be a bad Go\ernment, there is at least a Government that knows its own mind, and does not lose its head once a week, though it does make some of its subjects occasionally lose theirs for in- sufficient reasons.
" Surely of all governments that by hysterics is the worst, and England is being more and more governed by the hysteria of half- educated men and women.
" The aristocratic oligarchy of the last centurv M'as selfish and
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short-sighted as regards domestic policy ; but it was cool, far-seeing, and prompt, as regards foreign policy.
" The boorish voter who sustained that aristocracy and squirearchy was dull and impassive, and open to bribery and beer ; but he was stolid and bovine, and never got into a fury except against the Pope. But your modern, half-taught, newspaper-reading, platform- haunting, discussion-club frequenter, conceited, excitable, nervous product of modern town artisan life, is a most dangerous animal. He loves rant and cant and fustian, and loves too the power for the masses that all this rant and cant is aiming at, and he seems to be rapidly becoming the great ruling power in England. Well, you and I are in our fifty-seventh years. Let our children look to it. But the England of thirty years hence, if Dr. Gumming will let the world last so long, will surely be the nastiest residence conceivable for any one, save infidel prigs and unsexed women.'"
" House of Lords,
" March 12, 1878.
" Thanks for yoiu: letter and enclosure. I got them in Northampton just before starting for this place, whei*e I am listening to evidence about Scotch whisky drinking. I return home to-night.
" We had an overflowino" congreo-ation at All Saints'' last nioht, but it was evidently of a kind not prepared to go very deep in the question of Christian evidences. It largely consisted of middle- class folk, one-half of them women ; excellent people all of them, but I felt as I was speaking to them the dread that I might be l^utting into their minds difficulties they had never heard of, in order to get them out again very imperfectly, perhaps, by my arguments. You had no loss in not coming in to hear it, as it was only an attempt, and, I fear, an unsuccessf'id one, at popularising one of my old Donnellans. The only thing new in it was an attempt to show the value of miracles — or, rather, of a miraculous revelation — in establishing a basiti for morality by revealing facts in our nature and respecting God and His government which justify our belief in our responsibility, and also by intensifying all motives to morality by its revelation of a future life.'"
" Peterborough, April 15, 1878. " Your letter reached me just on my return from my confirmation toiu-. I managed to scramble through that, together with three churchyard consecrations antl one church reopening, in ten days;
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but all the Avliile I was very seedy and very much fatigued and out of sorts. I am not yet well, though mending. I have a nasty cough, which clings to me spite of fine weather ; but, at any rate, I have a chance now of getting rid of it, as I have not twice a day to face processions in east winds and drafty chancels, to say nothing of incessant fatigue, mental and bodily.
" I do not go over to Chiist Church reopening ; the Archbishop of Dublin asked me, but I have a great function to attend in Rutland just at that time and cannot postpone it. H. Jellett is to be one of the preachers.
" I am rather tempted to go to town to-morrow to fight Lord Rosebery, who is turning his attention from racing to the Church, and moving a resolution against the Bishoprics Bill ; but I am too tired, too seedy, and too sick of all Chm-ch politics to worry mvself about it. Let the Archbishop of Canterbmy and some of the younger bishops fight it out.
" I am thoroughly sick of episcopal life in Parliament, where we are hated by the Peers as a set of -parvenus whom they would gladly rid themselves of if they dared, and only allowed on sufferance to speak now and then on Church questions after a timid and respectful sort.
I wonder who will be Dizzy's choice to fill Lichfield's place. I grieve personally for the departure of the good and great man who is gone, but he ought never to have left New Zealand; his episcopate in Lichfield was not a success. Whose is
" The stars in their courses are fighting against the Established Church. We have om* backs against a falling wall, and can only wr'iggle as one stone after another in the tottering fabric galls our weary shoulders. We cannot raise up the wall, or stand up straight and clear away from it. Our predecessors basked under it and ate fruit off it ; our successors will build up a Church out of its ruins. We are only crushed by it, and that more and more year after year.
" As to the political situation, I begin to believe in war. Russia has so much to gain by it, and has been so far committed diplo- matically by the San Stefano treaty, that she may resolve on risking much rather than on certainly losing much of the treaty. We, on the other hand, cannot recede from om- position, and Germany is not to be trusted as a mediator. She would be almost equally well pleased at our beating Russia or Russia beating us ; in either case she comes out the strongest power in Europe, with all her reserves in hand ready to seize on Holland if Russia beat us, and to beat down
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France if we beat Russia, the only dangerous ally of France. At any rate, the English are in the midst of these imperial rogues, like a country bumpkin at a fair amongst a set of thimble-riggers ; they will cheat him if they can, and hustle him out of the tent with his hat over his eyes if he finds them out.
" War (at home) means a temjiorary triumph to the Conservatives, then angry tax-payers, a Liberal peace INIinistrv, and then Dis- establishment. Take it how you will, the outlook is not a pleasant one.
"You see I am not, at any rate, in a very pleasant mood just now. Send me my ' Priest in Absolution,' carefully sealed up, to comfort me. — Ever yom-s affectionately and disgustedly,
" W. C. PETERBOROUGir."" " Peterborough, jfidy 7, 1878.
" I have treated you shabbily in the way of letters. I meant to have sent you a Pan- Anglican journal from day to day ; but as I never got back to Fulham, where I was staying, until just time to dress for dinner, and got to bed late and tired and just able to Avrite necessary and pressing letters, I never could find time for a long letter of gossip to you such as I ought to have sent you. I will try and give you to-morrow my impressions of the whole affair, but I may not have time for this. I leave for Farnham Castle early on Tuesday, where, alas ! I am on a connnittee sorely against my will. I return here on Thursday to receive three American bishops (two with wives), and also Nevin, American chaplain at Rome. They stay until Tuesday. Now, you must come and meet them ; I will take no refusal. It will be a great help to me in entertaining them (self first) ; a great pleasure to them, as they must not be asked only to meet one another ; and, I think, a pleasure to you, as they are very interesting men in many ways. Ergo — come. I must not write more. I am brimful of I'an-Anglican and other news for you ; but unless you come here and tap me you will lose the half of it.
" ^Vrite by retm'n of post to say you will come."
" Athen.edm, July 26, 1878.
" While the impression is fresh on my mind, let me tell you of the closing scenes of the Pan-Anglican — ' nothing in its life became it like the leaving of it.' It was very happy and very solemn.
" We broke up last night ' in most admired disorder.' A certain Report on Ritualism and Confession, on which Cantuar had set his
1877-79 CONFESSION; PAN-ANGLICAN SYNOD 95
heart, as I told you, had hcoii very unfavourably received. Ameri- can, Scotch, and Irish bishops rose one after the other to repudiate it. The Archbishops of York and Cantuar advocated it strongly, almost angrily. Everything portended a stormy close to our session to-day. I went down with a heavy heart, hating to oppose the Archbishop in his sorrow, and yet angry with him for intro- ducing a subject which he certainly had no right to introduce, and resolved to oppose him. His opening speech was powerful, but not conciliatory. All looked black as night. But when the report, amended after last nighfs discussion, was read, the scene changed as by magic. Much, if not all, that was objected to had vanished, and the whole report bore tokens of an anxious desire to meet the objections of the Conference. One by one the recalcitrants showed signs of giving way ; and at last I, who had led them, rose and gave in my adhesion, subject to one or two verbal alterations. Soon all was peace, or nearly so ; and at last a very plain and strong con- demnation of ultra-Ritualism and the Confessional was carried, with but two dissentients, out of more than eighty bishops ! After that all went well, and there was really a marked spirit of self- surrender and love that quite impressed us all as seeming to overmaster us, and that led us to all but unanimous resolve. I do not think it presumptuous to say, I certainly felt, that we were being overruled for good. The session lasted until seven in the evening, marred a little towards the end by those crude and unseasonable proposals which always break out at the close of every session of public bodies, when crotchets are led out in a kind of half despair by those who feel that it is now or never with them. Lincoln, as usual, was inopportune and mischievous in the most saintly way. But it was soon over with him, and then came the end. The Archbishops of York and Armagh, the Prinms of Scot- land, and the senior American bishops rose in succession to propose thanks to the Archbishop. Nothing could have been in better taste, or more really touching and dignified, than their speeches. The Archbishop was too much moved to reply by more than one simple sentence of thanks. Tlien came the ' Gloria in Excelsis,' sung by the bishops, and then the Benediction ; and so we parted, not all of us, certainly, to meet again in this world, and all of us feeling that this was so, and yet happy that we had met. " And so ended the Pan- Anglican.
" To-mon-ow's service will be its apotheosis. To-night was its peaceful departure.
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" On the whole, we have done some good and no harm, and that is not a bad epitaph for man or meeting.
" Now I must end this epistle, for I have a large arrear of letters waiting for me."
"Peterborough, July 31, 1878.
" We are off to Devon to-morrow.
" I am satisfied now, looking back on the Avhole affair, that the result of the Pan-Anglican difficulties has been good. I held out long enough to secure the omission of much that was very debatable and therefore weak in the resolutions ; and on that point, I had a large majority of bishops with me. When these matters were struck out, I saw that the great majority would go with the Ai'ch- bishop, and that if I protested, at the last I should find myself in the same boat with Bombay, Colombo, and one or two others ' of that ilk,' a position in which I had no wish to appear, and so I yielded, and in yielding shut them up, as I had been their Trpojxa^oQ.
" We have now got a clever and definite and brief condemnation of the Ritualists, which, as a point of order, was most irregularly introduced, and which is pessivii exempli as regards future con- ferences ; but which ' for the present distress ' is, as you say, most weighty and valuable. Now as the next conference will not be for ten years, it may perhaps be left to protect itself ; and meanwhile, we have got just the right thing. By yielding too, I secured from the two Archbishops their refusal to join in a preposterous 'Ency- clic ' which old Lincoln w as pressing upon us as the panacea for all our troubles. A heap of sweetly solemn platitudes, such as he alone can indite, and such as he alone believes can be of the slightest use to man, woman or child. Thank God, my declaration that nothing would induce me to sign an Encyclic backed up as it was by other English bishops, secured us this ; and now, on the whole, as I have said, we have come well out of the whole matter. The American bishops behaved admirably all through, showing a firm determination not to do anything which the English bishops as a body did not wish ; and resisting very firmly an attempt at caticusing- them by the Archbishop, which was certainly not altogether fair. My opinion of these Americans is greatly raised by the conference. They are, for the most part, shrewd, able, ready and right-minded men. The Colonials, on the other hand, were not nearly up to this mark. The difference was marked and instructive. Altogether, I feel that I have learned much from this Pan-Anglican, and I see too, that it is really an institution which
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will root itself and grow, and will, in all human probability, exercise a powerful influence on the future of the Anglican communion. This is a good deal to say on the part of one who greatly disliked and dreaded the whole affair at the first.
" I suppose we shall hear in a day or two, as to the Cork Deanery (which Jellett, poor fellow, will not get) ; and in a week or two, as to this Deanerv, which Perowne, I hope, may get ; but as to which
I am in mortal dread that may get it, or . In either of
these cases, I bid good-bye to peace or comfort for the rest of \\\\ (lavs. Arglc^^, I greatly fear, has not the ghost of a chance. Had I been free to act at all in the matter, I would have pushed for him ; as it is, I fear that he has no one else who would ; and I even doubt whether he would greatly care to leave Barnack, which he greatly loves, for Peterborough, which disagrees with his health."
" BucKLAND, Devon,
" August 1 6, 1878.
" I am onlv to-dav beginning to face my charge. I am disposed to take your advice. But I have a horrible tendency to try for < ompleteness in what I set about, and to forget the TrAeioi; qfxiav -nvToq, or, as the French put it, that ''le mieux est Tennetni du Men. On the same principle, I always buy twice as much fishing tackle as I want, and ])ut twice too much matter into my sermons, in a verv wasteful manner, instead of constructing handy ' szvivcls.^ I wish I had the art of doing and taking things easily. It is an Anglo- Saxon and not a Celtic gift. When the Irishman takes things easily, he does not take them at all ! which is a bull, but like all true bulls, expresses a truth that cannot otherwise be expressed.
This is a charming place for scenery, but it lacks resources. I have decided in future, either for seaside or foreign travel for vacations. A\'e are too much buried here, and apt to mope accordingly.
" I see that the Bishoprics Bill has passed the Connnons, and is bv this time law. It gives us all we shall ever get in that direction, and really all, or nearly all, that we want.
"Liverpool, Newcastle, Halifax, and Southwell, ai'e great accessions of strength, and great reliefs to overburdened dioceses. Churchmen will do wisely now to rest and be thankful. The Government was not very zealous for the Bill, with the exception of Cross, and Talbot who is not in the Cabinet. The episcopate had to apply strong private pressure, as I think I told you, to
VOL. II. G
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secure its being duly passed. But I know that even Cross will not bum his fingers again, with what is becoming a burning question.''''
" Bdckland Codrt,
"September 14, 1878.
" I have been too busy over my destestable charge to reply ere this to your welcome letter. The said charge will be a sad failure. It does not in the least please me ; and what has not pleased a man''s self in the writing, never pleases others in the hearing or reading.
"I had intended dealing mainly with one subject, viz., confession. But I found this so large and difficult a one, that it would take up at least half the charge, and not leave me room for some things I wanted to say besides. I therefore dropped it, and took up, pro re nata, some other subjects on which I was rather trying to say some- thing, than having something to say. The result is, I can myself see, very unfortunate. However it must do now, for I am dead weary and sick of it. I find myself strangely unequal to mental work of any kind, in a way I never did before ; unable to write a sentence without changing it a dozen times, and unable, which is Avorse, to shake off the subject I have been trying to wi'ite on, and passing sleepless nights, with the words or the half thoughts thev try to express, going round and round in my head. I do not like all this. It may be the first sign that I have been living, mentally and bodily, too fast for the last ten years ; or it may be that I have not been steadily reading and supplving my mind with material, and that it has been using up itself in consequence. Anv- how, the immediate result m ill be, a long, Avordy, weak charge, which will please no one and ofi'end manv. So much for self."
" Peterborough, October 31, 1878. " You are certainly right as to this being the most successful of niy charges, though / do not think it as good as either of the two former. But just because it has happened to hit the public feeling on certain questions, I have received a far larger amount of notice, public and private, than on previous occasions. Every post brings me letters ; some from furious Ritualists, others from furious Puritans, and many, I am thankful to say, from approving IModerates ; that show at least that what I said is not yet silently interred. Lord Nelson and Canon Carter are among my corre- spondents by this day''s post. All of these lay hold of my proposi- tions for a future Concordat of some kind or other, and thank me
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for proposing it. I proposed the same thing in my first charge, and no one noticed it. There is a very fair critique in yesterday's Guardian, so altogether I am 'mickle the better' just now, in mind and body."
"Peterborough, November 2, 1878.
"I send you a Church Times, which you need not return. It gives a long leader on my charge, which I confess pleases me much. I was afraid that I might have made some slip in fact or law in dealing with the thorny legal question of royal supremacy and ornaments rubric. If I had they would have been down upon me at once. But this article is merely general abuse, and avoids care- fully all the gravamina of the charge.
" I have tried in my letter to Canon Carter, to ' draw ' him on the question of the supremacy, and see what he really acknowledges of it.
" I have just been reading LlandafTs charge; very learned and able it is. He goes partly over my ground, and notes what I had forgotten, viz., the words of the first Canon 1603, which binds the clergy to ' accept all and singular laws and statutes made for restoring to the crown of this kingdom the ancient jurisdiction over the state ecclesiastical.'' This binds all clergy notv to all the statutes on this subject of Henry and Elizabeth ; and they are sweeping enough in all conscience ! This is a stone I mean to keep in my sleeve for future use."
To Eaul Nelson.
" The Palace, Peterborodgh,
" November 2, 1878.
" jNIy dear Lord, — I have been very busy in my diocese since I received your last letter, and have not had time until now to thank you for and reply to it. I think that I can ' grasp your position,"' and may even claim credit for having done so earlier than some others ; for as regards your first point — that ' we are in a transi- tion state owing to altered relations between Church and State " — I have been insisting on this for the last six years.
" I noticed it in my first charge, and again in a speech in the Lords on the Public Worship Regulation, in which I observed * that arrangements which perfectly suited the sixteenth century would for that very reason not suit the nineteenth,' and I have again admitted this in my late charge, and expressed hope for ' re- adjustment.'
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" It is for this very reason, however, that I am the more provoked with the extravagant lawlessness of some of the Ritualists, because it above all other things is hindering such 'readjustment.'' Everv act of folly and perverseness on their part is an ai'gument with the average M.P. or elector against granting larger freedom to the Church.
"But, on the other hand, may I ask, ha\e you fairly grasped mfj position, viz., that freedom to the Church is one thing and freedom to the clergy quite another I am all for giving larger freedom to the Church to frame and enforce her laws. But freedom to the individual clergyman, to do as he pleases, means either tyranny for the parishioners — if you retain the present parochial system — or tvranny for the clergy, if you substitute for it the Avill of the con- gregation. So far from regarding an act of uniformity as a restraint on the liberty of the clergy, I regard it as their only protection against the congregational tyranny of the Nonconformists or the episcopal tyranny of the Romish Church.
" (2) I agree with you in regretting the hard and literally legal tone of recent decisions of the courts in cases ecclesiastical. But is this not owing to the fact that the Ritualists some years ago took their stand on the strict letter of the law, and challenged the bishops to the law courts ? The result of this has necessarilv been to subject our rubrics to what they were never intended for — the hard-and-fast measure of literal Jegality — instead of their being treated according to the broad directions of the Church, to be modified by "resort to the Ordinary" as she directs. Surely, if men will have the letter of the law and nothing but it, they must take the consequences.
" I deplore this as much as you can do. But we cannot undo the past. AVe may indeed amend the laws, so as to enable them to stand this strain of legal interpretation, by making them at once broader and more definite. But I fear that in no other way can we now beat a retreat out of the precincts of the law courts, into which the Ritualists and Jiot the bishops have dragged the Church.
" (3) We bishops do, I honestly think, recognise and try to show that we recognise, all the good that is in the late 'sjiiritual revival ^ of which you speak. But we are bound at the same time to point out its excesses and its dangers ; and whenever we do so we are met with a torrent of vituperation and insult, which I confess gives us little reason to believe that those who indulge in it would be willing to be led by us under any possible circumstances.
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"I wish that I could adopt your kindly simile of the ' restive high spirited horse who only needs a light hand on the curb.' Alas ! I am more tempted to think of the ' mule' that must be restrained ' with bit and bridle lest he fall upon you ' !
"So far from regarding the Ritualists as oppressed by the bishops, I must say that they seem to me the very spoilt children in the Church's nm-sery — scratching and biting their elderly kindly nurses (the bishops), and trying (some of them) to kick over the supper- table and spill all its contents on the ground, because they cannot have the cloth on it laid after their fashion, or exactly the dishes on it that they like.
" ^V^e may at least plead as proof of our wish to be fair that while the Ritualists complain of our tyranny and one-sidedness, the Rock and the Record never cease to abuse us for our treacherous conni- vance with Ritualism.
"As we cannot be at once the treacherous allies and the cruel oppressors of the same party in the Church, may it not after all be the case that we are striving under cruelly difficult circumstances to deal fairly by all ?
"After all, the question is far more as regards the future than the past. Crimination and recrimination as regards the past may go on for ever, and with no result. The real question is. What are ice to do next ?
" My recipe is —
" (1) Admit the fact that we need reform, both in Church legisla- tion and Chui'ch judicature.
"(2) Admit that our present malaise is the result of causes of long- standing and for which no living man is responsible, whatever faults may have been committed on either side under the irritation of this malaise.
" (3) Try and remedy these causes by wise and patient efforts at reform. The evils we suffer from were not wrouoht in a day, neither can they be remedied in a day.
" (4) Help forward this reform by strengthening and developing representative Church opinion in diocesan synods, and conferences, and by reform of Convocation. So that at last our educated and deliberate utterances ' of the mind of the Church ' may formulate and obtain reasonable ' read j ustments.'
" (5) In the meanwhile, submission on the part of the clergy, under protest if they will, to the existing laws as interpreted by legal tribunals — a submission which would go further with Parliament
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juid the nation to obtaining reform than any amount of rebellion or clerical hysteria in the Church papers.
" In such a cause, believe me, the clergy would not want for leaders amongst the bishops. But so long as they retain their present attitude of simple intranslgentes — defying alike law, episcopal authority, persuasive entreaty, and even connnon sense, and just doing exactly what they like — they can only expect oppo- >ition and suspicion from the nation at large, and guarded caution and restraint from the bishops.
"Would that milder and wiser counsels might prevail with them ! If not, there is nothing left but their secession or om* general disi-uption ; but I still hope for the best, and my hope is encouraged bv such letters as yours from laymen in your position.
" The High Church party can save the Church, and they only. I trust and pray they may. — Yours, mv dear lord, most trulv,
" \V. C. Peterborough.'"
To J. C. MacDoxxell.
" Brighton, December 7, 1878. " Carter replied to my letter, in what I thought a feeble letter, in the Times of Tuesday last. I rejoined in Thursday's Times. He has not appeared in sur- rejoinder. He has quite fallen into uiy trap, and treats me as a vrjTrtoe to be mistrusted, and to mv delight, introduces the QScumenical Council theory, which is even more leaky than the Vincentian rule. I brought out our friends the Nestorians in my reply ; I think to some effect. I would send vou the cuttings, but that I may want them at any moment to refer to. I am amused at your brother sending you my first letter. Hutton, of the Spectator, told me he thought the second quite unanswerable. " W. C. P."
I subjoin the Bishop's two letters to the Times alluded to above ; as the weakness and practical uselessness of the Vincentian rule was a favourite theological topic with him.
THE RULE OF FAITH.
To the Editor of The Times.
November 29, 1878.
Sir, — As I have always felt some misgivings as to the sufficiency of the rule, "quod semper, qitod iihique, qitod ab omnibus," announced by Canon Carter as that which decides for him his belief, I avail myself of
1877-79 CONFESSION; PAN-ANGLICAN SYNOD 103
the opportunity afforded by his letter to you to seek at his hands an answer to my difficulties. These are :
(1) That I have never been able to prove this rule.
(2) That I have never been able, assuming it to be true, to prove anything by it.
As regards the proof of this rule, my difficulty lies in the word "omnibus." Who are the " omites," the "all," whose belief is to rule mine ? Ai-e they "all " who have ever professed and called themselves Christians? or "all" who have been orthodox Christians ?
If the former, then the definition will include all, or nearly all, heretics ; if the latter, then I seem to myself to be involved in the vicious circle of first using catholicity as a test of orthodoxy, and then using orthodoxy as a test of catholicity. If I seek a test of orthodoxy, it is presumably because I cannot, without its aid, ascertain what beliefs are and what are not orthodox ; but if I must decide this question of orthodoxy before I can apply this test, of what use is this latter to me in deciding my belief.'' This is my difficulty as to proving this rule.
As regards proving anything by it, the same word "all " is again my great trouble. Does it mean the absolute and literal totality of all professmg Christians, or even of all orthodox Christians, at all times, in the history of the Christian Church } If it does, can this literally universal assent be produced for any one Christian doctrine }
But if this be not the meaning of the word " all," what does it mean ? Does it mean the great majority of Christians, or the mere majority of tliem ? And if it means this, what reason have we for holding that the voice of the majority of the Christian Church must be always in the right .'' I can understand the doctrine that the entire Christian Church cannot at any given moment have been in error, inasmuch as in that case "the gates of hell" would have "prevailed against it;" but I can see in this no promise that the majority of the Church should never err, nor that the faith should not, at any given moment, be in the possession of the minority, and even of a very small minority ; and I think that I remember a certain saying about " Athanasius contra mnndum,'' which Canon Carter would probably admit has its bearing on this question.
It seems to me, therefore, that unless I am to adopt the rule of accepting as the truth whatever the majority of Christians believe, or have always believed, I must, in order to ap2)ly this rule of " quod ab ODinibus," ascertain what every individual Christian has always and at all times, in the history of the Church, believed ; and I confess that the difficulty of ascertaining this has always seemed to me greatly to detract from the practical value of Canon Carter's rule, even if the logical difficulty of proving the rule itself were overcome. I shall be very glad if these two difficulties could be removed from my mind by a
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divine of Canon Carter's ability and learning. I should even then feel a difficulty as to the true meaning and effect of the word " semper," for a solution of which I might in that case venture to ask him. Meanwhile I trust he will kindly deal with those now submitted to him by
A Perplexed Inquirer.
December 5, 187S.
Sir, — I have to thank Canon Carter for his reply to my letter ; bat I must say that^ instead of removing my difficulties, he has increased them tenfold.
The Vincentian rule being "a definition," Canon Carter tells us "its terms must be taken with limitations to be suggested by the subject- matter." I had thought that a definition was that Avhich traced the fines or limits of the subject which it professed to define, and, therefore, that if any one of its terms was indefinite, it so far failed as a definition ; and certainly I had always believed it to be a fatal flaw in a definition if the subject to be defined made part of any one of the terms used to define it. Now, the Vincentian rule labours, as it seems to me, under both these defects, because the word " oiniies," being indefinite, we need to be told Avho are the "all " meant by it, and because, when we attempt to ascertain this, we are compelled — if we would not accej)t heterodoxy as part of our rule — to make this word ■'oiiines" mean all orthodox Catholics, and thereby to introduce into our definition of orthodoxy the very term "orthodox," which it was the object of the rule to define. This, I said, was arguing in a vicious circle. How does Canon Carter meet this difficulty ? Simjjly by doing that very thing Avhich seems to me so illogical. I am an inquirer desiring to know what is, and what is not, the CathoUc faith. I am offered for this purpose the rule of Vincentius, to be taken with this "limitation " — that tlie " omnes " ai-e all those who have not " put themselves outside the pale of Catholic tradition." But before I know who these are I must know what is the true " pale of Catholic tradition " — that is to say, I must be able to distinguish between those who truly and those who falsely call themselves Catholics. And if I can do this, and must do it before I can use the Mncentian rule, of what use is the rule to me
But I have this further fault to find with Canon Carter's hmitation. The "separatists" of whom he speaks (I called them "heretics," which is not exactly the same thing) did not for the most part "put themselves outside the pale of Catholic tradition," by which I suppose Canon Carter means the visible Church. They were put outside of it by •hose who claimed to be the only true Catholics, and who accordingly anathematised, in certain general councils, those who differed from them. These did not separate first and then put forth their opinions
1877-79 CONFESSION; PAN-ANGLICAN SYNOD 105
as those of separatists — in which case Canon Carter's limitation would have some value — but they put forth their opinions while still "within the pale of Catholic tradition/' and were afterwards expelled for so doing. This obviously raises the question whether they, or those who expelled them, were the true Catholics ; and so we are brought back again to the original question — Who are the true Catholics ? or. Who are the " omnes " of the Vincentian rule ?
Nor is this difficulty in the least solved by Canon Carter's reference to GEcumenical Councils, for an CEcumenical Council, according to his definition, is one whose decrees are confirmed by "the consentient voice of Catholic Christendom." Here, again, that troublesome word " Catholic " or " 07«rtej " intrudes itself into the Canon's definition of Catholicity, and makes it illogical ; here, too, I must ask for a definition of the term " consentient voice." Is it absolutely and universally consentient, or only partly or mainly so ? Thus, again, the old question recurs. Who are the " omnes " whose verdict is to decide the question of Catholic faith .'' Moreover, if an CEcumenical Council be, as Canon Carter defines it, one whose decrees have been universally accepted by Christendom, it is clear that until they are so accejited they liave no validity, but may only be the decree of one of those general councils which we know "may err and have eri-ed." If so, those anathematised and expelled by a genei-al council are perfectly justified in resisting its decrees, for they might thereby be preventing an erring council from becoming GEcumenical ; and, further, it is clear that, so long as they do so resist them, the council can never become GEcumenical. May I, then, ask Canon Carter how, on his pi-inciple, he can ever pi'ove the council which condemned the Nestorians to be Oecumenical, or the Nestorians to be heretics ; for, up to the time of the decree whicli anathematised them, the Nestorians were " within the pale of CathoHc tradition," and no one had the right to say they were not Catholics ; and after the passing of this decree they clearly retained the right to the title until the decree had been accepted by the whole of Christen- dom. But to this day the Nestorians, who were a part of Christendom at the time of passing this decree, reject it. Clearly, therefore, miless might make right, and all expulsion de facto is also expulsion de jure, the Council of Ephesus has not yet vindicated its right to the title of CEcumenical, and the Nestorians have as good a right to the title of Catholic as Canon Carter has.
Strange to say. Canon Carter admits tiiis difficulty as regards our present divided Christendom, which is thereby " incapacitated," it would seem, from "speaking with one voice." How, may I ask, more incapacitated by its divisions now than the Church which Canon Carter calls the undivided one at the time of the Nestorian schism If Canon Carter reply, " Because the Nestorians were heretics, and the Anglican,
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CHAP. XIV
Greek and Roman Churclies are Catliolic," that is, of course, begging the very question in dispute ; and tliat it is begging it Canon Carter may satisfy himself by asking the next Roman CathoHc priest he meets whether he thinks our claim to be called Catholics any better than that of the Nestorians.
Lastly, Canon Carter fails entirely, as it seems to me, to meet my second difficulty as to whether " omiies" means the literal universality or only the great majority of Christians. He admits that, practically, it must mean the latter, and that, after all, Catholic consent is only "more or less" of the belief of the " omnes." He fails, however, to deal with the obvious inference that if it be no more than this it cannot bind the conscience, inasmuch as there is no promise given by our Lord that the majority, "more or less," of the Catholic Church, or, as the Canon puts it, " the general body of tlie Church," shall never err, and that therefore we have not got, in this "more or less" of Catholic consent, that absolute "testimony of the Holy Spirit" which Canon Carter claims for it in his first letter. Indeed, Canon Carter seems to admit this when he states that "on certain questions trutli was first seen by the comparatively few," Avho must therefore have discovered the truth, not by following but by ignoring the Vincentian rule, which, nevertheless, he tells us, must now — he does not say why — • absolutely rule our faith.
To sum up, then, this rule of Vincentius as explained and limited by Canon Carter, it comes to this : The Catholic faith is that wliich " has always and everywhere been held by all " who have kept "within the pale of Catholic tradition," and who have expelled from that pale all who happened to differ from them ; who, nevertheless, still claim to be as good Catholics as those who expelled them ; and who, by so doing, prevent the decree which expelled them from ever acquiring that Catholic assent which is essential to its acceptance by a true Catholic ; and the '' all " who thus remain within the Catholic pale are not absolutely all, but only "more or less" of the "all," and whenever they have been "less" and not "more" they have preserved the Catholic faith by disobeying the V incentian rule, which is thus proved tf) be itself lacking in that very element of Catholic assent which, we are told, conditions the belief of all Catholics.
Alas ! this leaves me more than ever A Perplexed Inquirer.
To J. C. MacDonnell.
"57 Marine Parade, Brighton,
" December ii, 1878.
" I hope vou have got Carter's letter by this time. I would send you my copv, but that I still fear I may need it to reply to ; though
,877-79 CONFESSION; PAN-ANGLICAN SYNOD 107
if I see no answer in to-morrow's Times I shall conclude that he has thrown up the sponge.
" I was delighted to read a savage notice of my letter in the ultra-i'itualistic Church Rcv'mc. It hopes that Carter 'will not act as a hodman in carrying bricks for his masked opponent to pick holes in," my arguments 'being equally suitable for a Romanist, an infidel, or a sceptic' So you see I have made ' a very pretty little ([uarrel of it as it stands,' and have develojDed some talents for mischief.
" I have been reading Dean Hook's life, by his son-in-law — a very poor jn-oduction indeed ; badly arranged and badly written, redeemed from dulness only by Hook's own letters and by the inherent interest of some of the scenes through which he passed and the persons with wliom he was mixed up. Relations never should write memoirs. They have no sense of perspective ; all comes for them on the front line, from the hero's dullest schoolboy effusion and smallest family gossip to his greatest words and works. And the result is sometimes ludicrous and sometimes wearisome. Still, the second volume contains interesting matter, especially as regai'ds Hook's attitude to the Ritualists of his day and his decided and contemptuous condemnation of themselves and their sayings ami doings.
" We retui'n on the 17th, when I shall be fifty-seven years of age, if I live till then."
" Peterborough, December 26, 1878.
" This letter of affectionate Christmas wishes for you and yours should have crossed yours of like tenor to me which I have just received ; but I had sundry long diocesan ' cases ' to dispose of on Christmas Eve, and thev filled my mind and time to the exclusion of pleasanter topics. Most heartily do we wish for you and yours all the blessings that this happy and holy season is suggestive of.
" We are all gathered here together, well and happy, and I cannot but feel, as I look at wife and children grouped round the Christmas hearth, that I should be the most ungrateful and discontented of men if I were to allow thoughts of further preferment to interfere w ith the quiet content and happiness of the present time.
" I was gr eatly pleased by your approval of the Carter correspond- ence. My second letter was difficult to write because I had to write in the style of a Times correspondent and for the average Times reader, and be rather more epigrammatic, therefore, and lay in my style than perhaps quite suited the subject. I always longed for an
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CHAP. XIV
opportunity of pelting old Vincentius if I could ever get him into the pillory, and I had my will of him at last."
"Peterborough, Januayy 6, 1879.
" I have had an interesting correspondence with Canon Bright, Oxford Divinity Professor, who has, like Carter, taken up my suggestion of an amended ornaments rubric, and is disposed to move others of his pai"ty to some action in that direction.
" I have now to set to work to look up evidence for the Com- mission on Benefices sale ; also to get ready sundry London sermons for Whitehall and elsewhere ; also to arrange subjects for meeting of rural deans in February, &c. In fact, the holidays are over for me, or nearly so, and hard work beginning.
"All here join in love and best New Year's wishes.'"
" Peterborough, January 28, 1879.
" The great Durham question is solved at last. Lightfoot is the new Bishop. The appointment is in every way an excellent one, and, under the circumstances, politically wise and dexterous. Dizzy has chosen a man against whom no one can say a word. A great many words would certainly have been said against either EUicott or myself.
"And now, if you want to know how I feel about it, I can honestly say I am surprised to find how little I do feel about it. Happily for me, I am not of a sanguine temperament, and never, from the first, had serious expectations of the appointment ; and the feeling that the matter is at last decided, and all gossip and speculation about it at an end, is an immense relief. I have only to give myself with renewed and undistracted energy to the work which is now obviously mine for life. And truly I ought to do so with a grateful heart to the Giver of all good for all that I have received at His hands. I have far more than I deserve, and more than I ever, in my most ambitious moments, desired or dreamed of. And as regards comfort in my work, no bishop in England, probably, has more of it and less of the worries of these troublesome times than I have. So good-bye to Durham, and enter again Peterborough, with all good-will and welcome imaginable.""
" Peterborough, March 3, 1879.
" Eheu fugacesl
" Your enclosure brings back to my mind our pleasant days on the shores of Loch Inagh twenty years ago.
1877-79 CONFESSION ■ PAN-ANGLICAN SYNOD 10»
" I suppose I had my troubles and worries then as now, but I cannot recall them as I can the leaping trout, and the luncheons on the islands, and the glorious scenery, which I used to enjoy so when I was not fishing and abuse you for enjoying when I was ; and altogether the intense pleasure of a brief hard-earned holiday for which my wife and I had to save and calculate ways and means for months before. I suppose it all meant one thing in one word, ' Youth ! '' and that does not come again. ' There are no birds," says the Spanish proverb, ' in the nests of last year.'
" For one thing, I certainly wrote a better hand then than I do now. My ' sintimints ' seem to have been much the same, judging from this specimen of them."
" RowsLEY, April ig, 1879. " Oxford's letter is clear, but mischievous. The bishops generally, and he in particular, are trying for the impossible. They want to be free
" (1) Not to prosecute any clergyman. " (2) Not to let any one else do so.
" They may do one or other, but not both. A bishop may say, * I will govern my clergy, prosecuting them if need be, forbearing when I think right ' ; or he may say, ' I will never prosecute,' but in that case he must let some one else do so. The nation will never tolerate absolute impunity for the clergy. Now, the bishops, since I have known them, have taken up — most mistakenly, as I think — the position that they will not prosecute. Well and good ; that is an intelligible position, though a false one. But if they add to this Oxford's position, that they will stop any one else prosecuting, they will raise a storm that may blow down the Church. I greatly fear Oxford's success for this reason. The bishops abdicated when they assumed the non-prosecuting position. They must take the consequences now. The laity are astride of them and the clergy, and they will hold their place. Cantuar likes this ! He said so to me lately. He is infatuated for laity and Parliament, and will one day have a rude awakening.
" Fishing moderate ; weather cold. Health greatly improved by air and exercise. " AV. C. P."
CHAPTER XV
NAVVIES' MISSION; DAY OF HUMILIATION; BURIALS ACT
OxE of the works that marked the Bishop's episcopate was the mission to the navvies, begun in 1876, which was commonly called the Bishop of Peterborough''s Railway Mission. He was fortmiate enough to secure the Rev. D. W. Barrett as missioner.
Circumstances prevented the Bishop's visiting the line till some months had elapsed after the actual opening of the campaign. The following account of his visit is by the Rev. D. W. Barrett.
On Sunday he preached m each of the chapels to crowded congrega- tions of railway folk of all classes and types, from the bricklayer's hod- man to the educated engineer. The morning service at Wing was sjiecially noteworthy, as a lay-reader was solemnly a^jpointed, in the presence of the congregation, to work among the men at Corby. Before three o'clock he was at Seaton. We robed in one of the neigh- bouring huts, and went across the field to the chapel, but it was with difficulty that we edged our way through the crowded throng gathered in the chapel sometime before the hour of service. Several had followed the Bishop from the other end of the line where he had pleached in the morning, and were even present again at night.
In the evening the Bishop addressed the congregation at Glaston, where the chapel was filled to excess, many people being unable to get in. As this is the centre of the Mission, and is commonly spoken of by the men as the " cathedral," and is the most populous station, he preached ^vith special reference to the character of the Mission. At all the services large numbers of men were present, and the Bishop spoke of it as a gratifying fact ; his words specially addressed to the voung men anxious to do what was right and to bear witness for Christ, and yet surrounded and pressed sore by the temptations incident to the life of those living in large numbers in huts, and engaged on jiublic works, will not easily be forgotten. He miglit have been a navvy
1878-80 NAVVIES' MISSION; BURIALS ACT 111
himself, so graphically did he describe a young navvy's temptations. On the following day, the Bishop, accompanied by Mrs. Magee, the Mission staff, and some of the chief authorities on the works, made an excursion on the line towards Manton, in an open truck drawn by an engine. The various branches of the works Avere inspected, and the novel sight was witnessed of a bi shop going into the tunnel to see and talk to the navvy at his work in the bowels of the earth. He was most heartily welcomed all along the works, and man}^ a rough hand grasjied his with the feeling that he was a friend who had their best interests at heart. On the evening of the same day he received a deputation from the men, bearing an address from the representative members of the con- gregation, thanking him for the active interest he took in their welfare.
In 1 878 the Bishop visited the works at Corby. When it was announced that he would come one Wednesday afternoon in June, the men assembled at five o'clock to the number of about three hundred, in their working dress. It was a veiy striking sight to see them being- brought up literally in truck loads from the different parts of the line. When the engine stopped they jumped out of the waggons and ran across the field in which the huts stood, in order to get a good place in the chapel, which soon became so crowded that one end had to be taken out in order that all might hear, as many were unable to gain admission. It was amusing to see the swiftness with which the men lifted out the window fi'ames and pulled down the end of the chapel and made the boarding answer for a floor to the extended portion. The Bishop began his address by showing in what respects he and his navvy friends had veiy much in common, and thus he not only arrested their attention, but gained at once their sympathy ; and then he went on to tell them how their common but higher aims might be advanced, and their common wants satisfied, by bringing home most vividly the cardinal truths of the Gospel.
We have now to give an account of the Confirmation.
Friday, June 7, though a black letter day in the Calendar, was certainly a red one in the history of the Mission, for this made the fourth visit of the Bishop to the works, and was a very solemn occasion in the history of some of the young people whom we had gathered in. The candidates from the works numbered twenty-six, and from the village thirteen. The chapel was very full, a Confirmation on railway works being quite an attractive, and I venture to state, hitherto an un- paralleled event. Many of the hut residents wondered what a Con- firmation was. I remember Avhen I gave a notice of it one Sunday evening a few weeks previously, and invited the unconfirmed to join the preparation classes, one young navvy came up to me after service and asked, in sober earnest, whether it was " a new sort of Penny Reading " !
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CHAP. XV
We are glad to be able to state that many of the candidates during the course of the next few weeks presented themselves at the highest of all our Christian services, tiie Holy Communion.
A paragraph in the Guardian for July 2, 1879, gives an account of a presentation to the Bishop of Peterborough.
An interesting event took place the other day. It was spontane- ously suggested by one or two of the workmen still left^ that it would be right that they should acknowledge by some little gift what the Bishop had been the means of doing for them. Accordingly a collec- tion was made amongst the " old hands " who had been on the work some time, and a small but handsomely bound Bible was sent to his lordship, with a few homely but sincere words of gratitude written on a sheet of paper inside.
April 28, 1879.
The Right Rev. Lord Bishop of Peterborough.
Will you kindley except this Bible as a token of respect from a few of the old Hands left on the Kettering and Manton Railway as we feel we should like to make some acknoglement for the great Intrest j ou have taken in our Spiritual Wellfare.
We think as Railway Men it tis a great Honour for a Bishop to Come Amoung us all Much More to take the Intrest you have done we all Sinceley thank you for having a Mission Amoungest us which we hope will be a blessing to Many of us and we Sincerley hope you will not reget for what you have done.
Signed on behalf of the Congregations work man
S. H -.
H. P^— .
One of the men sent the Bishop a walking-stick turned, with his own hand, out of the hickory-wood staff' of one of the pickaxes, a present quite unique, which the Bishop greatly valued.
The Bishop often spoke of his visits to the navvies, and his intercourse with them, as among the happiest experiences of his episcopal work.
This was one of the most active periods of the Bishop's life. It was wonderful what a variety of subjects he spoke and preached on, and how much thought and life he threw into them all. But often when he took most pains he was scarcely reported, and when he least expected his words were more widely circulated. He alludes in the next letter to an anniversary meeting of the Additional
1878-80 NAVVIES' MISSION; BURIALS ACT 113
Curates Society at Willis's Rooms on May 19. The Bishop had taken great pains with his speech, but the celebrity of Mr. Glad- stone so completely overshadowed him that while Mr. Gladstone's speech was reported verbatim, a few lines only were devoted to the Bishop's. On May 23, in the same place, he spoke for the Christian Evidence Society. He told me he had never made more careful preparation for any speech, and thought he had been particularly successful ; but his speech was not reported at all. The secretary of the society when he was recently applied to for a report wrote :
There is no record of the Bishop of Peterborough's speech, except in the profound effect it had on all who heard it. It is to this day quite a common thing for the clergy. Nonconformist ministers, and laity, who had the good fortune to be present, to refer to the speech and to deeply regret the absence of a report.
On the previous Saturday, May 15, the Bishop presided at a dinner for the Artists' Benevolent Fund. The speech was one of his happiest efforts, and for sparkling wit and endless resource it could scarcely be surpassed. On Monday morning, to his surprisej it was published at full length in all the leading papers.
This season was fruitful in surprises of this kind. In the end of June he had been urged by Lord Plunket to speak upon an Irish Bill brought in by Lord Belmore. He made himself thoroughly master of the subject, and went down to the House of Lords prepared to speak upon it. The Bill wa.s favourably received, and the Bishop saw that if put to the vote at once, it was sure to be carried; whereas a long speech on its behalf might have roused opposition. He therefore refrained from speaking.
But the strangest of all these incidents was his going down to the House of I^ords on July 15 to attend a debate upon a Burials Bill, not knowing that a Bill for the total prohibition of Vivisection was to come up for second reading that evening.
Lord Shaftesbury made a solemn appeal to the bishops to support the Bill as a religious duty. Bishop Magee looked round to see if any of his episcopal brethren would speak. When none of them rose, he got up intending merely to explain briefly why he could not vote for the Bill. What he said was received with strong marks of approbation, and this encouraged him to go on as he had thought much upon the subject. He spoke for thirty or forty minutes, and when he sat down was loudly
VOL. a. H
114.
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CHAP. XV
cheered. A large majority went with him into the lobby to vote against the Bill. Several peers came up to him and thanked him for his speech and said : ' We did not know anything about the subject, or how we ought to vote, and you told us exactly what we wanted to know.'
Unfortunately there is no good report of this speech. The best that could be had from the newspapers is reproduced in " Speeches and Addresses," (p. 188), probably correct as far as it goes, but omitting many of the arguments which the Bishop told me he used upon that occasion.
His prediction that he would be " vivisected " by many for this speech, and for his defeating their Bill, was unfortunately too well fulfilled. In the case of " England free or England sober " he was attacked chiefly in public speeches and in the newspapers, but in the case of his vivisection speech and action he was assailed in numerous letters, which though they broke no bones, were stinging and worrying. He suffered more than any one I ever knew from the sting of a midge or a horse-fly ; and I know these letters produced a similar effect and woiTied him much.
To J. C. MacDonxNell.
"42 Devonshire Street,
" Portland Place, May 20, 1879.
" We had an enormous meeting at Willis's Rooms to hear Glad- stone. He was enthusiastically received, and spoke well and grace- fully, but I observed that the tone of his speech was carefully all through that of an outside): He seemed to me to guard himself, especially in the closing sentences, against too closely identifying himself with the Church, and even hinted at possible ' disaster ' in the future ; an ominous hint fi'om a prophet so well able to fulfil liis own prophecies.
" K you get a Times of Monday you will see certain speeches of mine a.t an Artists' Dinner on Saturday, and a leader thereupon which may amuse you. " W. C. P."
The following extracts are taken from the Times' report of the Artists' Dinner :
The chau-man^ in proposing the next toast^ said : " I am not sure what will be said of me, a man of peace, and a member of a peaceful profession, and by birth and nationality, as you will please to remember, averse from all contention, if I venture to propose 'The Army, the
iS78-8o NAVVIES' MISSION; BURIALS ACT 115
Navy, and the Reserve Forces.' Still, will you allow me to say that it is really in my capacity as a man of peace that I offer this toast? — because being, as I have said, natui-ally averse from fighting, I have a very gi-eat respect and admiration for those who do my fighting for me. While human nature is what it is there must be some fighting done in this world, and I am humbly of opinion that it is as lawful for a nation to defend itself, its rights and its property, as it is for an individual to do so. And I venture to think that those very peaceful gentlemen who are very anxious for the disbanding of our army and the dismantling of our navj', and who will doubtless to-morrow, or the next day — for Sunday is a day of rest — denounce me as a bishop who has been advocating bloodshed, might well try a little disbanding and dis- mantling on their own account. They might carry out their own principles to the extent of taking the lock off their area gate and requesting the policeman on his beat to ignore their house. I think the result would be that having got rid of the armed pi'otector of property and life, which, after all, is what our army and our navy are, the next thing you would hear would be that there would be an invasion of that particular house in the shape of the burglars ; and next that the owner of the house, a late convert to the principle of fighting in defence of life, had bought a revolver ; and the next thing would be that, not being very skilled in. the use of deadly weapons, he had grievously hurt himself or some innocent member of his family in consequence of the revolver going off by accident. I think if we did disband our army and dismantle our nav}-, the next thing would be a burglarious invasion of the country, and then we should all turn soldiers in the last resoil, bishops and clergy included, and some of us not being very skilful soldiers, we might hurt oui'selves or somebody else. Gentlemen, I prefer the army and the navy. I believe that war has its virtues as well as peace. Within the last few weeks, in places where our forces are engaged in defending the honour and the possessions of Great Britain, we have seen instances of the vii'tues of war — of its heroism, its discipline, and its sacrifice of life for the sake of others — that are veiy noble, and that demand the admiration of all of us. When I read of the heroism of those two youths, Bromhead and Chard, when I heard of a gallant officer compelled to flee for his life from an overwhelming horde of savages stopping to help a poor wounded bandsman of his regiment, or of a military surgeon stopping to bind up the Avounds of a dying man, and sacrificing his life in so doing, I was disposed to take off my hat to my brother pi*eachers who had preached a lesson of heroism and courage and self-denial I should not be ashamed to preach from my pulpit. In giving you this toast permit me to join with it the name of one who, I am told, is equally popular in his corps of warriors and of painters, a certain Mr. Val Prinsep. I am not quite sure
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CHAP. XV
whether Mr. Prinsep is the same individual, or a cousin or a bi'other of the Mr. Facile Princeps^ whose charming adventures in India we have read. If I am mistaken, I can only make my best apologies by say- ing that there is a great deal of talent in the family.
The chairman next proposed " Prosperity to the Ai'tists' General Benevolent Institution." He said : " I hope you will allow me to say, although you may, pei'haps, think me rather presumptuous in saying it, that there is at least one I'espect in which you are exceedingly fortunate in your selection of a chairman, and that is that you possess to-night a chairman who, although he greatly admires and greatly delights in art, is entirely ignorant of it. I cannot profess to be an artist, nor yet a connoisseur in art — I am afraid I hai'dly rise to the dignity of an amateur. In that respect I think you are very fortunate, because you have escaped a lecture upon art. My whole ideas of art criticism limit themselves within the two rules given a great many years ago by my illustrious countryman. Goldsmith ; and I venture to say they are two rules by which, as he then said, art critics obtain great reputation and profit. I do not go beyond them. ' When you are asked for an opinion always remember to do two things ; first of all, to praise the works of Pietro Perugino ; and, secondly, to say that the painting might have been better if the artist had taken greater pains.' These rules are safe and comprehensive, and within their limits I mean to confine myself to-night.
" It is some years since I carried off from the walls of your Academy, in a moment of impulsive self-gratification, what seemed to me a very charming little painting. It was by an artist of no great repute. It was but a few trees and a glimpse of a stream, and a bit of sunset, taken on the banks of the Thames ; but it had an air to me of exquisite repose and peace and rest. And I assure you that sometimes when I am wearied with work, vexed perhaps by a correspondence mth some clergyman who is not blessed with a sense of implicit obedience to his bishop, or perhaps by a question of the colour of some vestment worn by one who has an artistic eye, I come out and look at this picture, which seems to me to min-or the stream of life as it draws peacefully towards its evening. There is something in it that rests and soothes me, and if you will believe me, at that moment a curate might play with me with safety."
To J. C. MacDonnell.
"Athen^um, July 15, 1879. " My adventures have been rather stirring of late, both in Con- vocation and Parliament. As regards the former you have probably
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seen my letter to the Times four days since anent the neAv and rotten rubric on the Athanasian creed. You will see another in to-morrow's Times in reply to Bishop (Piers) Claughton who has poked his small person into a strife which he does not understand and is not equal to. I think, from all I can learn from various quarters, that I have knocked a hole in the bottom of this prepos- terous project. You will probably see, ere this reaches you, that we have carried in the Lords what is practically the Government Burials Bill of two years ago, the two repentant Archbishops voting for it steadily. I refrained from speaking for it, as it was sure to pass. But to my own great amazement I found myself speaking for nearly half-an-hom* to-night on an anti-vivisection Bill* of which I had heard nothing until after I had entered the House. Shaftesbury, as usual, ' disquieted me to call me up.' His appeal to scripture was so solemn and so earnest, and I thought so mistaken, that I could not, as a bishop, vote against him in silence ; so, with a sort of gasp, I started up and spoke — suadente diaholo, as I dare say the Eccord will say — but certainly with no other or better preparation. To my great surprise, I found that what I said was extremely well received on both sides of the House, and I sat down amidst quite warm cheering — for the House of Lords. Of course I shall be vivisected by all fanatics and strong- minded women in England, for which I care very little. What is really important for me is, that I have, I think, regained my position in the House, which I always thought my not very happy speech on the Burials Bill had impaired. I am distinctly stronger there since to-night, or think I am, which comes to the same thing. "Enough of egotism, however, and good-night."
To Canon Argles.
" 3 Rue de Mer, Ste. Adresse,
"Havre, August g, 1879.
" I cannot express to you the feelings of sorrow and affectionate sympathy with which we heard of your terrible affliction. I will not attempt the useless task of comforting you. All the comfort and consolation that such a grief admits of you have in the recollections of the blameless life and the now assured safety and eternal rest of him who has been taken from you. And our Father in heaven who has laid upon you all this heavy cross will know how and when to give you the needed strength to bear iL * See " Speeches and Addresses," p. 188.
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Meanwhile it is His will that you should sorrow, and it is not, I am persuaded, either true friendship or true piety to tell our friends in their affliction not to grieve but only to submit. But if we cannot comfort our friends in their affliction by any words of ours, we may pain them by our silence and seeming want of sympathy. I venture, therefore, to intrude upon your sorrow to tell you how deeply and truly we feel for and with you all, and how earnestly we remember you in our prayers to the God of all consolation and grace, that after 3'ou have suffered for a while He may comfort, strengthen and stablish you abundantly. I trust that ere this reaches you, the still remaining cause of distress may have been removed, and the form you loved have been restored to you to rest near the home and the hearts that he had helped to make so happy.
" Once more assuring you of our warmest and truest sympathy, believe me, my dear friend and brother, yours always and most truly, " W. C. Peterborough."
To J. C. MacDoxxell.
" Havre, August 31, 1879. " To-morrow, if fine, we hope to visit Rouen, and some other day I mean to go up in the boat as far as Jumieges where the ruined abbey is very fine, and come home by Caudebec and Yvetot,. and as I have already seen Tancarville (a very striking and in- teresting ruin) I shall then have fairly done the Seine. Charlie and his tutor and I partly ' railed ' and partly walked on Friday last to the Chateau of Tancarville— sixteen miles of walking altogether — - which shows that I am not yet quite effete, physically at least. The chateau must have been a noble one in days past, and still is very striking and picturesque, and the valley and woods below it on the bank of the Seine very charming. We have visited, besides, all the little towns within ten miles round this, including Monti- villiers, a very interesting little place with old wooden houses of the style of Chester, and a Norman church in part the very 'moral ' of Castor. I ' discoorse ' all the cures, and get on charmingly with them as an ' Irlandais^ which they always assure me means un bon Chretien. Alas ! I came to grief, however, in consequence, when the Cure of Rouelles offered me holy Avater and I failed to cross myself ! His countenance fell, and he mentally evidently voted me an impostor.
" We are all gi-eatly enjoying the place, and the girls are becoming
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accomplished swimmers. I bathe, too, occasionally, and with advantage."
" Havre, September 25, 1879. " It SO happens that the day before I received your letter sug- gesting a pastoral on the subject of harvest thanksgivings, I had replied to an inquiry on the subject from a Leicestershire clergy- man very much in the sense of your letter. I told him that it seemed to me that we ought not to omit to thank God for the harvest in bad seasons as if we were angry with Him, but that we should acknowledge in bad or in good seasons that the fruits of the earth are His gift. I suggested Hab. iii. 17, 18, as affording the true keynote of all harvest services. But I advised nothing in the way of feasting as distinguished from thanksgiving. It had not occurred to me, however, to issue a pastoral on the subject. I have, as a rule, a gi'eat, perhaps a morbid dislike to pastorals. They are read and criticised by the clergy, who thereupon take each his own wav, j ust as they would have done without a pastoral. Further- more, a pastoral on this particular subject would not be an easy one to compose. The question as to general and particular pro- vidences, as to whether a scanty harvest in England is or is not a chastening for special national offences — whether, for instance, England was one whit more righteous in the days of her prosperity than in this year of her adversity — crop up awkwardly on such a subject. I confess I am more disposed to give counsel when and where it is asked for by individuals than to ofler it to the diocese at large. On the other hand, I feel the force of what you say, and rather suspect my own personal dislike as a motive rather than a reason in my own mind for silence. I will think it over at any rate. We leave here to-morro\v evening, weather permitting."
" Peterborough, October 8, 1879.
" The usual October epidemic of cackling — social, ecclesiastical, and political — has set in with even more than its usual severity. If we could but have an epidemic of deaf mutism what a blessing it would be ! But what with increased facilities of communication, advancing intelligence and civilisation, enlightened public opinion, spread of education, telegraphs, telephones, and microphones, the world is becoming unbearable for quiet people ! "
" Balgreen, Edinburgh, October 31, 1879. " I am resting here after the ' big thing' of yesterday ;* interest-
* Consecration of Edinburgh Cathedral.
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ing and striking in many ways it was, but very fatiguing, lasting from 11 o'clock a.m. to 11.45 p.m. when the last toast at the public <1 inner was responded to, and we got leave to go to bed. Oddly enough, the only English bishop beside myself who spoke was Durham, and very Avell he spoke too.
" The cathedral is a very fine one inside. The outside, like all Scotfs buildings, is disappointing, though you can hardly tell why. ]My sermon was alas ! an hour long, decidedly bad taste on such an occasion, but I had not had time to condense it, and could not get a look at my Avatch while delivering it. The bishop and clergy in the chancel heard not one word of it. A blissful time they must have had for that hour, and how they must have blessed me ! The speaking after the dinner — a grand banquet by the laity of Edin- burgh to the visitors — was wonderfully tedious and oratorical ; the one really admirable speech, being the only short one too, was made by the Lord Provost, a Presbyterian, who acquitted himself of a very delicate task with great tact and dexterity.
" To-morrow I go to visit old Lady Ruthven, a wonderful old Scotch peeress, aged ninety, and quite of the Dean Ramsay style, who asked me to stay at her house during my visit, and who they say is quite one of the sights of Scotland.
"Tuesday I am to be in Leicester consecrating St. George's chancel. The Ruridecanal Conference, forty in number, clergy and laity, have invited the Congress to Leicester. Jacta est alea, therefore, and we must play the game out ; but I neither love nor like it, and I like it all the less for costing me my American trip." *
"Pe TERBOROUGH, Deccmhev 13. 1879- " We had yesterday here a very sensible and practical meeting of the Diocesan Sunday School Committee which gives promise of good and useful work for the diocese, so that the close of the year shows a quiet and progressive diocese, with no troubles to carry over to the New Year, for which I thank God and take courage.
"Gladstone has at last subsided into silence. The general opinion seems to be that he has helped himself and hurt his party. He has helped himself back into the running for the Premiership, but he has done so by more than ever committing himself to the Radical programme, and so disorganising the Liberals, whose Whig- section is still powerful and still distrusts Gk Istone. My own
* He had accepted an invitation to go out in 1880 to the United States to aitend the Convention.
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feeling is that he is utterly unfit to rule, wanting as he is in patience, self-control and broad common sense, without which no man can govern Englishmen ; and yet he is now strong enough to upset any Liberal Ministry that should offend or dissatisfy him. He is at this moment the loose ballast in the ship, and no one knows at what moment or in what direction it may roll over and wreck the vessel.
"As regards the coming elections I beo'in to think that the Liberals may return to power, not because of Gladstone's speeches or because of Beaconsfield's mistakes, but simply because the Government are vmlucky. With a half educated democracy such as England now is, the one thing never forgiven in the ruler is ill- success, and this Ministry is becoming unsuccessful ; a disaster in Afghanistan— and it looks very like that just now — would be fatal to it, more especially if it comes just at the time when the Budget tells John Bull that he must pay not for success but for failure; but if a Liberal party come in with a small maj ority, the Irish vote commands the situation ! And that is a pretty look out for us all ! However, neither you nor I will have any share in settling or un- settling these matters."
" Peterborough, Dec.mher 27, 1S79.
" Our Christmas Day was a very happy one, all of us gathered together in health and peace, with pleasant recollections of the past year and cheerful expectations for the coming one. But yesterday we were all a little upset by a second misfortiuie in our stable. A valuable mare, a great pet with us all, was out exer- cising on the lawn when she started at a noise made by some young imps in the lane, fell heavily on her shoulder, smashing the blade across, and we were obliged at once to have her shot. The shooting occurred while we were at dinner, and, contrary to my expectation, was heard by us ; you may suppose that it did not improve our appetites. My poor wife and E. vanished from the table, and I confess that, vivisectionist and brutal bishop as I am, I was half- disposed to follow them. However, the poor animal suffei'ed really nothing ; pain from the fracture had not set in, and the shot was instantaneous death. We are thankful, after all, no human life was lost or imperilled in either of these accidents.
" You say nothing in your letter as to Walgrave finance. I fear that this weather is not favourable to farm-letting- ; but I imaffine it will not prove unfavourable to farming if only an open spring succeed to this early severity of winter. I cannot help believing
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still in the ultimate recoveiy of British agriculture, though I have now and then uncomfortable recollections of imperial Rome and the wheat ships from Africa ! Imperium et lihcrtas is very fine, but imperium et paiipertas is unpleasant to think of, and in this matter of wheat goes against one's ffi ain.
" This is a long effusion about our affairs, drawn out by your kind words and the recollections they awake of the times when you and I were bachelors, and I used to discuss with you the diffi- culties that . . . . , while we were also discussing the roti of ' a duck that would be dead," accompanied by salad of oui own making. Eheii,J'ugaces ! What salads of sweet and sour we have made and eaten since then at life's banquet ! and how many vacant chairs we know of that once were pleasantlv filled all round us ! Let us pray that our place at the better feast be ready for us and we for it ! May you and yours have and enjoy abundantly all that your old affection prompts you to wish for us ; and so with kindest and warmest wishes for your happiness in this new year that is coming and for many such, always yours affectionately,
" W. C. Peterbokough."
"Palace, Peterborough,
" December 31, 1879.
" Please read the enclosed letter* of mine, addressed to the Secretary of the Church of England Temperance Society in reph to one from them requesting us to appoint a Day of Humiliation for Drunkenness, and tell me
(1) Whether you approve of it.
(2) Whether you approve of my sending it.
(3) Whether you approve of my publishing it.
The two latter events cannot, I think, come off in any case until after the bishops' meeting on February 4. " The facts of the case are these—
" On receiving this circular to the bishops I wrote the enclosed, which expresses mv ' sintimints ' on days of humiliation in general and this in particular. Before sending it, how ever, it occurred to me to try how soiue of my episcopal brethren viewed the proposal, as, if they viewed it as I did, the thing would come to naught, and I need not bring another hornet's nest about mv ears by once more attacking fanatics. Accordingly I sent copies to Winchester, Ely,
* " Speeches and Addresses," p. 140.
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12:3
St. Albans, Norwich and Lincoln. I have heard from the first four all approving of my letter ; Lincoln has not yet replied. Ely, ' entirely and unreservedly agrees with me,"" and wishes me to pub- lish. St. Albans is even stronger in these two respects, declaring that my publishing ' will do a great deal of good.' Winton agrees with me cntirelv. Norwich ' verv generally concurs,' but advises delay until after bishops' meeting. I have accordingly sent a copy to Cantuar asking him to put the subject on our agenda for February, the effect of which ■s\ould, of course, be to prevent any bishop acting independently meanwhile. I expect he will do as I ask him. In that case it is nearly certain there will be no day of humiliation proposed by bishops, if it were only because a consider- able section certainly will not join in it. But if he does not put it on the agenda, should I send and publish it at once ? or if we decide in February not to have the day, and leave it to each bishop to send his own ansAver, should I then not only send but publish this ? The course I should prefer and hope for would be that Cantuar should send a polite negative in the name of us all in February ; but, if he does not, should I publish ? On one point only is my mind made up, namely, not to be guilty of the absurd hypocrisy of asking sober rogues, liars and profligates to humiliate themselves on behalf of drunkards. The truth is, this proposal is meant for a demonstration on the eve of an election ; a praying at the pub- licans, and is a ])art of the hysterical proceedings of the extremer section of the temperance party ; and I am not sure that just now they do not need a check, or rebuff" at least, and that this letter might not, as St. Albans says, 'do good,' and after all, the fanatics could not say worse to or of me than they ai'e saying every day in the year. So now give me your candid mind on the matter."
From the Bishop of St. Albans to the Bishop of Peterborough.
Danbury, December 30, 1879. My dear Brother, — I do most fully agree with everything you have said in your letter, and had expressed the very same opinions, not to your correspondents, but to a ferocious man in this neighbourhood. My idea is that the publication of your letter would do a very great deal of good. It is the very ti'uth and nothing else, and I agree with something which the late Bishop of Winchester said when the reporters were introduced into the Chamber of Conj'ahidaiionx, " Now, Bishop of Peterborough, as you are the only man who never says a word too much or a word too little, will you move the resolution ? " to which
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\ou, with becoming modesty, assented, and forthwith did enunciate exactly what we wished to say, unhke our chief when he propounded the PubHc Worship Regulation Act to the Lords in Parliament assembled. I say, publish the letter. It is necessary that those good men should be taught whither their one idea is carrying them.
Many thanks for your kind Avishes, dear brother. May they be realized to me and to all yours. — Ever yours affectionately,
T. L. St. Albans.
To J. C. MacDonxell.
" Peterborough, January 3, 1880.
" Since I wrote to you I have heard from Lincoln and Cantuar. The former thinks my utterance ' excellent ' ; the latter ' truly good."* He is willing to have it discussed by the bishops, if / will send round the notice. This I do not wish to do. Accordingly I consider myself now free to act on my own responsibility, certain of the assent of Cantuar and of five other leading bishops. I have, therefore, this day, despatched my letter to Canon Ellison, Chairman of the Church of England Temperance Society, and a copy of it to the Guardian. I mean to try and get it inserted in the Pall Mall of Wednesday evening, just after the Gnardian — if the latter publish it. If both these decline, I will try the Times. Somehow or other, therefore, it will come out, and, I hope, do good. But I do wish that other bishops would now and then do something of the same kind, and not leave all the belling of the cats of the day to me. They are making a great mistake for their order and for the Church by this policy of ultra-caution and self-effacement. Even the oracles, when they became dumb, were no longer believed in ; and if we have the function of guiding- opinion in the Church, we should use it, not wrap it up in a lawn napkin, lest at last it be ' taken from us and given to others.' "
"Peterborough, January 5, 1880.
" I send you a fly-leaf containing my letter anent the Bishop of Durham and 'Free and Sober,"" reprinted from the Temperance Chronicle, where Cust very good-naturedly introduced it with a prefatory letter of his own. If I have not made my meaning clear noxo there is no use in my trying it again.
"I am just now laid up with a severe influenza cold which has fastened on my chest and which has kept me a prisoner for the last week. To-day, after getting better, I have had a relapse, and feel very seedy and low. But Walker comforts me with the assurance
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that only the wind-pipe is affected, the lungs and bronchial tubes being quite clear.
" Thicknesse gave me the other day the first volume of ' Memoirs of Bishop Wilberforce.' Distinctly the best biography that has appeared within my recollection. It has the rare merits —
"(1) Of complete suppression of the author.
" (2) Of truthful representation of the subject.
"(3) Of brevity.
" (4) Of picturesqueness — by which I mean placing the hero in the centre of a succession of pictures of his times so that they reflect light on him and he on them.
" (5) Of bringing out the inner life of the man truly and fully, vet without the twaddle of religious diaries.
" It is in every way admirable and gi'eatly raises Wilberforce to my mind, showing a deeper piety and a more real honesty than the world ever gave him credit for. But some of the letters are ter- ribly outspoken as regards men now living. One, for instance, as regards Pusey which must, one would think, make him wince ter- ribly. His description of the Tractarian movement, and his strong dissent from it, must tell even now, and that damagingly to the Ritualists. I must not, however, spoil your pleasure in reading it by anticipation of its contents.
" The death of Ashwell is a serious loss to Ws. memory and to our biogi-aphical literature. No one can well take up his broken threads.
" I am very tired, mind and body, so can Avrite no more."
" Peterborough, Jamiary 23, 18S0. " I wish I could give you a better account of myself, but I am just where I have been for the last week. Walker gave me a thorough overhauling this morning, and declares that there is not only no sign but no suspicion of anything wrong in lungs or heart. Nevertheless, I don't get well. My cough continues, and I am at times terribly weak and depressed ; I feel as if I could now and then sit down and, more mulierum, have a ' real good cry.' Under these circumstances you may well suppose that I am not exactly in good fighting condition, and rather disposed to cry craven, even as regards ' free and sober," and the rest of it. Nevertheless my fingers did ' itch so ' yesterday that I draughted a reply to Ellison, but partly owing to ' Jezebel, my wife,' who did not ' stir me up,' and partly owing to my utter weariness of this barren and personal strife with
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unreasoning and unreasonable fanatics who M ill have the last word, I had come to your conclusion before receiving your letter, and have accordingly flung my reply into the fire, where it ' went off brilliantly,'' owing perhaps to some crackers I had put into it for the benefit of Farrar and his brethi'en. How miserably small these little controversies seem when viewed under the influence of some of the great realities of life !
" I learned by the same post that brought me Ellison's letter news of the sudden death of poor Allan Windle, formerlv of the Mariners'" Church, KingstowTi, and. latterly vicar of ^Market Rasen, Lincolnsliire. He was found dead in his bed. What shadows we ai'e, and what shadows we pm-sue ; and yet the shadows are cast by the unseen realities, and we must not treat them as shadows only. Nevertheless the shadows of the temperance folk shall not any longer disquiet the shadow of the Bishop of Peterborough. Like a shadow of old, I shall object to their ' disquieting me to call me up,"" and exercise my ' local option ' in favour of silence. All the same I think my right reverend brethren a little shabby in leaving me to bear the brunt of a battle in which thev are most of them on my side.
" The weather here is gloomy, foggy, and frosty. ]\Iy wife has carried off the poor wee ' Abbot '' to-day to school. He has departed in high spirits, which I fear will have evaporated by to-morrow, but I have no doubt that a week hence he m ill be happy enough.'"
"Hastings, February i6, 1880. " I was verv pleased with your account of Freddie, both physic- ally and professionally. I wish I could see my May for the next four or five years to haxdng my sons provided for. The more I see of our modem English great school and University system, the more I am persuaded that luiless for very clever and energetic youths, it is a great mistake. It is all a system of cultivating prize plants, and neglecting the vegetable garden and ordinary annuals.
" I am just now disposed to take ' Iom' views of things, as I am iust o-ettins out of a fit of ' intermittent '' w hich has assailed me
Jo O
about an hour ago. It is strange hoM- it clings to me, and hoM' mysteriously it seems to come on for no special reason of diet or general health. I begin to fear that I may have to get a substitute for my Confirmations, but certainly not if I can help it. The weather here is very uncertain — about two days bad to one good —
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and on the bad days I cannot get out at all, as they are very stormy and cold.
" What a capital appointment Disraeli has made to the Deanery of York. Cast is an excellent fellow, with good sense, good means, good trmper, good manners, and good connections; he is just the man for the post. I see that the Conservatives have actually carried South wark by a majority of fifty-four over both Liberals combined. I confess that this amazes me greatly, as a large number of electors have evidently abstained from voting. These democratic oscillations in all large constituencies must introduce a most dis- turbing and demoralising influence into English politics, and tend greatly to strengthen the influence of crotchet-mongers of all kinds, who will get their pledges swallowed ad libitum in the nervous un- certainty of candidates all round.
" Have you read Littledale's ' Reasons against joining the Church of Home,' published by S.P.C.K. ? — uncommonly clever and telling, not only against Rome but for the Ritualists. Everything, he says, is excellent and unanswerable on all the grounds on which he attacks Rome, but he takes care not only to omit many of their grounds on which the Reformers and Caroline Divines attacked her, but to hint that on these grounds Rome and England do not differ materially, e.g:, not a word on transubstantiation, or on auricular confession, or the Seven Sacraments, &c. It is really a stroke of genius, an ultra-Ritualist coming out in this way as a champion against Romanism, and doing his work too so admirablv well.
" ^Ve shall have another anti-episcopal row in the S.P.G. on the 20th, when Denison moves the election of Exeter and ^Vorcestcr as V.P.s. Perhaps the bishops will norci see that I was right when eighteen months ago I urged them to put their foot down on these men when they had the chance, and had the Society and the Church with them. I was then told this was ' premature and hasty ' ; now they will try to do something of the same kind, in a far weaker case, and with Church opinion rather against than with them. When will my episcopal brethren learn that oppor- tunity i.9 bald behind? and when will they give up holding councils of war which never fight ? and when will the Archbishop of Canter- bury give up driving and take to leading the Church ? More and more am I convinced that the episcopate under his government is letting the Church drift on the breakers, when a strong hand on the helm might have saved her. But I have made this intennittent
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moan of mine to you often enough to bore you, even thouo-h it relieves me to make it. Truly some day the Right Rev. Bench will regret, with Mr. O'Shaughnessy, that they did not take what was offered them cold, instead of waiting for the hot which never came.
" So now no more from yours disgustedly and intermittently,
" W. C. Peterborough."
" Hastings, Fehniary 23, 1880. " I see they have had their field day at the S.P.G., and the Rits. were defeated. But with what cost and effort ! It took two archbishops and five bishops to do it ! and even then it seems that Denison only withdrew his amendment because, forsooth, the Bishop of ^Vorcester had satisfied him by a long correspondence, which he read to the meeting. Fancy the Bishop of Worcester humbling himself to Archdeacon Denison as the condition of being allowed to retain office in the S.P.G. ! "
"Peterborough, April 2, 1880.
" You will be glad to hear that I returned here on Wednesday morning last, quite sound in wind and limb, and reasonably fit for work. The fever vanished after three days of Scotch air, but I am not quite at my full working power. I shall, however, I fully believe, be equal to my coming Confirmations. Youi* news of yom* farm- letting is very satisfactory. I hope it is an omen of better times, and that you are now fairly round the corner. So, in a very diffei'ent sense, is Dizzy. We shall never see him in power again. What a sweeping defeat he is undergoing ! I confess I never anticipated it. Gladstone must now be Premier unless he abso- lutely declines, which I am persuaded he will not. Everywhere that Whigs and Radicals have contended in the last few days, the Radicals have won ; and ere long, and certainly in the next Parlia- ment, the effacement of the old Whigs \\ ill be complete ; a few may turn Conservative, the majority will 'go with their party,' and their party will then be Radical, pure and simple, and headed by Glad- stone. Then comes the last struggle between Church and Democracy, and there is no doubt which will win. Bradlaugh comes in for Northampton, supported by the leading Dissenters, in one of whose chapels he actually was allowed or invited to speak from the pulpit. This is really horrible, and shows what Non- conformity is becoming under political influences.
" I have been knee-deep, as you may suppose, in diocesan matters
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since my return. I saw Vaughan to-day on Church Congress matters, and the progranune of subjects is now assuming a very safe and practical shape. If we get safely through the meeting on the 8th, I think we may reckon oui- work more than half done, and well done too."
" FiNEDON, April 15, 1880.
" I find the clergy everywhere, even the Liberals, dismayed by the coming events for the Church. The Burials Bill and the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill will prove wry morsels even for the most ardent Ritualists and anti-Beaconsfieldists to swallow ; and swallow them they M ill, before August next. Delightful too it is for me to hear sundry of the clergy saying to me noia, ' Do you not think we had better close our churchyards and try for cemeteries ? ' Just as if I had not been in vain entreating them to do this for the last seven years ; and now when they will not be allowed to do it by a hostile Home Secretary, they are waking up to the import- ance of doing it. Truly the clergy, and bishops too, of our Church ever since I have known them have made a wonderful ])other and clatter about shutting the stable door of the establishment just after each steed has been stolen or driven out of his stall.
" The coming events are getting now nearly as clear as Mene and Tekel were once upon a time.
" For myself, I have quietly said good-bye to Parliament and Convocation, where I only succeed in wasting three things, none of which I have too much of, viz., time, money, and temper. Convoca- tion is too utterly ridiculous a farce for me to play in it any longer. For the last seven years we bishops have been sitting in the back attic of the Church grandly discussing the papering of it, with the house on fire in the kitchen, and burglars breaking in at the parlour windows. And for this and other matters verily we shall have our reward, and that speedily, unless there be no such thing as a Nemesis for timidity. There now ! that is off my mind, and I feel rather better. I have got through my Confirmations fairly well, though they have been unusually large, and the weather these last two days miserable. To day I confirmed 340, and expect nearly as many to-morrow. So no more until we meet at the festive board of Sir Charles Isham. « W. C. P."
Before giving the Bishop's letters about the Burials Bill of 1880, it may be well to insert a few words of explanation.
The ao;itation about a change in the law had been carried on
VOL. II. I
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since 1861, and excited a great deal of angry feeling on both sides. The Consex'vatives had made an unsuccessful attempt to settle the question in 1877. Their Bill Avould have allowed silent interments in a churchyard, but even that concession they subsequently with- drew. The change sought for in former Bills was on this occasion brought forward in the House of Lords by Lord Granville in a resolution, and afterwards embodied in an amendment by Lord Harrowby. He succeeded in carrying his amendment by a majority of sixteen. The Government then withdrew the Bill. Lord Harro why's amendment and Lord Granville's resolution alike gave permission for any " Christian and orderly service " beside the grave in any churchyard, a provision which was substantially embodied in the Bill which became law three years later.
Archbishop Tait proposed additional clauses as a concession to the clergy, releasing them from their obligation to read the full Burial Service over all alike, and allowing alternative forms of service. Against these proposals the Bishop of Peterborough spoke with great power, maintaining that the securities for a " Christian and orderly" service were illusory. His speech, which embodies the opinions which he held upon this question to the end, will be found in " Speeches and Addresses " (p. 177).
In 1880 the Liberals brought in and carried a Bill for the settle- ment of the question which led to a painful divergence of opinion and action between the Primate and the Bishop of Peterborough. It will be seen from the following letters that the Bishop was much influenced by the opinions of the clergy of his own diocese. It was the resolution of his rural deans which induced him to go up to London and speak upon the third reading of the Bill.
To J. C. MacDonnell.
"Peterborough, May 27, 1880. " The bishops' meeting passed off in the usual fashion ; we amicably agreed to differ ! Only Durham thought fit again to attack me for something I had not said. I contented myself with very quietly and briefly correcting his mistake. He really seems to be possessed with a mania for falling foul of me. However, even Henricus could have found no fault with my demeanour under, I must say for myself, some provocation and a tempting opportunity for paying oft' old scores. We had the Bill (Burials) before us. It amazed me for the apparent effort to deal gently with the Church. It includes a strong provision against anti-Christian or disorderly
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services, and what the clergy will value more, a legalising of all the new rubrics and alternative services agreed to by Convocation last year. If these clauses are honestly meant, and not bogus clauses intended for deletion in the Commons, it is the best Burials Bill we can ever hope to get. I wish that it may pass, though I must pair against it. Our real difficulty as bishops will be in Committee ; both before the Bill goes to the Commons, and after it returns to the Lords. In the latter place we have to dread embarrassing amendments from the Conservatives ; in the former, destructive amendments from the Radicals and Nonconformists. I fear some High Chui'ch peer pressing for the fatal privilege for the clei-gy of refusing to bury any save members of their own Church. This would be awkward for the bishops, who are quite alive to the dangers of it, while, on the other hand, the Nonconformists may throw out the provision for Christian services, in the Commons, and the Bill come back in the dog days, and the Government, sooner than lose it, carry it so amended through the Lords. These were the two dangers I specially pressed on the consideration of the bishops. A. C. Cantuar is quite alive to them, however, and his voice will be very potent in the matter. Only fancy Lincoln and Salisbury pressing that we should ask the Government for delay that we may consult the clergy in our dioceses ! Could any pair of old women in Walgrave have been guilty of such nonsense ! As if the opinion of the clergy was not perfectly well known by this time, and as if the Government cared three straws what it was.
" I do not mean to take any part in the debate or Committee on the Bill, leaving the affair to Cantuar, whose child it is in large measure ; but I see, from talking with sundry Conservative peers, that they are much more disposed to reject the Bill now that the Liberals are in office than they were three years ago to reject HaiTowbv's resolutions, i.e., they are willing to make a cat's-paw of the Church wherewith to scratch the Government, regardless what becomes of the paw after the scratch. On these points, how- ever, Cantuar may be trusted. It is just in such lesser points in- volving caution and cannhicss that he shines. Altogether I think the Bill will prove better than I anticipated, if the Government mean honestly to stand by it as it is. But this is a large ' if."
" I sat through the Bradlaugh debate on Monday night. It was full of interest, and puts the Government in a very awkward ffx. Some of the most dexterous and damaging speeches, against them substantially though with them formally, came from disappointed
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expectants of high office on their own side. I hear on all sides of the discredit to Government for the amount of humble-pie they have been eating and have yet to eat. The Radicals are furious and the Whigs ashamed. All this, however, may only drive Glad- stone into some more violent course."
"Peterborough, May 31, 1880.
" I see in the Times of to-day a formidable leader against the concessions to the clergy in the Burials Bill, founded on a letter in large type from a Liberal Churchman (Stanley, I suspect). This is a breeze from an miexpected quarter, but likely to prove strong enough to blow the clerical clauses out of the Bill. Lords and Conunons are agreed in jealousy of anything remotely even ap- proaching to discipline by the clergy over the laity, which these clauses amount to in some de<n"ee. I confess that I feel a g-rim satisfaction in the thought of the Archbishop fighting, if he will fight, his Erastian friends for the privileges of the clergy ! Let him and York fight it out ! I will not help them. The quarrel will be a pretty one, but I suspect that the Government game is to introduce these clauses to please the clergy, and then after a weak fight to let them be cut away to please their own party. Of course they will be only too well pleased if the Lords — the supposed friends of the Church — do this for them. The end may very possibly be now that we shall have Morgan's Bill nearly piu:e and simple. Practically this will matter little, though I shall regret the elimination from the Bill of the national recognition of Christ- ianity which it now contains.
" I see that the anti-vivisectors are rallying under the leadership of Coleridge and Bishop of Oxford, who are to speak at a drawing- room meeting under the presidency of Shaftesbury. I mean to let them alone in the Lords. I spoke once, and do not want to figure as the fighting bishop there on eveiy side. Indeed, I grow sicker daily of the petty dishonesty and spitefulness of the scramble for power which we call politics in England. I Avish to goodness I had two good trout streams handy so as to employ my time usefully, and enable me to forget the dirty w'aters in which noble lords and pious patriots are fishing ! "
" Peterborough, June 24, 1880. " I received your letter in the midst of a very interesting and successful rm-al-decanal gathering here yesterday. It terminated in a resolution on the Burials Bill against the sixteenth clause, i.e., the
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Convocation Burial Rubrics, and it has given me the resolution to go up and speak to-night on the third reading. You will see my speech as soon as you will see this, and it will, I hope, explain itself. There are some things I wish to say, and that is the best preparation for a speech."
" Peterborough, yune 26, 1880.
" Your letter finds me just returned here, and at leisure to give you a full account of some curious ' passages in the life " of yours truly. At our rural-decanal Conference I found the rural deans all keen that I should put their views before the country, and accordingly I went up and did so. Now this was very distasteful to Cantuar. When I sat down, after hitting hard— but I really think calmly and temperately — at the two lumps of sugar in the Government dose for the clergy, he rose .... I confess that I boiled over at last, after his twice refusing to accept my denials of I'eally ' monstrous ' misrepresentations of his. The scene was not a dignified one, and exposed us to the saixasras of Beaconsfield and Granville afterwards.
" However, I had in the end the House quite with me and against him, and so manv of the peers volunteered to tell me aftcr- wai-ds, some of whom were unknown personally to me.
" Late in the evening, when all had gone save myself (as I a\ as delayed conferring with Spencer and others on other matters) I went to unrobe, and as I was doing so, I heard behind me the Pri- mate's voice — low and pained evidently — saying, ' It would never do for two Christian prelates to part in anger.'' I tiu'ned and said that of course I could not refuse his offered hand (which he was holding out to me), but I must point out to him that he was offer- ing a private reconciliation after a public wrong, and that I felt some public reparation due to me for accusations so gross and in- jurious. I put this very gently; and after a little discussion, in which he attempted to excuse his language, he promised to put things right in the House by a few words last night. I need not say how fully I met him there ; and so we parted. He never came near the House, but sent me a letter to say, that, on reading the papers, he saw that his admission of ' misapprehension ' appeared in all, and that it was, he thought, ' unwise to say any more.' I replied respectfully and gently, but firmly, that I would not dispute the wisdom of any course he took ; but that I must di'aw his atten tion to two circumstances:
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" First, that his admission of misapprehension was obviously fresh in my mind when I asked for more ;
" Secondly, that this misapprehension had induced him to use utterances of a most wounding and injurious character, which I would gladly have seen qualified, if not withdi'awn as publicly as tliey had been made. I added that I had no wish now to press for this, and that I could only trust to time and mutual charity to heal the breach in a friendship of long standing, marked kindnesses on his part, and memories on mine, that made its temporary inter- ruption, to me, exquisitely painful.
" This course I felt it due to myself, and to my knowledge of his character, to take. I could not let him think I was satisfied when I was not.
" Meanwhile, letters keep pouring in from the clergy, thanking nie for my speech ; evidently they enjoy seeing the Archbishop hit by any one ; I do not, and wish I had not been the hitter. But I reallv A\as provoked past endurance.
" As regards ray position in the House while speaking, rem acu tetig'isti ; no one liked my line — neither Conservatives, who secretly are eager for the Bill to pass, nor Government, who want to gain credit with the clergy for concessions. Selborne, though courteous personally, was furious, and so, as I said, was the Archbishop. Beaconsfield was nasty and Granville lazilij insolent. My own belief is, that the clauses are thoroughly bad and mischievous, and fraught with burial scandals in the future between clergy and Church parishioners ; and the more they are considered the more they will be found so. So that if they go out, I am convinced I have served the clergy, even if they abuse me for so doing.
" My speech, of which not more than half is reported, told heavily on the House, which listened very attentively, half pleased and half angry all through it.
" So now you have a really full, and, as I think, a fair account of this curious and instructive scene in my life and in the politics of the Burials Bill. Tell me all you think of it, as fully and freely, and especially as regards my private action with Cantuar."
" Peterborough, Jiuie 27, 1880. " La nuit porte conseil. I slept after despatching my reply to the Archbishop's letter, and this quiet Sunday evening suggested to me thoughts of peace. I accordingly, without waiting for his re})ly to my yesterday's letter, sent him bv this night's post a few
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lines to say that I did not wish to maintain the position of claiming rights or debts against him, be they real or assumed ; that I wished to remember only past kindnesses, trusted to his desire always to do me justice, &c. I hope I have done right, at any rate I feel as if I had. He is, after all, my senior and superior, and has been a kind friend, and he made the first advances to reconciliation ; furthermore, a public reconciliation scene in the House of Lords between him and me would have had rather its comic side for those cynical peers ; so that all things considered, things arc better as they are. I am not sorry, however, that I sent my former letter, as I think it will do his Grace no harm to see how great is the wrong he has done me, in my eyes at least, and so make him more cautious in the futui'e. The two letters, thanks to London non-delivery on Sundays, will ari'ive within a few hours of each other. I am sure that you, who are one of the beati pac'ifici will approve of this. In fact, looking back over the last eighteen months, I can see that this outbreak has been the result of a slowly gathering state of electricity between his Grace and myself, which grew more and more charged at each encounter, until at last the thunderclap came, and, let us hope, has cleared the air.
" I have offered Wappenham to Burfield, who writes very grate- fully in reply, and is evidently rather disposed to take it. ' Income not so much an object' (as they say in the advertisements of lady companions) 'as a comfortable home.' His doubt is, naturally enough in these times, as to security of income. I shall hear from him before the end of this wcjk. I have not yet found a man for Far Cotton.
" I am longing to hear your verdict on my long letter. I see in St. James' Gazette — the new Pall Mall — an article strongly up- holding my views on the Convocation clause."
To the Archbishop of Caxteuhury.
" Peterborough, June 27, 1880.
" My dear Lord Archbishop, — Since I wrote to youi- Grace yesterday, the night, which brings reflection and prayer, has passed and I have knelt at the holy table where feelings of peace and charity replace those of anger or of self-assertion.
" I feel that I can no longer maintain, or even wish to maintain, that position of claiming debts or rights, real or assumed, which I asserted in my letter of yesterday. I feel too that it might be
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unwise to call again the attention of the Peers to differences between ministers of that holy faith, which many of them are perhaps already too little disposed to preserve.
" I remember now, and M'ish only to remember, all that I owe to your Grace of kindness and courtesy abundantly shown in the past, and I trust entirely to your Grace\s desire to do me justice, as regai'ds my motives and actions in the time to come. I will therefoi'e ask your Grace to accept instead of my letter of yesterday, this my assurance of affectionate friendship hereafter as heretofore. Believe me, your Grace's very sincerely, " W. C. Peterborough."
To J. C. MacDoxnell.
" Peterborough, June 29, 1S80. "You will be glad to know that I have just received from A. C. Cantuar a very kindly and handsome reply to my last letter to him. It is really such a model of a dignified apology that I cannot help transcribing it for you entire. It is as follows :
My dear Bishop, — Most heartily do I thank you for j-our kind and Christian letter. In this busy world, with so many conflicts of opinion and duty, I feel I have much to regret in the manner in which I do what I feel right ; but it is cheering to know that in you I have to deal with a friend who makes allowance for failures. — Yours ever,
A. C. C.
" So thus ends the private sequel of our public encounter : better I now feel, than any amount of public recantation and a recon- ciliation scene, with its amusement for the grinning world of out- siders. Cantuar and I have both had our lesson, and learned it, I hope, like good and diligent boys ; and we shall be really th« better friends hereafter, whereas the public recantation would have left behind it a sting of humiliation on his part, ' a root of bitter- ness which might, springing up, have troubled us ^ hereafter. Setting aside this personal episode, I am satisfied that I did a good stroke of work on Thursday night, and that whether the Convocation clause is retained or lost. If retained it cannot be quoted as a great boon to the clergy ; if lost its loss will not, I think, now wreck the Bill.
" I am rather amused at the Spectator accusing me in a leading article of having ' lost my courage,'' and become ' conventional.'' I think that the man who goes down to the House of Lords to fight the whole peerage, and does so for forty minutes, standing alone
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befoi'e a hostile and critical audience, does not want for courage, however he niav lack discretion.
" Your letter was very pleasant and encouraging to me. It shows me, however, that as you say, the real drift and motive of mv speech depends so much on what is behind the scenes for its explanation, that only time can explain and justify it. I fully expect a snarl in the Guardian, a sneer in the Church Times and a groan in the Record. I am more curious to see the line taken by the Nonconformist and other Dissenting organs, and, as you say, I shall probably be quoted in the Commons."
From the Bishop of Ely, to the Bishop of Peterborough.
Palace, Ely, June 28, 1880. Mv DEAR Bishop, — I cannot help writing a line to thank you for ■what you said in the House the other night.
" Christian " is, I think, utterly untenable and is in some way posi- tively objectionable :
(1) If it is to include Unitarians and Quakers, then the incumbent is forced into recognising as Christians those who deny the divinity of Christ (the verj' root of Christianity), and those who refuse His baptism (His own mode of initiation into His society).
(2) The policeman is a sufficient judge of an orclcrli/ service, but he cannot judge as to what is a Chi'istian service. In country parishes there is no one capable of doing this except the parson, who thus again is forced into ivatching what is said, or ignoring the provisions of the Bill altogether, so far as Christian limitation is concerned.
If the Commons reject the term Christian I scarcely feel that I can vote for its re-insertion, altlioiigli not to do so would, of coui'se, place bishops in an awlcAvard position.
I have just had a letter from London in which it is said that the town talk is about the Archbisho]) and the Bishop of Peterborough — that the Archbishop made a mistake and was unfair. — Ever yours,
J. R. Ely.
To J. C. MacDoxnell.
" Peterborough, July 16, iS<So. "I cannot resist the pleasure of telling you that I have just read an article in the Church Qunrtcrlij strongly endorsing my view of the ' Convocation " and ' Christian ' clauses in the Burials Bill, and speaking of the ' undeserved ' censure of me by the Metropolitan. I am not at all a favourite with the Church Quarterly, so the assent is impartial and the more satisfactory. But the really
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iuiportant point is that it represents the views of just that section of the Church which has weight with Gladstone. He will not like to find his Swpov a^wpov rejected by the High Church section of his own bU])porters. On the whole I am beginning to feel that my speech will tell after my row ^vith Cantuar will have lost its interest. I should not be surprised now if the Burials Bill were not canied this session. I shall regret this, as now that it is inevitable, the sooner it passes the better. But can anything be more ridiculous than the Lower House of Convocation gravely discussing alterna- tives ' in the event of the Bill not passing ' and actually suggesting silent ser\ ices for all ! Is it any wonder that Cantuar despises as he does such an assembly as this ! I should not be surprised, if the Bill does come up in August, to find myself again taking part in the fray. There would now be no risk of a blow up between Cantuar and me, and I confess I should like to give the measure one parting and comj)rehensive kick. But on the other hand, there are the trout, and if they rise to the occasion, they may probably prevent my doing so, and limit my efforts to dropping- a Vine to the clergy of the diocese. Poor dear clergy ! what a time this is for them between Burials Bills, Deceased Wife's Sisters, damaged hay crops, and defaulting tenants ! I do not wonder that they are hair-sore all over and ready for anything desperate against Dissenters and bishops. This Disturbances Bill will go very near to evicting the Ministry, or would do so were it not that Gladstone has still his trump card to play, a new Reform Bill and a dictator- ship afterwards for the term of his natural life. Truly the Nemesis of the Chui'ch on the peer and tlie squire is nearer at hand than some of them imagine. We are oft' to Scotland, please God, on Tuesday fortnight."
"Peterborough, August 7, 1880.
"I have just come down here on my way to Scotland, for which place I start at 10 p.m. to-night. My family, who left this last night, are, I hope, safely resting there since one o'clock to-day.
" We had two very remarkable nights debating in the Lords,* by far the most striking and interesting of any since the Irish Church debates of twelve years ago. The peers mustered even in greater force than on that occasion ; and, between ourselves, cared a good deal more for the subject in debate. Granville introduced the Bill in a very dexterous and humble speech, in perfect taste and tone. Grey was able, but all but inaudible ; Emly for the * On the Irish Land Bill
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Bill in the main, but severely criticising' the schedules ; Waveney, dull, conceited and boring. Then Lansdowne rose and made the speech of the night, and almost of the debate ; calm, self-restrained, logical, terse and telling ; a thorough House of Lords' speech, and not too long. One or two dii mino)-um gentium followed in the dinner hour ; then came IVIai-quis of Waterford — a regular blunt, homely, sensible, couutiy gentleman's speech, against the Bill. Then followed Derby, in the most amazing speech I ever listened to for its utter oddity. After a preface, so full of exhortation against landlord prejudice as made me sure he was about to support the Bill d outrance, he suddenly diverged in a most scorching and destructive criticism of every one of its provisions, and then wound up by saying that he would vote for it, on the ground of emergency, but onli/ in the hope of largely amending it in Committee, into which Committee he of course knew that it would never get ! His speech alone would have killed the Bill as dead as a door nail. Salisbury followed after the fashion of Joab with Abishai, smiting Derby cruel blows under the fifth rib. Kimberley rose to reply and thereupon, as Bunyan says, ' I went on my way.'
" The next night came on the big guns — Cairns and Selborne. Cairns opened in a speech of two hours and forty minutes ; calm to coldness, logical, forcible, but terribly legal mitil towards the end, when he kindled a little in defence of Irish landlords threatened Avith starvation. It had, to me, the effect of an exceedingly able Chancery speech. But it told terriblij against the Bill, as he knocked away one after the other all the pleas advanced for it by men whose utter ignorance of law and fact he demonstrated ex abundanti. It Avas a sight to see Selborne being ci'animed for reply by Granville beside him, and Forster and Neilson Handcock behind him, all busy, eager and nervous ; and Granville evidently out of sorts, and showing it now and then by snappy interruptions of Cairns on small points. Cairns ended at the dinner hour, and Selborne rose to see a rush of peers out to dinner, and to address half empty benches. His speech was able and dignified, and to a certain extent successful in hitting small blots in Cairns' speech — • but it was no more. Somerset and Monck and Zetland followed, but I Avas dining and heard them not. Cranbrook then made one of his slashing speeches, full of fire and points well down to the level of his audience. Argyll followed in a very fine speech, statesmanlike and thoughtful, evidently not greatly liking the Bill, and yet struggling hard to defend it against quotations from his
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own writings. But what struck me most in his speech was, his strong and reiterated disclaimer of all purpose of tampering with the Land Act of 1870. This gave me quite the idea of being aimed at Gladstone and Bright, quite as much as for the Bill. It was really a 'hands off' from a Whig landlord to his Radical colleague. Beaconsfield followed in a heavy and laboui'ed speech, with hardly anything of his old fire ; and then came the most wonderful division* I ever witnessed — we streamed into the lobby
[Unfinished.]
" DUNDARROCK, CaLLENDER, N.B.,
" August 8, i88o.
" I had written you a long letter on Wednesday last, giving you my impressions of the great Disturbance debate and division ; unfortunately I left a few lines to finish with, unwritten, went to dinner, and forgot to complete my letter before starting in the mail for Scotland, Ergo, you have lost a valuable piece of contemporary history.
"We are all greatly pleased with this place. It combines everything except good fishing. This enjoyment is very mild indeed, but it is enough to give an excuse for exercise. I walked up a Highland burn yesterday through one of the prettiest Highland glens I have yet seen. From our drawing-room window we command a noble view of Ben Venue — the Ben Venue of the ' Lady of the Lake ^ — and we are going to walk to-day to Loch Katrine. Accessible hills and mountains all round us are inviting us up their heather-clad sides. The girls have a safe boat in which to paddle and perch-fish, and a little island on which to tea and picnic. So, all things considered, our lines have fallen on pleasant j)laces, and even the weather is, so far, propitious.
" It was fortunate for me that I stayed on Thursday last in town, as I received at the Athenaeum what may prove the beginning of a controversy with the Home Office anent my consecration — or, rather, non-consecration of a graveyard at Irthlingborough. The points are too long and legal for a letter. Suffice it to say that I declined to consecrate, and the Burials Board, having applied for ' advice '' to Sir W. Harcourt, he sent me their letter with request for my ' observations thereon.'' As Master Harcourt is not a pleasant or safe customer to deal with, especially on the Burials question, for a bishop, I took the precaution to submit an elaborate
* 231 against, 50 in favour.
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case to Jeune before replying, and had the satisfaction of having my view of the law confirmed in every particular. I then wrote a very brief and guarded reply to Sir W. Harcourt, out of which I do not think he will take much change, referring him to certain sections of the Act under which I was proceeding, and pointing out that, as the Burials Board at Irthlingborough had not complied A\ ith the Act, observations from me on their statement to him would be premature ; and there the matter rests for the present. I dare say I shall hear more of it. But was it not lucky that I did not receive this communication here (as I should have done had I left for this on Tuesday), four hundred miles away from lawyers and books ? I should either have had to return to London or to fret and wony through half my vacation. Now I am sheltered, for the present at least, from ' disturbance,' and can plead at any time that I have ' acted under the advice of eminent counsel.'
' This is a long yarn on a matter not of great interest to any one but myself. But I thought you might like — 7nore Hibernico — to be in at the beginning of a possible row.
" All join in love and best wishes. " W. C. P."
CHAPTER XVI
LEICESTER CHURCH CONGRESS: CHURCH REFORM
The meeting of a Church Congress in his diocese is an important crisis in the history of any bishop. At the meeting at Leicester every care and precaution had been taken to make it a success ; but what contributed more than anything else to the successful result was the Bishop's great capacity as a chairman. He con- tributed his full share to the speaking (especially at the working- men''s meeting*), but he was, if possible, more able as a chairman than even as a speaker. A great demonstration was threatened against the Mexican bishop, Riley, and it was fully intended by some to prevent his speaking. The Bishop took great pains to ascertain Bishop Riley's history and claims, and, having satisfied himself that there M as no reason why he should not be heard as well as other appointed speakers, he determined that the programme of the Congi'ess should be carried out. Leaving the chair in the central hall to a deputy, he presided himself at the sectional meeting where Bishop Riley was to speak. The result was that no demon- stration took place, and the peace of the Congi-ess was not disturbed. No doubt, one reason why the Bishop was so strong a chairman was the same which makes the Government of a gi'eat nation strong — there is always force in the background. So, while conducting the proceedings of the Congress with calmness and courtesy. Bishop Magee had rarely to show openly his repressive powers. Few men, however pugnacious, cared to cross swords with so powerful an antagonist ; and without displaying the powers Avhich all knew M ere there, he ruled a great assembly with smoothness and success.
Perhaps the most interesting feature of the Congress was an address from the Nonconformist ministers in Leicester, welcoming the Congress and expressing their sympathy in its discussions, to
* "Speeches and Addresses," p. 246.
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which the Bishop gave an admirable reply. His feelings towards the Nonconformists are fully and carefully expressed in three addresses given at Southampton Congi-ess in 1870 ; on this occasion, at Leicester, in 1880; and at Hull in 1891. — ["Speeches and Addresses," pp. 270-280.]
To J. C. MacDoxnell.
" Peterborough, October 4, 1880. " I must write you a line to tell you, what I know will please you, that I have just had a most handsome and kindly-worded letter of congratulation from Cantuar upon the success of the late Congress. Under any circumstances this would have been gratifying, but under those you wot of it is doubly so, and I cannot but think that Cantuar seized the opportunity of saying something graceful and healing. I had also a few kind words of thanks and approval from my old Nonconformist friend. Dr. Stoughton."
From the Archbishop of Canterbuiiy.
Addington Park, Croydon,
October 2, 1880.
My dear Bishop, — I cannot rise from reading the account of the close of the Leicester Congress without congratulating you on the success of the meeting.
At a time when there was naturally a good deal of sore feeling, it required such a chairman as presided to give all a right direction ; and I cannot doubt that the closing scene and the words with which you began and ended the meetings will have a lasting effect. I hope you have not suffered in health by the exertion. — Ever sincerely yours,
A. C. Cantuar.
The Lord Bishop of Peterborough.
To J. C. MacDonnetx.
" Palace, Peterborough,
"November 11, 1880.
" Our ' East Anglian ' Episcopal Conference held here this year has just terminated, and I am able now to see better than I could before how the Burials Act is affecting episcopal minds and politics. Of the five bishops assembled here, three — viz., Lincoln, Ely, and myself — are absolutely resolved not to consecrate; two — viz., St. Albans and Norwich — are as strong the other way. Gloucester and Bristol sides with the non-consecrating bishops, while Oxford,
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Rochester, Winchester, Carlisle, and Exeter are for consecration, and so I suspect are all the rest, including the two Primates.
"As regards the tolling of the bell, opinions are more evenly divided, probably about half being for conceding and the other half for refusing it. On registration and Smiday funerals we are, I think, all aOTeed to recommend the one and discourage the other. So much for episcopal union ! The next point is as to attendance or non-attendance at a meeting of the bishops summoned to Lambeth, for December 7, ' to discuss the Bui-ials Act ' ! To this meeting the fom* non-consecrating bishops have agreed not to go, on the gi'ound that, having taken and announced om* com"se of action on one side, as other bishops have on the opposite side, conference is useless, and the appearance of it compromising and dangerous for a minority so small as ours. Some of us feel very .strongly, too, that the episcopate is never taken fairly into conference by the Primate in matters political, but that arrange- ments are made by him \\ ith Government behind the scenes and that we are only called in to register foregone conclusions. So we ' strike,' and the results will be curious. I, for one, ^vill not ])ut niv cards down on the table at Lambeth for Sir W. Harcourt to see the next dav. So think others too. Whether the I'esult will be acquiescence by the Primate and Government in our rebellion, or an attempt to coerce us into consecrating, I can hardly yet imagine ; but I suspect that in either case a Bill to amend the Bur ials Acts is pretty sure to be brought in next session. The said Acts are indeed a tangled mass of blundering, and refuse, as might be expected, to fit in with the hasty legislation of last year. I am every now and then interchanging letters with the Home Office which on my part say as little as possible, on Sir W.''s part display evidently a wish to be nasty and yet an evident uncertainty how best to be so. Altogether the outlook is interesting, and the imprisonment of fom- bishops not altogether impossible. I will tell you how things go on from time to time."'
From the Bishop of Ely,
Palace, Ely, November 13. Mv DEAR Bishop, — Brimel writes this summary of the proceedings. " Lord Penzance admonished Mr. Dale to discontinue certaua practices. Mr. Dale continued these practices and was inhibited from officiating for three months. For disregarding this inhibition by officiating Mr. Dale has been imprisoned, just as in Adlam v. Colthuist Sir R. Phillimore
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145
would have issued a signi/iairil if tlic deteiulant hail not obeyed the monition issued by Dr. Lushington. In that case Sir K. Pliillimore intimated that he had a (liscretioii as to issuing Ihc significavit and the P. W. ]{. Act made no change in this. Lord P. seems to hold that he has no choice where the disobedience is avowed and persisted in. It is true that the benefice is vacated if a written pi'omise to obey the moni- tion is not given within three years, and so far it is true that if nothing- were done to punish disobedience to the inhibition this disobedience would be in effect punished by the same process by which non-sub- mission to the monition is punished." This confirms your view of the case. You will have seen the Archbishop's letter in to-day's Times. All seems to me to point to our addressing him as we proposed^ and publishing our letter, with his reply if he permits. We should thus at any rate make known our protest against the imprisonment, which is working fatally. In great haste. — Ever yours, J. R. Ely.
P.S. — That Lord P. need not have granted the signi/icavit is our point of remonstrance, and this Sir R. Phillimore seems to have held.
To the BisHOi' OF Ei.v.
"Peterborough, November 13, 1880.
" Mv DEAR Bishop, — The letter of the Friniate in this niovning's Times seems to me so exactly to express our view respecting the imprisonment of Mr. Dale as to make it, perhaps, unnecessary to address to him the letter we had agreed upon.
" At any rate, it necessarily somewhat modifies our communica- tion, which I have drafted accordinglv.
" Please let me have your opinion bv return of post,
" (1) Whether we should now send any letter.
" (2) Whether, if we do, we should send this.
"Yours most truly, "W. C. Peteuborough.
" P.S.- — On the whole, I incline to sending the letter, as tending to strengthen the Primate's hands in communicating with Lord Penzance."
From the Pisuor oe Ely.
Palace, Ely, November 15. My dear Bishop, — . . . . By all means send the letter you have drafted at once to the Primate. I have no douht that it is wise to do so. I also agree to pausing now with so doing, following up the private letter with more public action if the blunder is repeated bj- Penzance. —Ever yours, J. R. Ely.
VOL. II. K
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To J. C. MacDoxxell.
" Peterborodgh, November i8, 1880.
" I write one word in reply to your letter anent the ' ringing of the bell.'' This seems to me nuich more important than it does to you. In the first })lace, for the sake of the clergy. There may be cases — and sometimes there certainly will — in which they would not like the bell to be rung, e.g., a secularist funeral. But to grant it in some cases and refuse it in others is most invidious and diffi- cult, and even })ainfid. If the clergy mean to keep out of hot water, they had better adopt a broad principle, and either allow it without being asked for in all cases or refuse beforehand in all cases save Church funerals. The former alternative even you do not ])ropose, for you would have ' the bell asked for in all cases." The latter is, therefore, the only safe one.
" (2) As regards the Church.
" The use of the bell implies throwing open the belfry, and in most cases the church. So surely as vou allow this, you will have Roman Catholic priests robing- in the church, and Dissenters using it on wet days ; and so the public mind gradually familiarised to the idea of the national church for national use by all — the really dangerous side of the Liberation movement. I regard both these dangers as rcullij scriou.s, and you know I have not been a heated alarmist about this Bill. I earnestly hope, therefore, that you will not grant, or advise others to grant, the use of the bell.
"As regards another matter — the Lambeth meeting — I am more than ever averse to going to it, since I have heard that the Primate, in reply to a letter from Lincoln, telling him of his refusal to con- secrate and sending him his public letter setting forth his reasons, referred to the coming meeting of bishops ; as if, forsooth, that was to settle the question for those of us who had openly taken our line respecting it. It is clear that the Primate regards this matter of consecration as still an open question, anything indivi- dual bishops may have said to the contrary notwithstanding. To a meeting to be held on such a footing I certainly will not go.
" (2. Again) There may be, and probably will be, some attempt at a pastoral on the subject. Now, I believe that it would be posi- tively fatal to the little influence some of us still have with our clergy, if we allowed our names to appear conjointly with the Primate's and other Liberal bishops' in any document relating to the Burials Bill. I should not like to have to say this at the
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meeting, but say it I must if I go thei'e and it is proposed to issue 4uiy joint counsels, even on those points on which we might ha})pen to agree.
"3. It is simply silly to call bishops together to confer upon united counsels when one-third of them have already given widely different and opposite counsels.
" This meeting, to be of any real use, should have been held two months ago.
" 4. I will not throw down my cards on the table in the middle of the game I am playing with Sir W. V. Harcourt. The Primate could not well help telling him my line of argument and defence ; and I wish to keep this in reserve, both as regards the Primate and Sir W. too. I am the imfortunate person selected to try the Avhole question with, and I must play a very close and cautious game. I do not think that they will proceed to extremities against four bishops; more especially as their object, of course, is to present this Act to the nation as working quite smoothly and pleasantly. But still they ynuy do so, and I must therefore give them no point in the game. My great objection to the whole thing is, that it may cost me a couple of hundred pounds, which I can ill spare. But I am in for that if they go on, and cannot now recede before anything less than a maiidamii.s — whether I shall vield to that, I am not yet quite clear about. Legislation, if it take place at all, will doubtless be in the direction of relaxation, not of greater stringency. A Liberal Government compelling a bishop to consecrate by Act of Parliament would be too absurd, jnuch as Sir W. might like it. Meanwhile, I am observing a ' masterly inactivity,'' and saying and doing nothing, leaving it to the other side to ' fire first.'
" Exeter College, Oxon,
"November 29, 1880.
" I have just received your letter here, where I have been preach- ing the second of my ' select sermons. I have been running ' a- muck against ultra-Broad Churchism and science 'falsely so-called,' and, I am thankful to find, with some effect, both of encouragement to those who believe and great wrath on the part of those who do not believe in the supernatural. Some of these days I may show you the said sermons, as reported in the Church of ExgJdiul Pitlp'if, and ask your advice as to their publication — to which I aiii^ tempted, partly at least, in self-defence against the garbled records of them which the })enny-a-liners are giving; partly because I
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really think I have got hold of one or two points which tcU, more especially against the pet doctrine of the modern materialist, ' the scientific basis of ethics/ a thing which seems to me abovit as intelligible antl practical an idea as that of the olfactory judgment of pictiu'es. The eye of science is as capable of seeing morality as the nose of the spectator is capable of perceiving pers]^ective. Truly it is time that some stand were made here against mate- rialism on other grounds than those of Catholic heritage and the Ileal Presence. Oxford is fast dividing itself, from all I can hear, into pietistic Ritualists and anti-clerical and anti-Christian mate- rialists— the latter the abler and more fervent party of the two. The actual hatred of Christianity and of 'clericalism' on the part of many of the younger Fellows of colleges here is startling. A has les pn tres I is becoming quite a cry here ; and it is a positive dis- qualification in any aspirant for office here to be a clergyman.
" ^^'hat a change from the days A\ hen Newman and his school absorbed the intellect of Oxford ! and yet a change which they have largely helped to effect. I always looked for this reaction of scepticism against overstrained authority in religion ; but I hardly thought it Avould come so soon, or be so fierce when it came. And yet, on the other hand, there is much encouragement in the evident seriousness and earnestness of many of the young men now coming up to Oxford. The number of communicants, for instance, in this College (and very probably in others) is on the increase ; and the tone, I hear, increasingly good ; and vet it is out of these students that the materialistic and anti-Christian Fellows and professors are, of course, jiroduced. Is this because intellect is enlisting itself on the side of infidelity and leaving only the dullards for religion A sad prospect if it is so ! Or are those young Christians the crest of another wave of thought just rising ? It is hard to say; but profoundly interesting to think over. But how I wish that there were some male intellect here to guide and strengthen these young minds for good, instead of the merely_/?7«/?i?'»r minds of such monks in petticoats as Liddon and ! " W. C. P."
From the Bishop of Ei.v.
Oxford, Novemhcr iSSo. I am hearing on all sides of your last sennon here as most valuable^ Liddon tiiinks that delivered last time was the greatest sermon he has. ever heard.
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To J. C. :\Ia( Doxxki,l.
" Peterborough, Dcccmhcv ii, i8So. " I send you with this a copy of my last Oxford sermon. I have corrected some of the worst of the reporters' English, and vou w ill, I hope, therefore, be able to read it without having your teeth set on edge as mine were bv the atrocities they made me utter. I want vou to tell me candidly, aftei- you have read it, whether vou think it worth ])id)lishing. I confess now to consider- able doubts on that point. Indeed, I doubt whether any extem- pore sermon ought to be published. Its force must differ so essentiallv from that of the written essay — which a ])rinted sermon really is — that it can never satisfy the reader ; just because it did satisfy the hearer. However, give me your ' sintimints.''
To the Editor of the Cuiardiaii.
Palace, Peterborough,
January 13, iSSi.
Sir, — I observe in the leading article of this week's Guardian a state- ment that the Bill for the refomi of Church patronage, brought for- ward by me, "Avas dropped after one rejection." Permit me to say, tliat my Bill was not " rejected " but was passed by the House of Lords. It Avas not brought forward in the House of Commons, owing to cir- cumstances over Avhicli I had no control. The reasons why I did not think it desirable to reintroduce it immediately in the House of Lords, 1 stated at some length in your columns not long ago. They wei'e briefly these :
That while the Bill was fiercely o])posed by those interested in main- taining existing abuses, it was so languidly su})ported by the Church at large that it was clear that the force was wanting which alone could impel it through Parliament. I judged it better, therefore, to Avait the rijjening of opinion upon the question, before again attemjiting to move for Pai-lianientary action upon it. The course of events has, I think, proved that I was right iia this decision. Since then a Royal Commission on the subject, of Avhich I Avas a member, has sat and re- ported, and its recommendations — most of them unanimously adopted — are considerably in advance, not only of the provisions of my Bill, as ultimately amended by the Lords, but also of the recommendations of the Select Committee of their Lordships' House appointed on my motion in 1874. I may further state, that so far from being, as you allege, " rebuffed " by a "rejection" which never occurred, I have procured, Avith the approval of the episcopate, the introduction of a measure for
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the reform of Cluirch patronage in the House of Commons, of which I see tliat notice appears in the same number of the Guardian in which I am reproached for neglect of this subject. If 1 have not introduced the measure in this session in tlie Lords, it is because, in my opinion — which is shared by those best competent to advise ujion the subject — the House of Commons is the fittest place in whicli to raise again the question of refoiun of jiatronage on which the Lords have already pro- nounced their decision.
May I be allowed in conclusion to express the hope that all those earnest and courageous Church reformers, who did not support my efforts for reform six years ago, and who have since shown their zeal in this cause solely by rebuking me for not succeeding when their failure to support me made success impossible, will try a different plan now ? May I ask them, instead of reserving their efforts for criticism after failure, to do what they can by petitions and in any other way that they may think desirable, to promote the success of the Bill on the reform of Church patronage, which is to be introduced in the House of Commons on the 2nd of March next.'' W. C. Peterborough.
To J. C. MacDoxxkij..
'' Peterborough, January 22, 1881.
" I see from your letter just received that you cannot have received mine of ten days ago, in which I told you of my bad knee, and of my greater trouble in the shape of defaulting tenants and loss of money, to the tune of at least ^£^400, and possibly ot'SOO.
" Between these two troubles I am not much in the vein for Convocation. Nor have I any great opinion of what it can do, or of what I am to do in it. I am, however, loth to shrink from a clear duty, however distasteful it may be ; and if I could plainly .see it my duty to go up, I would. I cannot advocate unlimited concession to the Ritualists, and nothing less will satisfy them ; while, on the other hand, I would be prepared to offer just enough of concession to enrage the Puritans. Who was it ever invented that falsest of proverbs, ' In medio tutissimus ibis " ? It seems to me that the man in the middle is ' safe ' for nothing but a kicking from both sides. I have had, however, some talk with Cantuar and others of the bishops about the situation, and am now correspond- ing M-ith others about it. I should like much to have a good long- talk with you on the whole matter, to clear my mind upon it. When will your party break up, and allow of your coming hei'e for a night or two ?
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To PuKliEXDARY GltlKK.
" Palace, Peterborough,
" January 26, 1881.
" Many thanks both for your sending me your pamphlet, and for the pamphlet itself. The eause of reform of Chureh patronage wants all the help it can get, and yours is valuable. As regards the contents of your pamphlet, there is only one statement in it to which I could take excejjtion, and that is as to matter of fact. The Commission did not defend sale of ad\ owsons on the ground that it secured variety of view and freedom of opinion in the Church. This was their reason for defending existing var'id'it's of patronage, e.g., private, collegiate, episcopal, Ci'own, and so on ; but not for {iC({uiescing in .sales oj" patronage. I say this with some confidence as the clause in question was mine, and was borrowed from the Lords' Committee Report, which was mine also. The real difficulty as to abolishing sales of advowsons is, the pauper or criminous patron. If an advowson becomes inalienable it may fall into utterly vmfit hands, and not be as it now is capable of rescue from such ownership by sale. Further difficulty arises from the fact that the bias of all modern legislation is against the creation of perpetual entails. This I found a serious obstacle in the minds of members of both Houses who were well disposed to reform of patronage in general. My own feeling, after six years' experience, now is that this evil of traffic in livings is best attacked legislatively, by steadily icJiittling it down to smaller and smaller dimensions, until at last patrons may care far less about greatly diminished privileges, and the thing be finally abolished with comparatively little difficulty. For this reason I am thankful for any instalments of reform px'o- curable, and if all the recommendations of the Conmiission were carried out we should gain a great deal more in this direction than is apparent on the face of them. Nevertheless, I gladly welcome more thorough-going proposals such as yours. They help to turn the flank of the defenders of abuses by showing them that if they do not agree with their adversaries quickly worse is in store for them. I wish very nuich that you would write a letter to the Guardian, showing to what extent the reconnnendations of the Conmiissioners really go, and urging all reformers to support at least these even while demanding or desiring more. What I want just now is support from the Church outside Parliament. The Gtiardian, for some reason unknown to me, steadily sneers at and minimises all that I
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<lo or say. But independent support of this Bill (I care nothing for myself) they can hardlv refuse to admit to their columns. I want, in short, to keep the ball rolling. Pray try and help this. As the time for the introduction of the Bill by Mr. Stanhope draws nearer I should be most thankfid for petitions in its support, and so, of course, would he."
" Peterborough, January 29, 1881. "I am greatly anuised by your political corresjiondence with Sii- W . La\\son. You will pardon an anti-Permissive Bill man, and anti- or non-Ritualist, for saying that I enjoy it as the Romans once enjoyed a battle between the barbarians, on the op]iosite side of the river to their encampment. Sir AV. will not allow of a Permissive Bill in favour of Ritualism, and you object to a Maine law against it. / am in favour of a widely tolerant but definite law, which will clearly, however liberally, define the limits of Ritual ; and not leave congregations at the mercy of clergy ; nor— what so many of the clergy are unconsciously clamouring ior — clergy at the mercy of congregations ; nor either of these at the mercy of bishops ; nor bishops at their mercy ; but all alike bound by clear and unmistakable hnc. This, to my mind, the ornaments rubric is not, and never will be until it is amended, i.e., until it })lainly says what garments the clergy are to wear (I care ^•ery little what, so they be only defined), instead of sending a curate of twenty- three, when robing for service, to search through the ecclesiastical liistory of a hundred and thirteen years to know Mhat he is to ^vear."
"Palace, Peterborough,
"February i, iSSi.
" We are very nearly agreed as to the best remedy for Church troubles. But the drafting of a Bill to effect this is yet a great way off. No such Bill would have a chance of passing, unless it had the general support of the Chureli representatives ; and before that can be obtained so as to receive the assent of the Church collective, the representation must be improved.
" Reform of the representative assemblies of the Church nuist precede, I now see, reform of her rubrical directions. This reform is pi'oceeding healthily, I think, though slowly.
" Diocesan representation is greatly strengthening and develoj)- ing. I should not hesitate to submit a question of Ritual discretion, for my own guidance, to my Diocesan Conference to- morrow.
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" Reform of Convocation iiiust conit', and that ltl' Ion"'. It should consist of:
" (1) Larger basis of representation.
"(2) Fusion of two houses in Canterbury as in York.
" (3) Fusion of Canterbury and York ; or, at least, nuich closer rapproilicmerd.
"(4) Abolition of old and obsolete modes of business, (^^■.,j£,'v«w/- m'lna and the like.
" Tlicit, and not till then, the Church will acce})t a wise and tolerant rubrical revision from Convocation. ^Meanwhile, the question is, Can we keep the Church together until then I some- times doubt it, and that seriously. If it is so held, it must be by the help of an amount, both of control and of dispensing power, on the part of the bisho})s, which no party seems disposed to grant then). Therefore I am not sanguine. " AV. C. P."
The conflict between the Hitualists and the Ecclesiastical Courts led the Bishop to propose a Royal Commission to consider the w hole question of Courts Ecclesiastical and Clergy Discij)line, with n truce on all sides while awaiting its report. On December 4, 1880, he wrote to the Bishop of Ely, urging him to connnunicate this idea to ~Slv. Gladstone. On IMarch 7, 1881, the Archbishop of Canterbury brought the subject before the House of Lords, and the Jtoyal Connnission was appointed.
To J. C. :\Ia( DOXXKLL.
" Selsdon Park, Croydon,
"February 11, iSSi.
"Convocation is, thank Heaven, over to-day; and I have time to .send you a few notes as to its history. You will have seen from the Guardian how the discussion in our House began, upon a motion by the Bishop of Lincoln in reply to certain petitions for ' tolera- tion ; and you will have seen how I spoke — not against toleration, but against certain devices for effecting it, which I w as particularly anxious to demolish early in the day, so as to shut men up to either amended rubrics or better courts. This I succeeded in doinu" effectually. They never turned up (igrtin in the whole of the session.
"•That night I dined at Bishop of Ely's, and met the leaders of the toleration memorial. Church, Gregory, and Lord Alwyne Compton. "We tliscussed the whole situation very freely. Gregory,
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w ho is the Cleon of the Lower House, showed us his motion, which was for Ritualist toleration under certain specified conditions, e.g"., number of complainants, ike. I told him that it was impossible for l)ishops to accept or announce any conditions as to the exercise of their discretion. To do so would be to make it cease to be discre- tion ; and besides, the bishops would not agree as to these conditions. He seemed rather struck by this, but made no promise to alter his motion.
" On ^Vednesday I breakfasted at Lord Beauchamp's, with Beresford Hope, Nelson, Chai'les Wood, Hutton, and sundry l)ishops and others — a High Church breakfast. We again discussed the situation. All are in favour of the Royal Commission, but when I broached my idea of a truce on both sides pending its report, Wood, for the E.C.U., totally scouted it, and would hear of 7?o ixnnprom'ise. This warned me not to propose it in my speech for the Connnission, as I did not want to have it rejected by the High Church organs, while I can easily make it in my own diocese.
" We had on Wednesday morning a meeting of the bishops of both provinces, at which Lightfoot, Goodwin, and Ryle, were present. The last-named alone opposed the Commission, but yielded at last to my representations. I did not care to attend on Thurs- day morning, as the RoAal Commission question came on in the afternoon. AVinchester opened the discussion in an extra broad and gushing speech enough to ruin the Commission in the eyes of the Evangelicals. Luckily he moved not for a Commission, but for immediate legislation. I followed with my motion for a Com- mission, which was unanimously voted, with only a few verbal amendments. To-day the Reformandum of the Lower House came up to us, greatly improved and softened, asking onlv for avoidance of litigation ' where possible,' and declining to name any limits — leaving this to us. To this Lincoln's motion, asserting a general discretion in bishops, Mas adopted in reply, and so it ended. I spoke a few words on this, mainly referring to the ultra legal attitude assumed by the Ritualists while it suited them, as con- trasted with their present claim for ' fatherliness.''
" On the whole, both in LTpper and Lower House, things went fairly well. In the Lower House especially, there was much less ans;er and much more of fairness and moderation than I had expected. In the LTpper there was some really able speaking and much of tolerance expressed. I think the result mainly good as tending to calming men's minds, and as carrying with complete
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ussent of all mtu the Royal Commission. The Aichbishop was evidently very anxious and even nervous. He had prej)ared a reply to the memorialists which it would have been simply disastrous to- have adopted, and he ([uietly shelved it for Lincoln"'s motion.
"He Mound up our debates ably and judiciously on the whole,, and was evidently satisfied with the result. As regards my own share in these matters, I think I have done some good. But partly owing to the bvu'king of my speech in the Guardian, and partly because I did not, owing to Wood's opposition, broach my theory of a tnice ad interim, I expect to be misunderstood and abused. Never mind, I have done what I wanted to do, and am accustomed to abuse. To-morrow I lunch with Lord Overstone, and dine with the Duke of Argyll, and so ends my week in town, including my half-cure of my knee, which is decidedly better."
"Athen.eum, February 13, 1881.
" I had a short interview with Cantuar yesterday. He anticipates opposition from A\^illiam of York. I told him that I thought this not altogether to be regretted, as it was possible for the bishops to l)e too unanimous ; and that an unavailing protest from York would relieve us from the charge of conspiracy. He seemed rather to like this idea, and will, at any rate, go on, whether York approves or no. It seems a strange thing, after our last year's blow up, that he and I should be confidentially discussing together Church politics. But in truth, his is a in'ry noble charactei', and (juite above the pettiness of remembering a bvgone quarrel.
" There is an article in yesterday's Spectator, on Bishops and the Ritualists, worth vour reading. It does full justice to my speech, and puts my view, while differing from it, very clearly and neatlv. I am specially thankful for this, after the outrageous travestying of it by the Guardian.
"I saw, this afternoon, the grand procession of the Radical chd)s and unions to a monster meeting in Hvde Park against " coercion."" It was very instructive. The multitude of small, undersized, citizen-like youths and men — some fierce and proud, some evi- dently half ashamed of the whole thing, some evidently regarding- it as a jolly lark — the tawdry banners, the flashy mottoes, the dismal bands, and the utterly indifferent spectators — all combined with the knowledge that the gathering would go off" quietly, and have not the least effect on the mind of that public which still governs — all so unlike anything that could happen in any country
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~<:ive Eiiglaiul ; all so contemptible noic, and yet all so fraught w ith elements of danger for the future — struck me greatly. There was little or nothing of the rough or the rouge in the procession, and a good deal evidently of honest faith in their cause. And yet to think that those men, so ridiculously ignorant of all the facts oi the cause they were enlisting in, are the governing class of twenty years hence ; and to think that what brought them together was not love of Ireland, but hate of landowners and property generally, gave food for reflection.
" I left them and went my way to AVestniinster xVbbev, where I heard Stanley delivering to an innnense congregation a graceful and almost eloquent eulogy on the late Lord J. Thynne who for fifty years had been Sub-Dean of AVestniinster. It was like all Stanley's sermons, full of elegant and graceful speech — you can hardly call it thought — and full, too, of allusion to facts and )iames and circumstances known to his hearers, which riveted their attention ; and yet, no one sentence in the whole that bit or burned itself into your memory. Nothing that made you thinli, but only what made you, somehow, J'eel pleased with the preacher and the subject and yourself. The Dead ]\Iarch in 'Saul,' j)layed on the great organ, wailing away down the great aisles in the twi- light, with its VOX' liumana stop, that sounded like the cry of a human mourner, was more suggestive on the whole, and more touching."
To PllEliEXUAKY GlUElt.
"Peterborough, March 14, 1881.
" Thanks for your letter in the Guanltan, which I saw. I quite agree with your friend as to the position of the Kitualists. If I were one, I certainly M ould not ask for ' toleration.' Only, on the other hand, if I stood for ' law,' I could not complain if law was invoked against me. Nor, further, would I deliberatelv introduce into my ritual practices which had been condenmed by the court which I had myself declared entitled to my submission — e.g., I Mould not use thirty-six altar-lights, M hen Sir R. Phillimore, in the ■C ourt of Arches, had decided that only two were lawful ; to say nothing of some scores of Roman usages, introduced without even a shadow of jiretext for them in the Book of Common Prayer. If the Ritualists would honestly reduce their ritual to what they thejnselves believe to be ordered by the said book. M e should be nearer a solution of our difficulties than, I fear. Me shall ever be.
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" ^Vs to Sclborne's speech — he is not the Roijdl Connni.ss'ioit. I hope it may be a strono- and a wise one. It is our last chance."'
To J. C. :\IacDonnell.
"Peterborough, April 13, iSSr.
" The solatium that occuiTed to yon as regards niy linancial affairs had already occurred to nie. It is good, so far, as you sav. Meanwhile it means a hole in my year's income of oPSOO, which, for a man who just makes both ends meet, is something; and also it means the loss to my family of the arrears aforesaid. It also means an annual loss of some ^"75 a year by payments to the Com- missioners for certain premises formerly included in my 'estates margin,' but which now I must rent from them. However, all things considered, I am a great deal better off than are a great many better men than myself, and I am very far from repining ; on the contrary, I can heartily thank God for my present position, and for His many undeserved mercies besides.
" How rejoiced I am to think you are not now at AValgrave ! Had vou been so, the next six months would have seen yoK in the poor-house, and inc in a lunatic asylum from sheer vexation at having been the instrumental cause of your disastei's.
" I had a letter to-day from Sankey, announcing his reception in the Church of Home ! His moving causes seem to have been the Riley incident and the placing of Vane Smith on the New Testament Ilevision Connnittee ! How curiously this illustrates the position of the extreme Ritualists in our Church. Here is a man who joins the Church of Rome because of certain faults in the admmlstratiorf, of the Church of England. Clearly, therefore, he must, before he joined, have been holding all Roman doctrine; for the acceptance of this seems to have been no hindrance to his desertion of his own Church. How strangely the argument sounds to one who reasons, as distinguished from one who feels merely. The Riley incident was objectionable; therefore transubstantiation does not overthrow the nature of a sacrament ! A Unitarian was allowed a place in the Revision Connnittee ; therefore ' the Church of Rome has not erred ' ; or, therefore ' invocation of saints is not a fond thing vainly invented,' etc.
" How clear it is that these men nuist have been deliberately or unconsciously at one with Rome in all her dogmas before their secession ; or that they must have held a theory of Church
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government which makes the truth or falsehood of dogma depend entirely on the cjuestion of which is the true Church. The latter is, I really believe, the true solution. They start with the theory. There is one true visible and infallible Church ; it is either the Anglican, Roman, or Greek, or all three in (me. Sooner or later they conclude it is not the Greek ; then, it is not the Anglican ; then, it cannot be the three in one. Ergo, it is the Church of Home— »o matter xchat she teaches. This is what comes of seeking, theologically, first the Chureh and then the fa'tth. Chronologically, I suppose, it might be disputed which conies first; but theologically and logically the argument runs thus :
" The true Church does not err in doctrine.
" The Church of Home has erred in doctrine. Ergo, the Chmx-h of Rome is not the true Church. " Their argument is this : " The true Church cannot err in doctrine. " The Church of Rome is the true Church.
" jEJr^'o, whatever she teaches is the true doctrine; and accordingly, when the time conies, they go over to her, swallowing en route, as a kind of sandwich on the journey. Immaculate Conception, Papal Infallibility, and sundry other 'unconsidered trifles' which, until the last moment, they had felt a great reluctance to taste even.
" This is the only Avay I can account for men whose honesty is iinimpeachal)le, remaining to the last in our Church and then .suddenly adopting a whole string of tenets which, up to the moment of their secession, they had ex-anirno rejected. The w'hole thing is .a very curious psychological phenomenon, which, however, does not
jnake my practical dealing with M and his flock any the easier
— rather the reverse.
" Beaconsfield is, I think and fear, dying by quarter-inches. "\Miat a struggle and what a man ! And what a real loss to English statesmanship ! "
" House of Lords, June i6, 1881.
" I consider that I have achieved a triumph of diplomacy when I got Cantuar to undertake to introduce the Queen Anne's Bounty j3ill,* which last week he would not hear of at any price. I saw
* The Incumbents' Loan Extension Bill, of which the inception and final ■success were due almost solely to the Bishop of Peterborough, was a matter of great importance in relief of clergy distress in those times. Queen Anne's Bounty had given large loans to many parishes for building of vicarages and restoration of chancels. The instalments paid yearly to Queen Anne's Bounty
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him to-day, and got him to promise this. It is in every way better that lie should do it than I, and he is welcome to the (ci)8oc with the clergy if he succeeds.
"You will, I think, be pleased to hear that he volunteered the information that he wrote to Gladstone suggesting my name for the Ecclesiastical Courts Connnission, and that mine was the only episcopal name besides London that he did suggest. Gladstone, he says, took no notice of the suggestion. I confess to being greatly pleased to know this. I want to think well and feel kindly to Cantuar, and I should have felt less so as long as I thought he had ' done " me in this matter bv first using and then throwing me over.
" We had a terrific squeeze at Lord S.'s last night. The great man was verv gracious about mv little Bill, which I am to show him to-night.
" I hear that Gladstone is to make a great speech to-night on the state of public affairs and the Land Bill. To-morrow night we are to have a field dajj in the House of Lords. Argyll is to make a slashing attack on the Bill, followed bv Lansdowne, to be replied to by Carlingford and Spencer. The debating power will certainly be all on one side. I think myself that the Land Bill s\ ill move more rapidly now, owing to the mere weariness of it in men's minds. They are as sick of it as a man gets of German bands and odd volumes of stale novels by the seaside in summer. Every one, Irish landlords included, is beginning to long to have it over and done with ; the tone in the House of Commons is increasingly this, and the business is becoming tame in consequence.
" I must get now into the House of Connnons gallery, for fear of missing Gladstone."
" 22 Onslow Gardens, S.W., July 6, 18S1.
"A. Cantuar managed his little speech for the Q. A. B. Bill adinirahJij. He muddled it up so judiciously that no one knew exactly what it meant. It looks, in the report of his speech, like .some small matter of business detail on behalf of Q. A. B. whicli no one will care to question If onhj the clergy will hold their tongues about it ; but I greatly dread the clerical vacocthes scrihendl.
consisted of two parts — viz., ist, a yearly repayment of principal ; and 2nd, interest on part of loan still unpaid. The Bill suspended the repayments of principal for three years, during which interest only was paid, and thus post- poned final repayment of loan for three years. It injured no one and was a great relief to the impoverished incumbents.
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If they will only write to that tomb of the prophets, the GuanJhoi, it will not much matter, but if they write to the London dailies it is all up with us and them too.
"iVIonk, the Radical member for Gloucester, most cordially takes charge of the liill in the House of Connnons, and I do not now despair of its passing.
" I dine with Cantuar to-night, to meet Prince Leo]iold. He (Cantuar) seems going out of his way to be civil to me just now, and I greatly like him for the good taste and good feeling of this course of action."
" July 20, 1881.
"Poor dear Stanley died last night. Already/ rumour is busy appointing his successor. I have to preach what must be almost his funeral sermon on Sunday evening: at Westminster. Stran<>e that I should have done the same thing for his wife's, Lady Augusta's, death before the Queen ! The Archbishop spoke well and feelingly to-day, in Convocation, of his death and life ; so did Lincoln, with much nobleness and generosity referring to their dogmatic differences ; Gloucester and Bristol said a few words referring to Stanley's share in the Revision Committee ; and then the wave of business and discussion passed on over his place, which knows him no more for ever ! I had a sincere regard for him. He was a very genuine and truthful man — which is rai'e praise for a lifelong courtier — and was full of tenderness and charity. Every one, of course, will now praise him, especially those who during his lifetime abused him ; and then will come the new dean, and new \\ ays, and so on and so forth. ' ^Vhat shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue ! *■
" Our Q. A. B. Bill was read a second time in the House of Commons at 3.30 a.ji., ]Monk, who has charge of it, sitting up to carry it. He is now sanguine of its passing ; but the House of Commons is a queer place, and nothing is safe there just now.
" The Archbishop called me asitle to-day, in Convocation, to beg- that I would speak on the Land Bill in the House of Lords. He evidently tlislikes the now all but unbroken silence of our bench on subjects not ecclesiastical, and thinks it well that I should break it ; in fact, he said as much. But whether I will do it, or whether it would be wise for me to do so, is another question altogether. I fear that I should neither please nor help any one by what I should .say, Avhile I should only expose myself to the annoyance of a great deal of abuse and misrepresentation. Tell me your ' sintimints on
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this point. Salisbury begs those who cannot be present to pair, but this means really giving him my proxy for every division, and this I am not disposed to do. If only the Bill does not come up to us until August 4, I shall be away for Norway, and this would be best of all/'
" 22 Onslow Gardens, Ju]y 23, 1881.
" Imprimis. The Incumbents' Loan Extension Bill was read a third time in the House of Commons last night, and passed ! It has only now to receive in due course the royal assent ! Noic we may blow our horns and light tar-barrels to our hearts' content. Monk, who had charge of the Bill, though a Radical, deserves every credit for the skill with which he steered it through the House. It was slightly in danger on the second reading — of course an Irish irreconcilable attacked it, but was quietly soothed down by one or two friendly members — and by dint of earwigging all manner of men we succeeded in preventing its being blocked."
" House of Lords, July 26, 1881. " We had a remarkable ceremony in Westminster Abbey yester- day,* not for its impressiveness as a ceremony — -in that respect it was feeble and ill-managed— but for the strikingly representative character of those assembled there. The reading out of the names of those gathered in the Jerusalem Chamber was a piece of English history !
" P.S. — A really axtyful congregation on Sunday evening, f and a better sermon than was expected hy we."
"Peterborough, October 25, 1881. " I have j ust returned from R., where we had a dismal day. The incumbent, an elderly, easy-going, old country Evangelical, calmly discharged himself of all responsibility for all the pi'oceedings of the day. He neither arranged procession, services, officiating clergy, nor anything else. He was to have been instituted, but nfever sent his address to Gates, so no institution deed reached him ! He had not even chosen the lessons for to-day's service ! The church was ice cold and damp as a bog, not even a piece of carpet to shield our feet in the chancel from the damp flags. I saved dear old Fearon's life by pulling his chair out two feet from a dripping wall, and getting Bennie to put a cushion under his feet. * Dean Stanley's funeral. t In Westminster Abbey.
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Altogether I have never in my thirteen years' experience of dio- cesan oddities seen anything like this. I am shivering and sneezing still.
" Gladstone is making an axcful mess of his Irish policy. His appeal for moral support to the Irish landlords is his last and worst mistake ; cowardly and cruel it was obviously, but also un- .statesinanlikc and feeble, giving a party complexion to what ought to be the passionless and impartial action of the State on behalf of law and order.
Archbishop Croke's letter, I hear, is the really effective blow to the Land League. The Roman Catholic Church evidently thinks enough has been got out of Parnell and company for the present, and accordingly ' hands them over to the secular arm.'
" I go to Oxford on Saturday to preach my University sermon on Sunday. The said sermon is only sketched as yet.
" I am very tired, very disgusted, very shivery, very seedy, and very truly and ever affectionately yours, " W. C. P."
" Peterborough, November 15, 1881. "I am just now, apropos of your references to Green's imprison- ment and its effect on the minds of the clergy, greatly vexed at an outburst of this kind at Northampton.
The W.M.C.E. Society, i.e., the extremest party organisation on the ritualistic side, has just held its annual festival in St. Lau- rence's schoolroom, and subsequently in St. Laurence's Church ; Charles Powell, the violent secretary, being the chief speaker, and Bishop Jcnner the preacher. All the clergy of St. Laurence and St. Sepulchre attended, as did also some of the country clergy. You may imagine the style of speaking. Green's imprisonment was, of course, made much of. As regards that I should not care. The clergy have a good right to be indignant, and if they had held a meeting; amonjist themselves or addressed me aoainst it I should have been rather pleased than otherwise ; but the thing that vexes me is the holdins; of the annual festival of this ultra-ritualistic faction in one of the new Church Extension churches ; thereby seriously injuring the cause of church extension, and greatly weakening my hands in Northampton and the diocese in working for it. It is also a public rejection of my advice to the clergy in Northampton to avoid, just now at least, all party demonstrations. I am altogether much disheai'tened by this event, and hardly know how to deal with it. I will not act hastily, but these clergy must
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be given to understand in some way that they must choose between Bishop Jenner and mc."
To the Rev. Lewis H. Loyd.
" Palace, Peterborough, November 16, 1881. " Dear ]\Ir. Loyd, — I observe, in the report of the festival of the Chui'ch of England Working Men's Society, recently held in vour church, that the preacher on that occasion was Bishop Jenner. Had I been aware of Bishop Jenner's intention to preach in a church in this diocese, I should have felt it my duty to refuse my con- sent to his so doing, on the ground of his membership in the Society of the Holy Cross. I have never, since the passing of a vote of censure on the publications of this society by both Houses of the Convocation of the Province of Canterbury and since ac- quainting mvself with its rules of membership, knowingly allowed any one of its members to appear in this diocese as preacher. I feel it due to you that I should inform you of this, as it is possible that on some future occasion Bishop Jenner may be proposed to you as a preacher in your church. There is much, besides, con- nected with this festival both as regards the language indulged in by some of the speakers at it, and as regards its too probable effect upon the peace and the progress of the Church in Northampton, which has caused me pain and anxiety. I do not, however, desire to dwell upon these matters in writing to vou, because I am scru- pulously desirous of respecting the freedom of action of the clergy of my diocese, even when such action least commends itself to my own judgment. I can only hope and pray that my anticipations of evil in the future, as the result of the recent proceedings, may not be realised, and that what apjicars to me an untoward event may be over-ruled for the good of those great interests which T know you have at heart as much as any man can have. But with respect to the one point on which I am writing to you, I ha^■e felt it, as I have said, due to you to inform you of my rule, and I am sure that having done so I may confidently reckon upon your observance of it. — Believe me, yours most truly, " W. C. Peteubouough.'"
To J. C. MacDonnell.
"Athen^um Club, Pall Mall,
" November 18, 18S1.
" Things look ugly in Northampton just now. I wrote a very cautious and kindly worded letter to Loyd respecting Bishop
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Jcnner''s preaching in his church, he (Jenner) being a S.H.C. man, and I having decided not to allow such to preach in this diocese. At tlie close of my letter I very guardedlv and very kindly expressed my fears of the result of this affair on Church Extension in North- ampton, adding that the proceedings had caused me 'pain and anxiety.' He replied in unexceptionable terms to the j^r^^ part of my letter and took no notice of the latter. This means assertion of perfect liberty of action in the future. I agree with you that I nuist not be in a hurry to act, but in some Avay I must take my line, and mischief will be afoot no matter how I take it.
" I do not take your view as to Bishop Jenner 's action. Bishops owe courtesy and comity to each other. No diocesan bishop ever enters another's diocese without informing him. Jenuer is, of course, in one sense only a beneficed clergyman, in another he is only a bishop. It was in the latter capacity that he invaded my diocese to make its government more difficult for me. High Churchmen might have remembered the early canons against ' Episcopi Vagantes.'' But High Churchmen resort to primitive antiquity as to a co-operative store, for what they happen to want and can carrij home ; the rest of the goods they do not care for."
"Peterborough, November 21, 1881.
" As I should like to keep you au courant as to the Northampton affair I enclose you a copy of my letter to Loyd and his reply. Please return these to me by next post, and guai'd them as the apple of your eye. I have no other copies, and I may have to publish, or see published, these.
" At present I do not think this very probable as yet. Loyd, though very wrong-headed, is decidedly a gentleman, and is, I believe, fairly loyal to me personally. I do not think that he wishes to make a ' blowing horn,' as we would say in Ireland, of this matter, and certainly I do not ; it may, therefore, blow over without a newspaper quarrel. But, on the other hand, I must show him and Thornton and the Northampton clergy generally that in matters of public Church polity afi'ecting the interests of the Church in Northampton they must either follow my guidance or I must cease to attempt to lead. If they suppose that I mean to lead them in the direction in which they choose to drive me they are slightly mistaken.
" My only fear is that my letter to Loyd is too delicately worded. I ought to have told him more distinctly what I thought as to the
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effect of his proceedings on Church Extension in Northampton ; but I expected some reply from him which would have given a further opening for this."
" Peterborough, November 21, 18S1. " I sent off my letter in too great haste to notice one or two points in j ours.
" I do not care two straws for Holy Cross men and their attacks. They ' ain't got no friends ' to speak of ; and if they had I have too clear a case to mind their objurgations much. I have already stopped two of them in past years, and I have forbidden Mason to nominate one of them to me as curate.
"The point on which I mean to stand is this : Party strife just now in Northampton is obviously mischievous to the Church. All the clergy there know that this is my view. The Church Asso- ciation and Chm'ch Union have respected my wishes and avoided holding meetings in Northampton. Certain of the clergy have publicly set my commands at nought, and in defiance of them held an extreme party meeting, and they have done this in a Church Extension church, i.e., in the most mischievous form possible. Naturally, I for the present withdraw from the Church Extension movement until I see whether this line of conduct is to be per- severed in. If it is I cannot appeal to the county for funds for new churches in Northampton, and I cannot co-operate with or lead in public matters the recalcitrant clergy. Q. E. D."
" Barnack, November 27, 1881. " You will be interested, I am sure, in hearing how things went at Northampton during my visit there. I got to Wales' on Wed- nesday evening and held a regular council of war with him and Thicknesse as to my course on Thm-sday. I found them both very strongly in favour of my going to the Church Extension meeting and saying my say there on the subject of recent proceedings. They urged that whereas my absence might be misconstrued in various directions, my presence, accompanied by plain speech, could not at any rate be misunderstood. Also, that there was danger of reprisals from the Evangelicals if I did not say something which might satisfy them. Also, that the loyal High Church clergy who had stayed away from Loyd's meeting, had a claim for support from me. All these reasons seemed weighty, though I felt there were risks on the other side, especially the risk of reply and debate at the meeting, which might end heaven knew how or where.
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Still I thought it safer to act as advised in such a matter. Accord- ingly, I went, and having dismissed the reporters, delivered myself in very carefully guai'dcd language. I disclaimed any intention of ' censure,' and only claimed to define my own position as regards Church Extension and Church Extension churches. I stated this very much on the lines suggested in your letter, and doing it as kindly and tenderly towards the clergy concerned as I knew how ; giving a side blow or two at Bishop Jenner, which was well received. I Avas listened to in breathless silence, and then I closed by saying that this ' was my godly admonition,"" that I wished for no debate, and then I gave the Benediction. At any rate I now feel sure that come what may I have done the right thing, and I can therefore now patiently await events.'''
" Peterborodgh, December i, 1881. "Let me say how pleased I am to find that mv mode of dealing with the Northampton crisis meets your approval. It was indeed very critical steering; you may judge how much so when I tell you that I had yesterday an interview with Loyd, at his request, which he sought in order to tender me his resignation of St. Laurence, if I thought his resigning would be for the good of the Church in Northampton.
" I had, as you may suppose, a long and unreserved discussion of the whole situation with Loyd, and it ended in his withdrawing all idea of resignation, and promising to disconnect his schoolroom and church in future from the C.E.W.M. He behaved, I am bound to say, all through like a gentleman, and was perfectly honest and straightforward.
" We parted excellent friends with a mutual agreement that in future we should always see one another on any point of difference, and not write. On the whole I think I have done right in building this bridge of gold for a flying foe.
" (1) I have obtained a clear public vit-tory.
" (2) I have obtained private submissions and effected separate treaties with some of the belligerent powers.
" (3) I have clearly defined my future position in Northampton.
" (4) I have prevented threatened reprisals from the Evangelicals.
" (5) I have, I trust, relieved Loyd from, or at any rate enabled him to resist, any future pressure from the extreme section of his own people.
" Of course the future is uncertain, and may prove troublous at any moment ; but on the whole I do trust that so far I have done
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riglit. Truly, as you say, it has been a very critical matter, and is a painful illustration of the explosive condition of the Chui'ch at this moment. Oh, how weary I am of it all ! Weary of trying to restrain the follies of some of the clergy ; weary, too, of trying to see my own way in a great crisis of the Church of England.
"To keep your head cool while others are losing theirs, and your own heart is hot with vexation and anxiety ; that is the present task of an English bishop — not the easier when the English bishop is an Irish man.
" iVIanchester has, I fear, made a mistake ; though Wood on the one side, and the Evangelicals on the other, are doing their best to help him out of it. The latter have nobly come to his rescue, after the manner of Balaam together with a judicious imitation of his ass.
" I wish I could go to you. I want change and rest, but many things concur to prevent it.''
"Peterborough, December 13, 1881. " I think I see faint signs of a turn of the tide in Ireland. Sub- Commissioners are evidently recovering fi'om their first intoxication, sobered by red herrings and soda water administered them freely in the English papers. Landlords are plucking up heart. The English subscriptions will affect the imagination of the Irish tenants, and IVIinisters are evidently afraid for ' tenure " if they cannot meet Parliament with some better news from Ireland. All these hopeful symptoms may of course be succeeded by as many unfavourable ones, for the Irish fever is a terribly clinging and un- certain disease and runs no regular course, to say nothing of the fact that the patient is being treated just now by a set of the most ignorant and rash quacks that ever committed homicide, while her so-called friends are administering large doses of Irish whisky and keeping the room at a tremendous temperature. Still there is a chance, one in a thousand, from the native vigour of the patient, who has certainly survived a good deal of bad treatment in past years and may survive even Gladstone and Parnell."
" Peterboroogh, December 18, 18S1. *' I return you ReichePs letter.* Its contents in no way surprise me nor Farrar. He knows some of the pai'ties named by Reichel,
* The letter described a meeting at Oxford, in which a measure was strongly advocated for freeing the parochial clergy from all doctrinal restraint except that of a parochial council.
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while I have been expecting the growth of such a party in our Church for some time back ; indeed I prophesied it in my second charge as the certain reaction in the Church and Universities against the extravagancy of the High Church faction. I do not think that the new school Avill effect much legislatively for the success of their views. If they did they would bring the establish- ment about our ears and cure their own mischief in that Avay. An Established Church Avhose ministers need believe nothing, provided that they sa?/ a)Hl do whatever a pansectarian committee of their parishioners bid them, would be too great an absurdity for the nation to endure. But I do dread the sapping spread of vmbelief under the outer forms of om* Church. These provide imperfectly, as we have seen, against Romanism, but against Scepticism hardly at all, for the same reason that the laws of Sparta did not provide against parricide — they did not contemplate its existence.
" You may deal with a man who teaches transubstantiation or purgatory, but how are ) ou to deal with a man who will say any- thhig provided he may secretly believe nothing ?
" This Crypto-deism will spread, I fear, largely in the next ten or twenty years. Of course the Oxford influence in the Church will be strong, as it always has been, and the young men from Oxford will, ere long, shew this new bias ; unless indeed it incline them altogether away from the ministry ; in which case we shall have it peopled with narrow, small-minded and bitter sacerdotalists; the men of ability and culture going over to unbelief. This is perhaps, after all, the more probable alternative. It is hard to say which is worse for the Church or the nation.
" I have j ust come from the Ordination service ; a very pleasing one upon the M'hole. The men all fairly intelligent and all devout. Thicknesse gave us a really good and useful sermon on the blossoming of Aaron's rod — a text I never heard applied to the ordaining of ministers before, but which fits it very well ; only the idea of what a number of sticlis there are in our ministry that never blossom would keep occurring to my mind.
" As to my memoir, I dare say it will be too long as it is. No- body reads memoirs of any but great or queer men, or of course great murderers. But as I do not, I think, belong to any of these categories, I am only anxious that no very great misstatement should appear in the memoir, and this your authoi'ship secures me against.
" Thank you for your birthday congratulations. It is hard to realise that one is growing so very old when mind and almost body
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feel young still ; but doubtless the bodily infirmities will come ere long to remind us that it is time to make room for younger men. Happy if, as we go, we can feel that we have done in some measure our appointed work, and left them at least not a misleading or a bad example."
"BuRGHLEY House, Stamford,
"January 10, 1S82.
" You will think me seized with a cacoeihes scribendi, I have been writing to you so often of late ; but I sent you this morning rather an interesting production of Voysey's. He sent it to me with a dangei'ously civil letter, desiring to know if he had in any way ' misunderstood mv M ords.' I rather feared that this might be a trap for an answer to be published, so I marked my reply ' private,"" and then told him, after thanking him for the courteous tone of his criticism, that I thought he had misunderstood my use of the words ' restoration ' and ' deliverances,'' which he says that I had adopted in order to avoid the words ' Atonement and Salvation."' I told him that I had only not used those latter words because thev did not come within the scope of my argument, which dealt with the need and the fact of ' restoration ' and not with the method or conditions of it, and that in an argument of this nature the introduction of the term atonement would have been illogical and irrelevant. I added that so far from disbelieving, I entirely believed the Pauline theory of Redemption which / held to be not only inspired but philosophically true. I did not choose that he should assume or possibly say that I did not hold with St. Paul, and on the other hand, I did not like either to have a controversy with him or to be so discourteous as not to reply to so civil a critique as his, accompanied too by a very civil letter. Tell me whether you think I have done right His sermon is, of course, shallow, and his objection to the Fall being called a Biblical theory would apply with still greater force to the same epithet being applied to the doctrine of immortality, in which he believes, and which I suppose he would call a Bible doctrine. But I did not care to discuss this or anything else with him, and so stuck closely to the explantd'ion, not defence, of my own words. Only imagine the same man by the same post sending me another sermon urging such a reform of the Church as would re-admit him and the like of him, as the desirable and only desirable alternative to Disestablishment ! Truly it may come to that yet, but not just at present. But mark my \\ ords ; reform of that kind and not
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Disestablishment will be the game of the Chuichs enemies in Parliament. They will strive to fix on us such an Egyptian bondage of Erastianism and Latitudinai'ianisni as shall force us to cry out for Separation; and then, as in like cases matrimonial, the husband xvill Jceep tlie dorcry. See if what I am saying will not come true, and see too if the really dangerous symptom of its coming true be not relaxation of the marriage laws. This is the point on which Church and State can be most rapidly brought into serious collision. AVhenever the State treats, and requires the Church to treat, as mai'ried, those whom the Church declares to be not married or marriageable, then will come a strain that will snap, or go near snapping, the links that bind Church and State. Talking to Sir S. Xorthcote has, you see, sot me oft" on State questions. He anti- cipates a most carious and exciting session, especially the early part of it. The great difficultv of Government, he heai-s, is just now whether to release or not to release the parliamentary suspects. Either alternative is obviously dangerous, especially with men who cannot be bound by anv honourable understanding.
"This is a terribly long letter, but mv pen runs on when I am not writing official letters, revenging itself for the caution and brevity of these."
" Peterborough, January 14, 1882. " I had heard of your loss the day before yesterday, in a letter from H. Jellett, and was just thinking of writing to you when your letter arrived. I can well imagine the event to have been a sad though not a painful one. The peaceful passing away of those we love, in extreme old age, has none of the agony of the sudden wrench that snatches away some dear one in youth or even maturer age. But the most beautiful and natural of sunsets is still a sun- set, and the shadows that follow it are chill and depressing. I begin to feel too the peculiar sadness that the death of much older relatives brino;s to those who are enterino- themselves on old age. When I see all those whom I remember once, middle-aged men and women, younger by many years than I am now, all passed and gone, I feel somehow as if light was going out of life very fast. There are so few living Avith whom one can recall the past and <Trow youno' again in recalling; it. We are the o-eneration that is ])assing away. Your good mother's life was truly a patient and (juiet waiting for the last summons, and has its lesson of encourage- )nent and hope for those who follow her. But it must be a great break with all the past for you. We arc all just now ailing rather,
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and low. I am laid up the last two days with heavy influenza cold. Willie has returned to Edinburgh, not by any means as strong as we could Avish him to be, while our monetary matters, though not severely straitened, have proved more so than we reckoned for, and enough to check all Christmas amusements. So vou see this New Year does not break brightly for either of us. Let us hope and trust that it may have brighter days ere its close in store for us."
" Peterborough, January 23, 1S82.
" Your letter reaches me as I am packing up for a trip to Edin- burgh to try and shake off my third attack of marsh fever. I have been suspecting for the last few days that this was what my cold was turning to, and now I am sure of it. These marsh fogs in which we have been enveloped for the last fortnight carry, I am persuaded, fever germs in them, which are for ever returning into this poor house of theirs and body of mine, from which they have been cast out, and truly the last state of this man seems always to be worse than the former. I am very seedy, and only hope now that this change may set me up sufficiently to do some work in the Leicester mission. Nothing short of positive prohibition by my dt)ctor shall keep me away from the mission, and hardly even that. As it is, I must be aAvay during part of the mission week, as A. Cantuar has summoned me to Uvo bishops'" meetings for that week, and the business of these is such that I feel it a paramount duty to be there to say my say.
" I\Iy wife is, thank God, much better, but she has had the severest attax'k of dyspepsia that I have yet seen her suffering from. Willie too is better, so that there are grains of sugar in my cup of bitters just now, one of these being a cheque for eighteen guineas from Good Words for my sermon. This will just meet my expenses of the fever journey, and truly I needed this help; we have never been so hard up since our marriage as at this moment. From various causes my losses amount now to nearly £QOQ, and this to a man who has no private means and who can seldom do more than make both ends meet each year, is a heavy pull to meet. So altogether 1882 does not break brightly for us any more than it does for a great many better people. However, I am not going to sit down like Job and call upon you to play Elihu for me, or even to sit down beside me like the other three and hold your tonmie ; rather let us both say with Job : ' Have I received good at the hand of the Lord and shall I not also i-eceive evil ? '
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" I am meditating seriously giving no formal charge this year. I have said more than once all I have to say on Chui-ch topics, and a good deal more than any one heeds or remembers. I have nothing new to say, and if I had, no one would regard it. ^Vhy should I kill myself preparing the corpse of a charge for silent interment in an unread pamphlet ? The clergy have, generally speaking, gone mad about candle ends and strips of sarcenet, and the laity are busy hunting and shooting, and they will neither of them listen to the voice of any charmer, charm he never so wisely. My notion therefore is, at present at least, not to deliver myself of a laboured charge, but instead of this to hold a real visitation, i.e., a court of enquiry at a good many centres, spending a day or two at each, inviting the lay representatives of each section visited to be present, giving the statistics of diocesan work, and holding a quasi conference on some diocesan subject afterwards, and so getting rid too of the niaiseries of a visitation dinner with its dull and uni'eal speeches in which we toast the Queen and ' the eminent prelate who so ably presides over this diocese.'
" ' Thim is my sintimints,' partly perhaps prompted by fen fever and quinine, but also entertained for some time before the said fever ' arrived here for the season.''
" Tell me what you think of this idea."
To Mi-s. Magee.
" London, February i6, 1S82. " . . . . We have been canvassing and caballing in Upper and Lower House of Convocation very busily, and the result was that all of a sudden I found myself moving and carrying in the Upper House a great resolution on ^Ir. Green's case. I carried it bv sixteen to two votes, and was thanked by smidry bishops for it and for my speech."
To J. C. MacDoxxell.
"Stoke Dry, April 29, 1882.
" Here we are, the missus, my three daughters and I, in our nest, not particularly Avell feathered, but elevated and wholesome, and we are on the whole jolly. But surely the place was ill-named ' dry.' It has rained pretty steadily since om- arrival, and to-day we have a soaking drizzle blown along by a cold north-easter, making everything ' moist and unpleasant,' as Mr. ^Mantalini would have said. The place however will evidently suit our pur-
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pose. It will hold us, after a fashion ; it is evidently airy and M holesonie and retired, and I find it already very central for dio- cesan work. I have made two Confirmation circuits from it, return- ing to sleep each night, and I feel after nine confirmations this week less tired than I have often done after four. I do not mean to leave this quiet Patmos for the useless Avorry of the bishops' meeting on Tuesday. I have said niy say, in writing to the Arch- bishop, pointing out what seem to me essential conditions to the introduction of his Bill* and important amendments in it. Of the former, there are tico, namely, consulting with Convocation, which meets on the 11th inst., and an absolute pledge of energetic support from Gladstone in the House of Commons. Of the latter three : 1. The omission of the power to stop a suit. 2. The giving the clerk an appeal from the bishop's monition to the bishops of the Province. 3. The substituting of suspension for three years ah officio et henejicio for deprivation as the first penalty for disobedience of monition. Reserving deprivation as the ultimate penalty if suspension be disregarded. My support is conditional on these points. I am free, therefore, to oppose or amend the Bill in the House of Lords if these ai'e not conceded, and all things considered this seems to me the safest position for me to take. If I thought I could do any good by going up, I would not think of safety for mvself. But as I am sure I can do no good I stay away and reserve mvself for the row in the Lords."
" AxHEN.iEUM Club, Pall Mall,
"June II, 1882.
" By the time this reaches you probably you will have read a more or less accurate report of a speech on the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill by the Bishop of Peterborough. I had resolved, as you know, that ' oxen and cart ropes ' should not draw a speech out of me on this occasion, and I had told Beauchamp so. To make quite sure that I should not be tempted to speak on it I came in late, just as Dalhousie was finishing his speech in favour of it. I sat quite quiet and harmless during a very quiet sensible speech against it from Lord Balfour, who moved its rejection. When he sat down, for my sins up got Lord Waterford, who talked such non- sense, and exposed his flank so temptingly, that I could not with- stand the temptation, and yielding to my irritation at a bad argu- ment, which affects me as a false note does you, I got on my feet hardly knowing what I was going to say. As I rose, so did Hough- * Imprisonment for Contumacy Bill.
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ton, and there was a general call for me ! After that 1 could not sit down, and so, with a great 'thrimblin at me heart,' as the Irishman used to say, I plunged into an impromptu speech. I was very well received and cheered as I went on, and much helped by some insolent lauLyhter from Lords Granville and Kimberley, on whom I turned round and laid into them until they stopped laugh- ing and Lord Granville began to take notes. Then I went on to compare the action of this Bill on sistei's-in-law (who were to cease to be such in order that they might care for the children) to that •of Irish landlords to their tenants ; I said they were to be ' evicted as sisters-in-law, but put in as caretakers.'' To my horror the Lords went into convulsions all round, and though they cheered loudly I was vexed with myself for the witticism which made them do so. It rose to my mouth like a loose cork to the top of a bottle, and I could not get on with the pouring out of my speech until it popped out. Setting this aside I think I did fairly well, ^md numbers of the Lords congratulated and thanked me for my iipeech. The Prince of Wales took it very good-naturedly. He told me as he passed out to the division that he ' liked my speech at Leicester a great deal better "* and ' had rather have heard me make that over again.' *
" Altogether, considering that I spoke impromptu, I got toler- ably well out of it, but I fully expect to be abused in the Guardian and Record for ' levity ' ; and by many of the clergy for throwing over Leviticus. My fate is to be too good for the bad folk and not good enough for the good ones, and to be abused by both. However, when I get a determination of speech to the head, nothing but speaking will relieve me, and I speak accordingly, good or evil, as the case may be. I am too old to change my nature, and must take the consequences accordingly.
"To-morrow I go to Lambeth with Exeter and Ely, to bully A. C. Cantuar about his Cathedi'al Bill which he has put down for second reading to-morrow night, without any previous consultation with the bishops. At twelve o'clock I am to see my quare impedit
clerk, and try to bully him into withdrawing from H ; and at
three o'clock I am to make a speech at the Mansion House in favour of higher education of women. I had rather be planting geraniums at Stoke Dry than doing any one of these things. But anyhow they cannot say that I come up to town to idle. I am not meditans but agitans!'''
* At opening of the Abbey Park by the Prince, May 30, 1882.
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" rETERBOROUGH, Jwie I3, 18S2.
" I went to Lambeth to-dav, with Exeter and Ely, to induce Cantuar to put oft' the second reading of his Cathedral Bill. We saw his secretary, Davidson, a very excellent and sensible fellow, Cantuar being at Addington ; and on my going down to the House to-night Cantuar himself assured me that he had done as we wished. He is not and does not look well. He has greatly aged in face and gait and flushes heavily at times, indication of weakness, but he is ' all there ' nevertheless, and particularly kind and gracious to me. I am greatly ' uplifted,' as the Scotch say, by the comments and congratulations I receive from the peers on my speech of last night. As they come both from friends and foes of the Bill, I sup])ose I may accept them as sincere. Caims and Shaftesbury were both warm in their congratulations, and on the other hand, so was Lord Dunsany, a very sensible and moderate advocate of the Bill, who told me he was about replving to me when the debate was prema- turely cut short by Selborne proposing the question. It seems that my poor little 7not about ' eviction ' and ' caretakers has immensely tickled the peers, and as it is not yet abused in any of the papers, I am coming off in respect of it better than I had anticipated."
To Bishop Mitchixson.
" 89 Onslow Gardens, South Kensington,
"June 15, 1882.
" My dear Bishop — .... I doubt the Spirituality coming to any agreement on the point vou refer to. Some of them, eg:, Llandaff'and Winchester, still cling to Leviticus ; I and others give u]) Leviticus and would find our ethics of mai'riage and its funda- mental law in our Lord's words on the subject, not in those of Moses. The real difficulty in the scripture argument is that as regards the Old Testament teaching it is matter of interjj/rtafioii, as regards the New, of iiifererwc, and on neither can you rest Icffi.s- Icit'ion.
" As regards the line the clergy are to take when the Bill be- comes law, as it soon must, that is another matter. On this I should hope we might be agreed, though even this is doubtful. The question will practically arise, not as regards marrying the widower and sister-in-law (this is not to be required of the clergy), but as regards admitting them when married, to the Holy Commu- nion. With my views I could do this, but for those who regard such marriages as ' other than God s word doth allow,' I hardly see
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how tlicy could do so, or advise others to do so ; and if they can- not, tliere arises a most formidable dispute between Church and State on a point infinitely more critical than Green''s imprisonment.
" The position seems to me fraught with more serious and im- mediate difficulty than most persons seem yet to anticipate. — Yours ever most truly, " W. C. Peterborough.""
To Mrs. Magee.
"North Harris, N.B.,
" August 22, 1882.
" On Sunday evening I held a service in the hotel at Tarbert for guests and neighbours at eight o'clock, and the Free Kirk minister and his flock attended. He was duly introduced to me and offered me his church for next Sunday to address his people. I mentally thanked Heaven that I was able to say that this was impossible as I was going to Stornoway on Friday. Fancy my getting into the Church Times as the Presbyterianising and Erastian bishop who patronised a Scotch schism !
" On Monday I started for Loch Scoroot, one of Sir E. Scotfs private preserved lakes. A drive of seven miles along a most pic- turesque but awfully up and down road along the seacoast and a walk of two miles brought me to a little lake in Sir E. Scott's deer- forest, where I fished for thi"ee hours in torrents of rain and storms of wind. Unable to endure this any longer I left it three hours before the time appointed for my trap to meet me. In consequence, I walked home nearly nine Scotch miles in the roughest rain and wind I ever encountered. To-day I visited another loch of Sir E. Scott's, he providing me with gillies and ponies,
" I have ridden twelve miles to-day on a rough Harris pony, and feel very comfortable after it. I had a good day's fishing, nineteen sea-trout weighing twenty pounds, and I rode on here to Sir E, Scott's, where I am staying the night. His castle is a very pic- tm-esque residence, situated on the edge of the sea into which look the dining-room windows. In the rear stretches away for miles a grand deer forest (a deev forest has, you know, no trees ; only mountains and rocks), while on the right-hand side a salmon river tumbles into the sea. The sea views on the road here were charm- ing, grand and wild, and yet land-locked and peaceful looking. I am to have two more days in this preserved loch, and really, I shall get quite intoxicated with fishing. I must tell you — apropos of fishing — rather a pretty thing of the guests at the Tarbert Hotel.
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There are but three small loehs attached to the hotel, and the angling guests are told off on certain fishing beats, each follow ing the other, and rising like seats at a tabic dlwte from the worst to the best. Well, the innkeeper informed me yesterday that the " uests had unanimously voted that I should at once have the best of the beats ! That, knowing as I do the keenness and the jealousy of anglers, is to me rcallv a most striking proof of goodwill to my ordei', or myself, or both, I have ever encountered."
" Stornoway, August 25, 1882. " I had a long and lather fatiguing joiu-nev to-day from Tarbert to this place — thirt\ -six n)iles Scotch. But the tlay was fine, and the scenery for the greater part of the way fine, and for the first ten miles extremely fine. This country reminds me greatly of the county of Donegal in its wildest ])arts. The same long sea bays, wild headlands, up and down winding roads ; moorland and heather and peat stacks all round, and the peasantry just the very dittos of the Donegal cottars ; the men small dark Celts, the women with the red shawls and handkerchiefs for bonnets, and bare- footed all of them, and carrying turf creels to and from the bogs. If I had slept through my journey and woke up I should have saitl that I was back again in Donegal or Connemara. I go on board the steamer to-night at eleven o'clock p.m. to sleep, as she starts for Ullapool at 5 a.m. to-morrow."
To J. C. MacDoxxell.
" Great Houghton,
" October 26, 1882.
"Here I am, alive and fairly well, after my Kettei-ing storm, and also after my Northam})ton visitation of to-day.
" But, oh ! to think of all the kettles of fish I found awaiting- me on opening my budget of letters here.
" Imprimis — a J'luious letter of four pages from Coverley, the S.H.C. man whom I excluded from AVoodford Mission. The Church Times and Church Rcvicxo together were, as the Americans say, only ' the smallest part of a circumstance ' compared to it. Only imagine his telling me ' that if he had been a member of the Order of Spree Buffaloes, or had graduated at Newmarket, or had led his life on anti-Blue Ribbon principles, he did not doubt for a moment that I would have held him fit for a mission in any part of my diocese.' He wound up as usual by a threat of publishing
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said letter, togetlier with my reply. I sincerely hope he mav. IMv reply consisted of five lines, thanking him for removing completely, so far as he was concerned, the feelings of regret and reluctance with which I refused the request of my much esteemed friend and brother, Mr. Smythe, for my permission to his officiating as mis- sioner in his parish. The amount of change which he will get out of that answer will hardly leave him a large margin for his private charities.
" Secundo. A letter from Rohinson, of St. Peter's, Leicester, enclosing a bill of two sermons to be preached by a Rev. F. Win- slow, Vicar of St. Leonard's-on-Sea ; one in the morning, in the Baptist Hall, in Robinson's parish ; the other in the evening, at Christ Church, Leicester, on Simday next. Forthwith, I have to inform Mr. Winslow, that imless I hear from him before Sunday that he relinquishes his intention of ])reaching in the Melbourne Hall, I prohibit his preaching at Christ Church ; and also to the same efl'ect to Isaacs ; and also to Robinson. As I fully expect defiance, I am sending Grav Avith a formal inhibition to Leicester, on Saturday next, with directions to serve it on Winslow at Christ Church, in person, if it prove necessary to do so.
" Tli'irdly. A tremendous letter from Secretary of Lords Day Rest Society, asking explanation of my Lutterworth obser\ations on Sunday opening of village reading-rooms,
" Pretty well, this, for one day. The last is likely to prove the most troublesome. I have oft'ended another fanaticism, and nuist expect to be stung to death by its hordes of midges accordingly. I have written to the secretary, stating what I really did say ; which was somewhat misreported ; but entering into no defence of it — nor shall I do so. There is no use in arguing with a man who is hired to argue for a ' cause.''
" Correspondence No. 2, with Isaacs and Winslow, I rather enjoy. My inhibition of Winslow will just balance neatly my inhibition of the S.H.C. man, besides gratifying all the Leicester clergy.
" Correspondence No. 1 I trust may be published ; but I fear that some discreet friend of Coverley's ma\' prevent it. In that case, if he says anything about me in the H.C. papers, I shall probably publish his letter and mine. I sent it and a copy of my rejjly to Smythe, requesting its return. When I get it back you bhall see both.
" Just now, however, my hands seem 2)retty full."
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" Peterborough, November 4, 1882.
" IMy diocesan kettles of fish have all duly boiled over, and in most cases with the effect of putting out the fire.
"(1) AA^inslow and Isaacs struck at 07ice,the latter to my amaze- ment telling me that ' he did not see how I could have acted other- wise than I did.' The Dissenting minister of ]\Iel bourne Hall wrote to the Times and got a corner in the Supplement for his pains.
" (2) The S.H.C. man, Coverley, sends me an ample and really gentlemanlike apologv for his former letter, to which I have I'eplied in the same spirit. So ' that settles that.'
"I am called a 'bishop militant,'' I see, in Ptmch, who, by the wav, commends me highly, but, if people only knew how I labour for peace, they might change my title.
" There is a column of praise for my new mode of visitation iia the Church Times.
" All this is a terribly egotistical letter, but friendship is, I suppose, like love, Vegoisme d deux.''''
" Peterborough, November 21, 18S2.
" I returned yesterday from London, whither I had travelled from Edinburgh on Saturday, partly in order to meet Gladstone at dinner with Malcolm Maccoll, Lord Strathmore, and a few others. The temptation to a man like me, who likes to find himself in queer company, Mas irresistible. So I went, and greatly enjoyed my talk with AV. E. G., next whom I sat and whose encyclopaedic informa- tion and far-reaching memory perfectly amazed me. We talked, as you may suppose, no politics. But I got his views very fj-ankly given on one or two religious and ecclesiastical questions whidi were very interesting but too long for this letter. I had dined the night before in Edinburgh with the College of Surgeons, and travelled from Edinburgh to London for the Gladstone banquet.
" I found all well here, thank God."
" Peterborough, December 9, 1882. "I attended the Primate's funeral yesterday. It was a very touching scene — touching for its quiet and cheerful solemnity. I really think no better word than cheerful could be used to describe the whole character of the proceedings. The cofiin, without a pall, thick covered with flowers ; the church decorated as for a harvest festival ; the hymns almost joyful in their tone ; and altogether hopeful and triumphant; all breathed just that spirit of Christian resignation and thankfulness which the close of the brave, nianh ,
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chastened life of the man we Avere following to his rest should suggest. His daughters, who were present all through, behaved beautifully ; no noisy sorrow or excitement ; hardly any weeping even ; but a quiet, patient, restrained grief that was very touching. The servants, who carried the coffin, were all of them honestlv weeping, a sure sign of what the Archbishop was in his domestic life. The gathering at Addington was representative, though less^ so than that in the Jerusalem Chamber for Stanley's funeral. There were fewer bishops than I had expected. But the weather kept away the aged and infirm, who are numerous amongst us now.""
To the Rev. Aubrey Townsend.
" Peterborough, December lo, 1882. " Your pleasant and affectionate letter was as welcome to me as such tokens of long friendship and recallings of old times must always be. It is indeed an anxious time, this, for those who care for Church and State, while Ave wait to see who is to be given us as our ruler in the Church and our leader and spokesman in our dealings with the State. I think there can be little doubt that our new Primate will be either ^A'^inchester, Durham, or Truro. The first would be eminently the fittest, and to the bishops as Avell as clergy the most generally acceptable. Hi.> only drawback is his age. The second would command at the moment of his appointment much popular acceptance, which I fear he would in some respects disappoint. The third would perhaps., all things considered, age especially, prove the best for the Church. He Avould certainly unite and lead the episcopate better than the second. A foux'th — not a bishop — has been named. Dean Church, of St. Paul's ; in many respects admirable ; but to move him over the heads of all the bishops would be a very strong step, though it has been taken before now, i.e., Tillotson. For myself, I feel thr comfort and peace of mind of a man who looks on a competition in which he can possibly have no share or personal interest what- ever. As regards the future, I do not envy the man who will be seated in the chair of Augustine in these times. The winds blow keen round it and the rains fall heavy on it just now ; and he mav be a thankful man if when his occupancy draws to a close he can say, I have done nothing to hasten the fall thereof. I attended the funeral of the late Primate at Addington ; a very touching and beautiful scene it was, just such as befitted the memory of such
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a man. I was greatly struck by the singing of Ne\vinan''s hymn, ' Kindly Light,'' in the course of the service, to think of the time when Mr. Tait, then a Balliol Fellow, denounced as one of the four tutors the teaching of Mr. Newman ; and then to hear the hynni of Cardinal Newman sung over the body of Archbishop Tait. What a world of English Church history lies between the two events ! It will, I am sure, please you to know that a week before the Primate died I received from him, in reply to a few words of farewell from myself, a message of ' affectionate thanks with liis blessing.'' Remembering, as you probably do, our one public and painful collision, and remembering, as I do, the several and not rare occasions in which I, almost alone of the bishops, ventured to differ from and oppose hin) in private conference, this farewell from him to me is touching and to be remembered. He never could endure opposition well ; but on the other hand he never bore malice. He was a good man, and in some respects a great one, and yet just now we need a different stamp of man for our chief; one who will conciliate the clergy as much as Tait did the la'itji, without alienating the latter. Harold Browne would do this perfectly. I still hope and pray that we may get him. All of us under this roof are, thank God, well, and doing fairly well, and my iliocesan work is progressing in the main satisfactorily, in some respects hopefully, and, thank God's guiding grace and mercy, peace- fully; a pleasant Christmas thought. — Ever, my dear Townsend, vours affectionately, " W, C. Petebbohough.
" This day week I shall, if I live, be sixty-one.'"
To J. C. MacDoxnell.
" Peterborough, Dccemher 21, 1S82.
"This afternoon the third volume of AVilberforce's Life aiTi\cd here — a present from Thicknesse. You may suppose how eagerly I cut it open at the chapter on the Irish Church. You will, I think, be glad to hear that the reading of it greatly relieved my mind. It contains Wilberforce''s notes of two conferences of bishops on the Irish Church Bill, in both of which he reports me — luckily for me — at considerable length, and, as well as I remember, fairly. It comes out quite clearly from his report : *
" (1) That I conditioned my action on that of the Irish bishops.
* See p. 2og, vol. i.
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If thev aorccxl to surrender I would do so. If they would insist on fio-htino- I would fioht.
" (2) That I pointed out the dangers to the Irish Church of resistance to the end ; and deprecated it on these grounds, i.e., in short, that I would fight against the Bill if called on to do so, though contrary to my better judgment. This seems to me quite a straightforward and sim})le position, and one that quite exonerates me from R. Wilbcrforce's unfair imputation, which, after all, is only his opinion. S. Wilberforce says nothing against me there or anywhere else in the volume. What his notes do 7iot say, and what I cannot say now, is what he and I knew perfectly well at the time, viz., that if the Irish Church had even then negotiated through the English bishojis, she would have got the Ulster glebes probably — • certainly much better terms than she ultimately obtained. To this, neither he nor I could allude in our speeches ; and consequently I am represented as counselling acceptance of the Bill in second reading, and amending in Parliament in Connnittee, whereas what he and I both Mere contemplating was acceptance of dis- c.itahlishmcnt, and making terms as to disendowment, before the Bill came vip for second reading in the Lords. However, this, though important to a full clearing of my position as regards my jmlgment, is not needed for my exculpation as regards honesty ; and that is all I care about — or at least is what I care about most. My position comes out exactly as I described it to you yesterday, as that of an officer who, in a council of war, recommends surrender on good terms, believing the fort untenable ; but at the same time declares that, if out-voted by the no-surrender party, he will fight to the last, and accordingly does so. As to R. "Wilberforce's sneer about ' principles of the Bill being attacked by me in my speech,"' it will be easy to show, if necessary, that this was just what my speech did not do, and for not doing which, it and I were severely blamed at the time. Oddly enough, S. Wilberforce gives a ^'ery meagre accoimt of his own speeches at these conferences if, that is to say, his notes are Jidly given by R. Wilberforce — which I greatly doubt. If I have sinned, I am made to sin in goodlv company. The Bishop of Derry ' agrees with me," so docs London (Jackson), and in the main, Limerick ; so also, says S. Wilberforce, do Richmond, Carnarvon, Nelson, and sundry other great folk, and great opponents, afterwards, of the Irish Church Bill. So, all things considered, I have been more frightened than hurt and am looking forward to a good nighfs sleep to-night.
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which I may now confess to you was more than I had last night. I have hastily skimmed this thiid volume. It is decidedly less interesting than the previous ones. For instance, it omits entirely the Southampton Church Congress, where S. Wiiberforce, in some respects, greatly distinguished himself. A very interesting and very unfair quotation is given of the opinions of Todd, exjiressed to S. Oxon on each and all of the then Irish bishops. But how cruelly unjust to give the views of a narrow and soured man, as Todd was even then, on men, some of whom are still living, others hardlv cold in their graves. The most astounding, however, of all astounding things in this astounding book is R. Wilberforce's calm statement in the Preface, that the passages relating to Dean of ^^'indsor and Pusey ' wcve in print before their deaths.' This is not indiscretion but impudence. The concluding pages of the volume, including the description, or rather the mention, of the funeral at Petworth, are verv poor and muddled up. Indeed, the whole of the three concluding years of his life, as given in the Memoir, are scantv and scrappy. Altogether this volume is an unsuccessful attempt to glorify S. Wiiberforce by making him the hero of every bishops'" meeting and conference, and the guiding spirit which, during Taifs primacy, he never was ; and this is attempted : " (1) By setting him up.
" (2) By pulling all others down, save Gladstone, who, of course, figures always as jjraising hhn.
" These are first impressions. I will read the volume through carefully, now that the 'divine rage of my hunger'' is appeased by those mouthfuls of gossip relating to myself.'"
" Peterborough, December 23, 1882. " To-day''s Spectator notices \^'^ilberforce''s Life in a paragraph and also in a leading article, in both condemning the ' indiscretions'' of the editor ; in the latter noticing, cn -passant, my share in the Episcopal Conference on the Irish Church Bill, but in no way blaming it — rather the contrary. It quotes a delicious criticism of J. Cork on my Congress Sermon at Dublin, ' that it had not Gospel enough in it to save a tom-titS I would not have lost that for the world, and consider it cheaply purchased by the possibility of a row with R. Wiiberforce. The more I see of the Life the more I feel its spitefulness of selection of puhlicanda ; and the more I feel that in the long run it will not seriously hurt any one mentioned in it."
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" Stoke Dry, January i6, 1883. " I am greatly pleased to get your verdict on my share in the Irish Church records of Bishop Wilberforce. You have exactly hit the difference between his line and mine. I was willing to compromise if the Irish bishops thought it good for the Irish Church. He was anxious to do so, whether the Irish bishops wished it or not, because he hated the Irish Church and loved S. Wilberforce. Here was the point at which we fell apart, my good genius enabling me to see this and to escape the snare he set tor me then. « W. C. P."
CHAPTER XVII
VISIT TO SPAIN; ILLNESS; SPEECH ON DIS- ESTABLISHMENT
Thk following letters show how anxious and sympathetic the Bishop was for those of whose clerical work he had formed a high opinion.
To the Rev. Caxon Watson.
" Stoke Dry, Uppingham,
" Jaiiuaiy 6, 1883.
" Dear Canon Watson, — I am truly sorry to hear your account of Mr. Disney. Anything I can do to promote his health or comfort, I will gladly do. I should grieve to lose from this diocese so valuable and so devoted a parish priest ; and I would that I had at my disposal any living worthy of his acceptance, and could so at once relieve him from the toils and anxieties of Hinckley. Un- happily, livings do not fall vacant just at the moment that patrons desire to have one at their disposal. As regards his contemplated absence for a year, I think it, under the circumstances you describe, his only wise course ; and I readily sanction it in anticipation. A year's complete rest may, and I trust will, completely set him up again ; and, in the course of that time, possibly something might tm-n up in this diocese which might set him ft-ee from his present trying post. I shall be happy to see him here on any day in next week that he cares to come and see me. But I do not need an interview to induce me to consent to any arrangement which can reasonably help him in his present great strait. — Believe me, yours very truly, " W. C. PjiTBiiBOROUGH."
The Bishop, beside writing as above to his rural dean, sent a message advising Mr. Disney to leave his parish for a time and take complete rest. To this message ]\'Ir. Disney wrote in reply that he
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could not leave his work, adding "that if a soldier of the Queen remained at a difficult post until death, he would be regarded as having only done his duty ; and that he did not see it should be otherwise with a soldier of Christ."" To this the Bishop replied as follows :
To the Rev. W. H. Disxey.
" Stoke Dry, Uppingham,
"January 13, 1883.
" Dear Mr. Disney, — I have no hesitation whatever in saying to you that, in my judgment, your duty not only to yourself and to vour family but to your parish is to leave Hinckley for at least one year.
" I quite feel with you that if it were a question between your duty to your parish and your own health or interests j-ou could not, as a good soldier of Christ, do otherwise than stay at your post. Ikit it seems to me clear that in leaving Hinckley now for a time you are doing what is best for the parish.
This will, I hope, relieve your mind from all scruples on the score of duty. A good soldier stays at his post until his com- manding officer orders him to retreat. To refuse to retreat when ordered is as unsoldierly as it is to run away when ordered to stay.
In this case it seems to me that you ought to do, as I'egards your health, what your doctor bids you ; and as regards your parish what vour bishop bids vou do. If I had the legal power I would settle the question for you bv mlnh'it'ing you. If I had the oppor- tunity I would settle it for you by placing you in a small country parish ; but as at this moment I can do neither of these things, all that I can do is, so far as I am concerned, to make your path as straight for you as I can.
" I trust I have now done what is most essential in such a case as yours, namely, relieved you from the painful strain of deliberating and deciding when what you really want is brain rest, and that completelv and at once.
" I want to keep you in mv diocese and to have you there in good health, so do try to believe that the judgment and wishes of your bishop, as well as those of your doctor, point all in one way, and that the wav of God's providence for you at this moment. — Believe me, most truly and gratefully yours,
" W. C. Peterborougk."
IS83-8S ILLNESS; DISESTABLISHMEXT 187
Mr. Disncv followed the BishojVs advice and took a voyage to Australia. Duiing the Bishop's illness in the summer he heard that a parish, which he thought woidd suit Mr. Disney, was likely to fall vacant. He was greatly trouhled about this, as Mr. Disney was far away and could not be collated to a living; and he felt that his own life was very precarious. The vacancy, however, did not occur till Mr. Disney had returned. The Bishop was then Miffering from the severe relapse which made him again fear that he might not live. He called me to his bedside, told me to get the necessary papers ready, and to collate Mr. Disney as soon as I could. Two days after he became rector of Winwick ; and I can scarcely describe the comfort and relief it gave to the Bishop to feel that the appointment was completed, and could not be affected by his own illness or death.
To the Rev. Aubrey Towxsend.
"Peterborough, February 5, 1883.
" Dear Towxsend, — It was a great pleasure to me to read your kind and encouraging letter. The papers, as usual, magnified my ailments, but I have been a good deal out of sorts since the beginning of this year. Fen fever of a month's duration weakened me considerably, and a chill caught in travelling brought on an attack of ervsipelas in the head and face. This is not a thing to be trifled with, and I accordingly had to keep the house for some days. I am now decidedly on the mend. To complete my cure I mean to start for the South of Europe together with two of my daughters, who have also been somewhat out of health, in the last week of this month. I calculate on being absent some six weeks or two months so as thoroughly to re-establish mvself and them ; and I purpose revisiting some of my old haunts in Spain. I trust that this will set me up for some years to come. The malaria of this place, however, is at times very trying, and I do not get acclimatised to it.
"I am greatly pleased by what you say as to my letter on j)rayers for the dead. I was not entirely satisfied with it myself, as it seemed to me not sufficientiv full and clear as to the reason w hy our Church had disused such prayers ; namelv, as things of which ' the abuse had been so great that it could not be taken away, the thing itself remaining," as she says of the things she has disused. I was not, however, prepared for the amount of accept- ance my utterance has received, nor for the small amount of denun-
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CHAP. XVII
ciation it has brought upon nie. Ten years ago there would ha\e been an indignation meeting in Leicester to denounce me for it.
" I have looked up your very important reference to the Pnrcs Pr'ivatae, and find no less than three Collects for the dead, and stronger too than I had claimed license for, actually praying for ^ pardon ' !
" Pray send me the extract from John Wesley that you refer to, and anything else on the literature of the subject that you mav ^•hance to come across ; I may have yet to defend my letter and should like to be forearmed.
" Tell your friend Mr. Hellier how much his approval has gratified me. It is the approval of moderate men, such as he is, that I covet ; and it is the approval of exti'eme men that I dread.
" I am amused to hear of my ' being thought of for Canterbury ' ; about as likely as my being thought of for Grand jNIikado of Japan, and really I think I should prefer the latter appointment ; I should, at least, know less of its anxieties and dangers beforehand than I do of the other. Yours ever affectionately,
" W. C. Peterbobougii.'"
To J. C. MacDoxxell.
"Stoke Dry, February 7, 1S83.
*' I heard from an old and very evangelical clerical friend, Tow n- send, lately, expressing his entire approval of my utterance on prayer for the dead ; and telling me that the President of some Wesleyan college, whom he speaks of as a man of learning and moderation, had written to him warmly to the same effect. He referred me to the Prcces Privatcc of Queen Elizabeth 1559 — i.e., not her prayers, but published with her authority — in which I found three Collects containing very strong prayers for dead. I have also found in Bishop Cosin some very strong and clear state- ments on the same side, so that I am furnished with some fresh ammunition for any attack requiring notice.
" The whole subject is curiously interesting. I imagine its true histoiy to be that of the borrowing and baptmug by Christianity of Jewish and Pagan customs at a very early date. Certainly there are traces of it as a custom recognised early in the third century. Whether it ought ever to have been sanctioned is another question. Judging by tlie results in development of doctrine one would say ' No ' ; and yet what an unspeakable comfort and refreshment to mourners on earth was lost to us when
,883-85 ILLNESS; DISESTARLLSIIMENT
\S9
we were entirely deprived of it. It is so natural, so entirely inno- cent, it does bring those who arc gone so near again, it does so I'ealise for us the oneness of the great kingdom of Christ in alli time and place that I, for one, have always lamented its loss, and' had one grudge the more at the Church of Rome for so spotting- that part of the robe of worship with the flesh that we had to tear it all away. By the way, in reading up Augustine on the .subject, I came upon one of his fine sayings which you may like tO' know. Speaking of the hojjes of the Christian as not bounded by this life, but lying largely in the next, he says Fiitura provlncit qin rcsurrex'it. That seems to me very grand. The idea of resuriec- tion as the promise and germ of all the future was never better or more tersely put."
To Bishop Mitchinson.
" Stoke Dry, February 22, 1883.
" I have a great fear of ordaining ill-qualified men. I have seen the results in more than one case. The men either remain curates- all their lives — and a sexagenarian curate with possibly sevei* children is a melancholy sight and discreditable to us — or they get ]>arishes for the conduct of which they are totally unfit, and where they do mischief in many ways. The fact is that our English parochial system greatly limits our choice of men. In Dissent or in Romanism third class men can easily be drafted oft' to thircE' class places in the one, or to monastic institutions in the other;, with us it is dift'erent, and must be so until we can create, if we ever do so, places or offices yielding income side by side with the ])arishes in which we want a special order of men. I quite feel the pinch of each particular case as it arises, but I also feel that the only safe way of dealing with these is on general principles.
"I quite feel the force of all you say as to institution ; the point you make as to your acting in Leicester as Fearon's deputy not mine had not occurred to me, but it is quite just. I think your suggestion that I should institute in my chapel and let the Arch- deacons induct, gives the best solution for the present of the difficulty. I will arrange, until my return, that any institution occuiTing during my ab.sence be taken, as often hitherto, by my Commissary the Canon in residence. On my return I will institute j)ersonally at Peterborough and in my absence let the Commissary on the spot act as before.
" I hear most encouraging reports from Northampton of the late
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mission there, for which Laus Deo. But the work has revealed more clearly than ever our sad want of men to carry it on. We want at least half a dozen more clergy there, and a dozen active lay woi'kers and half a dozen temporary churches. How greatly the Church has suffered by the dissolution of her monastic orders, though they too had inflicted grievous mischief on her before their destruction. But I should like to see a score or two of Ang-licau and Protestant monks, if such a composite creation could exist, at work in Northampton and Leicester and our other large towns. " I go to Peterborough to-aiorrow and to Spain on 28th inst."
To J. C. MacDoxxeix.
'• EuROPA Hotel, New Mole Parade,
" Gibraltar, Monday, March 5, 1883.
" It occurs to me that you may not be unwilling to hear of our safe arrival here, after the pains and perils of the Bay.
" I fear that our visit to these parts is about three weeks too early. It is blowing a Levanter, and miserably chilly and east- windy ; but this may change in a day or two. If so, we meditate a run to Tangier — only three hours' steaming — just to say we have been in Africa.
" We are not likely to be dull here anyhow. Civil Engineers, Royal Engineers, majors of Artillery, etc., all calling and placing themselves at our disposition for seeing the Rock to advantage.
" Thursday next I dine at the Engineer mess, where I dined on the very same day of week and month thirtv-three years ago !
" I feel delightfully lazy and ignorant. I do not know whether No. 1 is caught, or Gladstone returned, or Bradlaugh affirmed, or the Deceased Wife's Sister triumphant ; nor do I ' care for any of these things.' The ' Greeks,' my clergy, may beat ' Sosthenes,' Bishop Mitchinson, until my return, and welcome. I am very jolly and youi-s affectionately, " W. C. P."
" Hotel de los Siete Suelos,
"Alhambra, Granada,
" Easter Day, 1883.
*' You have not, I hope, forgotten the guide of your early youth, your Mavor's Spelling Book, with its three stories at the end of it for the instruction and warning of good boys and girls. If you have not, you remember the fate of a sadly wicked little boy wlio said ' Don't care ' in 3xiswer to every warning from older and better
1883-S5 ILLNESS; DLSESTABLLSHMENT
folk. He ended his career bv bein<;' eaten uji by lions on the coast of Africa, where he had landetl in one of his defiant moods. Such ini2;ht have been my fate if landing on the coast of Africa in a don't-care state of mind could have ensured it.
" We have lately left Tangier, where we spent a most interesting and healthful ten days ; it made no ])art of our original progrannne, but E. longed so to see 'Africa' that I, nothing loth, set off there in a little tug-boat from Gibraltar on the 10th inst., and arrived there after a capital passage of four hours. You cannot imagine any change so startling and so complete as leaving Gibraltar, which is simply AVapping and Woolwich gone south, and landing at Tangier, which is simply Genesis and the Arabian Nights uniting in a picnic on the sea-shore of the Mediterranean. The town is purely and entirely Eastern — far more so than Algiers, which is largely French. The population is Moorish and Jewish, the houses Moorish entirely, the streets narrow unpaved lanes, the shops hutches in which sit !Moors cross-legged, the market-place filled with donkeys, camels, ^Moorish peasants, Jew pedlars, hnprovisatoi-i, story-tellers, water-carriers, etc., all exactly as if Haroun Alraschid was waiting for you round each corner. I met at the landing-place all the patriarchs, and all the characters of the Arabian Nights. Joseph and his brethren fought for my hio-o-ao-e; Mesrour the black eunuch made a CTab at our wrai)s ; jNIethuselah, who was old enough to have known better, snatched at my umbrella; Moses sat in the gate, calm and stately, in his capacity of custom-house officer. Beggars of all colours, save white, begged in Arabic ; donkeys and camels wandered about pro- miscuously; and we stood, delighted and amused beyond measure, under the guardianship of the iiiter})reter from the capital French hotel, where we presently found ourselves lodged, high up above the town, remote from smells and in excellent air. We spent, as I said, a most enjoyable ten days; saw all the sights of the place (thanks to the kindness of our Ambassador, Sir John Hay), including a Jewish wedding, a visit to the Moorish Governor's palace, and, for my daughters, a visit to a ^Moorish harem, where they sat cross-legged and drank tea and ate sweetmeats for a cou})le of hours. The air, the change, and the amusement wrought AN ondcrs for E. and me, and we \\ ere right sorry to leave it. A\'e had, however, to come away last Tuesday, as the only good boat leaves bi-monthly. We got to ^Malaga, my old quarters of thirty- five years ago, on Wednesday last, ^\ hen, by a strange coincidence.
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I was given my old bed-room ! WTiat a long portion of my life rose up before me that night ! Next day we left for this place by rail, travelling through some of the wildest and sternest mountain scenery I ever remember to have seen ; and here we are in a hotel built into the very walls of the Alhambra! We spent yesterday morning there ; E. and H. enchanted, and I almost so once again.
"There is no use trying to describe the Alhambra to one who has not seen it. No description gives you any idea of it. It is, like Oxford and Venice, an unique thing in the world, and cannot, therefore, be pictured by comparisons. We mean to stay here one week and then start for Cordova, then to Seville, and then home as we best may via Madrid. Our only drawback, and that is a serious one, is and has been the weather ; we have not had five (juite fine days since we left home, and most of the rest very bad ones; however, we ai-e fairly jolly imder trying cii'cumstances, and hope for brighter days. " W. C. P.
" P.S.— Where is Peterborough ? "
"Peterborough, May lo, 1883. . . . The canonry, not being a benefice, is now actually vacant by my acceptance of ^Vestcott's resignation. Had it been a benefice, it would have needed a formal act of resignation before a notary public. Now, will you take it ? I do earnestly trust you will. Your doing so will be an immense pleasure and comfort to me. I really feel, in my old age, entitled to a few luxuries, and amonost them I reckon the having; near me an old friend. I have been, all through my episcopate, much, and at times painfully, isolated, and often envied my English brother bishops as I saw them one and all supplied Avith some Aaron or Hur in the shape of old school or class fellow who could hold up their hands. I really
want you for this
" I must attach to it (the canonry) an examining chaplaincv. But this will, I hope, not be regarded by you as too onerous a (;ondition, helped as you will be by FaiTar and Jellett. I see no reason why you should not undertake the office, and a great many why you should ; so pray tahe it, and oblige lastingly yours ever affectionately, "W. C. P.
"P.S. — You Avill see that the circumstances require a speedy decision ; but you really must say yes,"
18S3-85 ILLNESS; DISESTABLISHMENT 193
"Peterborough, June i, 1883. " I went to town last night, intending to fire off a speech in the House of Lords in reply to Bright's attack on bishops apropos of Deceased Wife's Sister Bill, and his indecent introduction of the Queen's name into the dispute. On consultation, however, with Cairns and Salisbury, I held my tongue. They thought that Brighfs talk hurt no one, while attacking him might lose us a Liberal vote or two. The world has, therefore, lost a valuable oration, and I am saved a pelting in the Liberal papers."
"Peterborough, Jtine 3, 1883.
" I have almost decided on a speech on the Cathedral Statutes Bill, which I think a very bad one, and which comes on on Tuesday evening next. But cui bono ? Is it worth while speaking in the House of Lords on any subject You would say ' Yes,' perhaps ; if you were as tired of the House of Lords, and withal as pessi- mistically lazy as I am, you would say ' No.'
" I saw Perowne to-day in Cathedral ; he is radiant as to my promise to help at his meetings for Cathedral. Argles tells me that Pearson, your architect, was here all yesterday. He is dead for the Benedictine choir, but says that tower and repairs will cost 0^20,000 ! "
"Athen^um Club, Pall Mall, S.W.
" June 5, 1883.
" I have ' gone and been and done it.' For nearly forty-five minutes in the House of Lords to-night I have been ' unpacking my heart ' on the position and treatment of the Church of England in Parliament by all and sundry. It was ' all along ' of the Cathe- dral Statutes Bill brought in by Carlisle,* about which Bill I do not care two pins, and which, moreover, will never become law. But its introduction in the House gave me the opportunity I have long desired to say my mind about the manner in which all Governments treat the Church of England just now ; and also as to the unfair suppression by Dissenters in the House of Commons of all Church legislation. I said a few words against the Bill, but I mainly harped on the general question.-]- The result was, as you may suppose, every speaker was down upon me, from Granville to the Bishop of Carlisle. I rather enjoyed the fun of the thing, though I fear that, more meo, I made a leetle too much fim in my speech. You will see about half of the latter in the Times, and, I
* Bishop Harvey Goodwin. f " Speeches and Addresses,' p. igi.
VOL. « N
194- ARCHBISHOP MAGEE chap, xvii
have no doubt, see an awful leader on my speech. But what is life worth if one may not occasionally have a little fling ? — and I had it to-night to my hearfs content. What really pleased me in the matter was to find that I could still spcal^ and malic the Lords listen. Latterly I have funked speaking there from the impression that my powers of speech (Avhatever they may be) were going. To my delight I found that I could say in each sentence exactly what I wanted to say, and that is the real test of speaking. The House was extremely thin, and it was like speaking in an exhausted receiver, but I held out to the end. How I shall catch it now in all the papers ! High, Low, Broad, WTiig and Tory and Radical, and also all Nonconformist ; that is if business of other kind is slack enough (as I fear it is j ust now) to allow of their going in at me. But what an immortal thing is himibug ! Every bishop there declared his belief in the fairness and good-will of the House of Commons to the Church ; and every one of them knew well to the contrary. I think, however, that I did speak some goodly doctrine and ' wholesome for these times," nevertheless, and I shall be pelted accordingly.
" I am glad you are coming in to residence on Saturday. I return home to-morrow and do not leave till Monday for Deceased Wife's Sister, who is going, I fear, to carry the day. Like the importunate widow, 'by her continual coming she hath wearied us."
" Cantuar spoke to-night moderately, sweetly and well ; though against me, I was glad to hear him. " W. C. P."
I went to Peterborough as Canon residentiary in June, and as the Bishop was still residing at the Palace, we enjoyed continual personal intercourse. He seemed in more than usual health and vigour of mind ; and we all regarded him as thoroughly renovated by his Spanish trip, and never dreamed of the dangerous break- down that was so near at hand, and ^ hich made a gap of nearly a year in his public life.
On June 28 and 29 he held his usual annual meeting, at the Palace, of his archdeacons, rural deans, and other diocesan officers, and then went to London.
On the evening of Wednesday, July 4, he rejoined his family at Stoke Dry. That night he was taken ill, and the next day he called in Mr. Duke (of Great Easton), and soon afterwards sent for his old friend and medical adviser, in Peterborough, Dr. Walker.
:SS3-85 ILLNESS; DISESTABLISHMENT 195
His illness developed into an acute attack of peritonitis, and before many days his life was despaired of.
On Saturday, July 28, I administered the Holy Communion to him and his family. We all believed then, and he believed him- self, that he was dying. His mind was clear and his voice strong as usual, and when he grasped my hand he said, " Farewell, my brother — my more than brother " ; precious words, never to be for- gotten by me, till we meet again.
The next evening, when they were watching his bedside, his wife perceived a faint return of colour. Slight as it was it inspired her with hope, and it proved to be the first symptom of recovery, the first sign that the tide of life, Avhich seemed to have ebbed for ever, was beginning to flow again.
Slowly but steadily he began to recover, and on September 27 he was brought back in an invalid carriage to Peterborough.
Dui'ing this trying and often painful illness no one heard from him a murmur or an impatient word, and he was always full of consideration for others, e.g., on a wet day giving directions to send a covered carriage for Dr. Walker.
When he was convalescent I heard him more than once say, " I had both feet in the grave, and God brought me up out of it again."
It was a strange contrast, the way in which he deliberately prepared for what he and all regarded as inevitable death with the manner in which eight years later he passed away contrary to the expectations of his family and friends. We might apply to him the words of the poet —
IV e thought him dying when he slept. And sleeping when he died.
In this case God c ertainly heard and answered the prayers of His Church, and added nearly eight years to his life and more than seven years of active public usefulness.
And now let me say a few words upon a more delicate subject. I have a great horror of the unfeeling way in which many intrude into the chamber of sickness and of death, and report detached sayings, and pass crude and partial judgments upon the characters of the sufferers. Yet, as a biographer, I feel it is my duty not to be quite silent in such a case. I had been in constant attendance upon him during all the worst and most hopeless phases of his illness. He made me on almost every visit, when his illness per-
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mitted, read with him the Confession in our Communion Service, and pronoimce the Absolution in that service. At times he un- burdened his mind to me, and always spoke in full expectation that his end was very near. The one striking point on all such occasions was the sensitiveness of his conscience and his deep con- viction of sinfulness, notwithstanding the absence of anything that would to the outside spectator seem to warrant such a conscious- ness. He was just the opposite of the iron, immovable man for whom, in his firm discharge of duty, he was often mistaken. One of his most ardent wishes was that he should die at peace with all men.
He Avas conscious that he had deeply offended three persons, of whose high character and good intentions there could be no doubt ; and though he still believed that in the main he was right in the points of difference between them, he took no refuge in this plea, but made me write to them, himself dictating the substance of the letters, and craving their forgiveness for any word or act of which he had been guilty, inconsistent with charity.
His sense of sinfulness only deepened his faith in Christ. He turned from the prospect within to rest in Him who was perfect. But he dreaded doing or saying anything unworthy of his Chris- tian profession and his high office. One day, when I used in our prayers the Avords of the Burial Service, " Suffer us not at our last hour for any pains of death to fall from Thee," he dwelt upon these words and said, " How often have I read those words, and yet I never felt their full meaning till now."
The first letter written after his convalescence was the following to his friend Henry Jellett, who had hurried over from Ireland in July to visit him at Stoke Dry, when his illness had assumed such an alarming character :
To Rev. H. Jellett.
" Stoke Dry, September 8, 1883. ** Dearest old Friend, — Yom- last letter was a real ' time of refreshment to me from the Lord.' It did so comfort and lift me up. Truly it is so hard for us to believe in the real joy in heaven over the returning sinner, that the joy of earthly friends over the restored sufferer is a help to us to realise it. I cannot but humbly hope that God has still some work for me to do for Him in this world, and that He is fitting me for it by chastening. At any rate there is a prayer of St. Augustine's always in my ears that should
,883-85 ILLNESS; DISESTABLISHMENT 197
include all I dare to ask, ' Hie me ccede, modo ibi parcas ' ! You will be glad to hear that the doctors report me as making decided though slow progress. I have got on to solid meat twice a day, and get moved about occasionally in a kind of tricycle chair of a very luxurious kind. Thank dear Minna for her kind and pleasant letter. This is my first holograph letter since I took ill. I cannot make it a long one. God bless you, dearest friend. — Yours ever lovingly, "W. C. P."
But the hopes of his complete recovery were to receive a rude shock. On October 20 there came another relapse. It proved a very severe and anxious illness; but, happily, after about three weeks it took a more favourable turn, and on November 12 he was able to come downstairs again. But his hopes of returning to active work seemed now indefinitely postponed. He took his first change early in December, in a visit to his friend Canon Argles, at Barnack, which was within an easy drive of Peterborough. He returned home on his sixty-second birthday, December 17, 1883, and on Christmas Day returned public thanks in the cathedral for his recovery.
To J. C. MacDonnell.
"Peterborough, Christmas Day, December 1SS3. " Many happy returns of this happy time to you and yours, my dear MacDonnell. You may well suppose what a happy and a thank- ful Christmastide it is to us here. To-day, for the first time for the last six months, I received the Holy Communion in the cathedi'al, and all my family with me. lb was a solemn joy to do so. God grant me grace to give myself to Him in fuller and tx'uer sacrifice henceforth in the doing of whatever work He has still for me to do. Your account of the ordination was very satisfactory. I had a few lines to the same effect this morning from Bishop Mitchinson. We go, please God, to Woi-thing to-morrow week. My address there will be. Beach House, Worthing. To which address write me 710 letters on business that you can avoid. Meanwhile, with all best Christmas and New Year's wishes for you and your wife from me and mine, ever yours affectionately, " W. C. Peterborough.'''
From F. B. Meyer.
5 Lincoln Street, Leicester. My Lord, — I am a Nonconformist minister, one of the seven tliat had the honour to present you witli the address of welcome at the
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Leicester Church Congress. I naturally regard questions of Church polity from a very different standpoint to that occupied by yourself ; but I do feel smcerely and heartily glad that it has pleased our heavenly Father to restore you to some measure of health after your severe and long-continued illness. On more than one occasion I led my congregation at Melbourne Hall in earnest prayer for your recovery and for the support and comfort of those dearest to you. I for one believe that every part of Christ's Church gains by the strength of ever}' other part ; and we can ill afford to lose such an earnest main- tainer of our common faith as you have been in these days of encroach- ing infidelity. I hope you will not think that I am intruding or taking a liberty. I have written just what I feel. Hoping that you may long be sjjared, I remain^ yours respectfully, F. B. Meyer.
To the Lord Bishop of Peterborough.
To J. C. MacDonnell.
" Beach House, Worthing,
'^January 6, 1884.
" I think you will like to hear how we fared on our journey here, and how Ave are getting on since our arrivaL I had a most pros- perous journey, weather good, and very little fatigue. We stayed one night in London, and I called on Andrew Clark cn route next dav. He declared himself surprised at my appearance, a.nd said that but for my leanness he Avould not have thought me looking at all the invalid. In talking over my illness he told me that in all his long and extensive practice he had never seen a man so near death who recovered as I did. He attributes my recovery mainly to brain and nerve power, the heart he said being distressingly weak. He advises some mental effort ere long as tending to complete restoration — not business but compositionsvxiimg or speaking of some sort.
" My wife and I got here on Thursday night, the rest of the family having preceded us the day before. AVe were agreeably svu'prised by the size of the house and the attractiveness of the place. It is quite the best house in Worthing, standing in its own grounds, and with only the lawn and a low sea wall between us and the sea. The weather until to-day was foggy and depressing. To- day the sun is shining brightly, and it is almost May. Oui- only drawback as yet is my poor dear wife's health. She has had now nearly a fortnight, off" and on, of her terrible migraine, which she cannot yet shake off". The fact is she is only now feeling fully the reaction after the long and cruel strain on mind and body of the
1883-85 ILLNESS; DISESTABLISHMENT 199
last six months. I trust, however, that the perfect quiet and rest of this place will ere long set her up again. Each post brings me about a dozen of replies from the clergy to my pastoral, all of them of a most affectionate and filial kind.
"I think of making my first re-entrance into public life by attending, just for one afternoon, the bishops' meeting at Lambeth on February 11, next. I should like to see how my brethren fare, ' and to take their pledges.' "
"Beach House, Worthing,
" Fehmary 17, 1884.
"This is not about the diocese, wor about ordinations. It is about sermons, namely, my own. I have had some thought of spending my enforced leisure here in collecting and correcting some of the many printed sermons of mine that are floating about the country, and publishing them in one volume. They are most of them printed from reporter's notes of my extempore utterances — and verv imperfect and incorrect, for the most part, these reports are. Still, I think that with pains I might make something respectable out of them ; and perhaps tm-n an honest penny by them, which, for a man who is nearly dfi'lSOO the wrong side of his accounts, is a consideration. Hitherto the piratical publishers have made all the pennies ; and I feel a little like the fat sailor, who, when the shipwrecked crew, of whom he was one, proposed cutting slices off his fatter parts, made no objection to this, but jjlcaded the reasonableness of his being allowed tlw first slice for himself'.
" I have, however, after reading over some of these sermons, a great doubt as to whether they are worth publishing. A spoken sermon seldom reads well. It cannot and ought not to be as full of matter, or as flowing in diction, as the written one ; and I fear that the disjecta membra of mine that I can rescue from the reporters will prove, even when clothed by me as decentiv as possible, rather thin and shabby aff'airs. I want you, like a really honest Gil Bias, to deal with your Archbishop of Malaga in the way of candid critic. You need not fear my vanity being woimded by anything you say, for I do really and honestly doubt if any one ever has a worse opinion of my discom'ses than I have myself after I have delivered them. So, if vou are willing, I will first collect what I think may make a decent octavo volume, and then send the collection to you ; and I want you to tell me :
"(1) Ai'e the ideas of the sermons worth giving to the world?
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CHAP. XVII
" (2) Can tliey be so recast in some cases, improved and polished in others, as to pass muster with the critics ? — who may possibly like to cat up a bishop if he gives them the chance. I think of calling them either Occasional Sermons or Sermons preached on Special Occasions ; and I think of publishing the best of these, e.g., Norwich, Dublin, St. Paul's, &c. I am not very keen on the business. But my wife ' is stirring me up,' like a worthy and excellent Jezebel as she is ; and the idea of ^6*50 from some publisher, which woukl just buy me a nice gold watch and chain,* does rise sweetly before my imagination. So tell me
" First, what you think of this idea ?
" Secondly, will you be my Gil Bias in the way I suggest ? "
" Worthing, February 28, 1884.
"I have just returned from a most pleasant and entertaining visit to Burgon and his cathedral. He was in great force and at his best — hospitable, affectionate, anecdotic and amusing in the last degree. The Bishop was from home, but we saw his house and grounds, both old and interesting ; the cathedral small but very good for its size, and with some good monuments, and also some tablets of Flaxman — the latter very pretty, with the prettiness of Flaxman, and no more.
" I suppose that about this time Graham's battle with Osman Digma is over, and that we have killed a hecatomb of Arab savages, with M hom we are not at war, and lost too many English soldiers (if we have lost only one) in a wi'etched attempt to retrieve the prestige of the Liberal Ministry. Oh for an hour of Palmers- ton, or even of Beaconsfield ! But we are governed now not by Statesmen, but by politicians. AVorse luck for us ! "
"Worthing, March 29, 1884. "I write in haste, just starting for town. What sad news of Duke of Albany ! I shall have to make some allusion to the event in my sermon to-morrow. How strange it is, that this should be the fourth occasion whew I have suddenly been called on thus to interpolate in a sermon of mine, preached either before royalty or ill a royal peculiar — the Emperor of Russia, Lady A. Stanley, her husband, and now Prince Leopold. I am becoming a death beU!""
* His watch and chain had been stolen from him in his visit to Spain. The wives and daughters of the clergy surprised him on his return to Peterborough by presenting him with a gold watch to replace that which he had lost.
1 883-85 ILLNESS; DISESTABLISHMENT 201
" Garlant's Hotel, Suffolk Strf.et,
"March 31, 1884.
" You may like to know how we have fared in our London visit. It has succeeded beyond my expectations in effecting exactly what I wanted, without undue strain on health and strength.
" The death of the Duke of Albany, requiring, as it did, some sentences of obituary notice to be suddenly woven into my sermon, proved a troublesome addition to my preparation, and compelled me to sit up late and sleep little on Saturday night. The sermon on Sunday took a good deal out of me. I was nervous and anxious and full of thoughts as to past ten months, since I had last preached. However, all tell me that I showed no signs of this. I caught no cold, and only suffered a second sleepless night. This evening I went to the House of Lords to hear the speeches of Granville and Salisbury in moving and seconding the votes of condolence on Duke of Albany's death. Granville was below the occasion ; Salisbmy fairly equal to it ; neither at all rose to it. But the House of Lords is not an assembly where rising to occasions is easy. Govern- ment were afterwards sharply assailed by Salisbury on Egyjjtian affairs. But Granville maintained an absolute and almost a sullen silence. Government are evidently at their wits' end, and do not know what to say. Gordon may cost them their places yet. I hear that a dissolution is generally expected in June. I was quite sm'prised and overcome by my kind reception by the peers. More than a score of them, some quite unknown to me, came to welcome me back, and say kind things on my return."
" Beach House, Worthing,
" May 4, 1884.
" We hope to leave this to-morrow — my wife and family for Peter- borough, I for London, where I mean to stay the night, to see Hassard on Monday about mv ' case ' against the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.
" Not that I expect anything w ill come out in my favour. Cor- porations of all kinds sooner or later set up a branch office on the road between Jerusalem and Joicho, and compel their unfortunate victims to do business with them there.
" We are all of us sorry to leave this quiet peaceful sunny little place which has done me such a world of good.
" I hear frequently now from Pownall and am much struck by the quiet good sense and terseness of his letters. He writes better than he speaks.
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" I wish his bishop could do the same !
" The writing in of scrappy bits into my detestable sermons has been a sore thorn in the flesh to me ; and spite of all my attempts at altering their dress and complexion, there is a teixible family like- ness pervading all these children of mine.
" However, as regards the purchasers of the volume, I can only say \\ hat old Fay, my predecessor in St. Thomas' curacy, used to when he was told that the congregation could not hear him, ' I protest, sir, that is their affair,'' "
"Stoke Dry, Uppingham,
"May II, 1884.
" We came out to this, our Patmos, yesterday, and found it all in very nice order. The weather yesterday and to-day summer- like. It will be a long time ere we take up residence in the palace again.
" You may suppose what I felt on returning to the scene of my long sufferings and all but death. It was a solemn and I trust not unprofitable moment for me as I looked round the room, and on the bed where I had lain between death and life and had taken leave of my childaen. I hardly realised, until my return here, all that had passed then and since. Walker saw and overhauled me on Friday last, and reports me ' perfectly sound,' though still re- quiring watchfulness as to diet and work.
" We had a great sensation on Friday at Peterborough in the Infirmary fire. No one happily was hui't, but it was a naiTow escape for the patients. " W. C. P.*"
June 26, 1884.
My Lord^ — .... You will be pleased to learn that amongst the many who had been much concerned about you during your long and trying illness there was in my ])arish a poor widow who lifted up her heart to God on your behalf, and who believes that owing to her inter- cessions you have been given back to your friends and diocese. In the course of conversation she told me that very soon after your appoint- ment to the See of Peterborough you preached at St. Paul's Cathedral, London. She attended that service in a most depressed state of inind. Trials and bereavements had made her inconsolable, spite of all efforts to comfort her ; but your sermon liad the desired effect ; it came liome to her heart with power, so much so that she left the church as if she had never been troubled at all, and from that day to this she has been able to live in faith and to walk trustfully. To this day she remembers both text and subject very gratefully, and will I daresay to tlie end of
1883-85 ILLNESS; DISESTABLISHMENT 203
lier life. She added, " I prayed. Oh Lord, may it please Thee to restore the good Bishop of Peterborough that he may be able to give snch comfort to many others as he has been instrumental m giving to me. Do answer my supplication, for Jesus Christ's sake."
Such were Mrs. 's expressed sentiments ; and I thought you
might like to hear about them. — I remain, my lord, yours very truly,
VV. L. ROSEDALE.
« Laus Deo ! " W. C. P."
To J. C. MacDonnell.
"Stoke Dry, Uppingham,
" September 2, 1884.
" I have just received an ample peccavi from T .
" I have, of course, accepted it without any ' criticisms.'' I always do so in like cases.
" My maxims in governing are, 1st, never hit if you can avoid it ; 2nd, when you do hit, smash ; 3rd, when the smashed man admits that he is smashed, then apply the plaster of forgiveness and civility.
" I find that the first rule prevents many quarrels. The second secures victory when you do fight, and teiTifies other possible com- batants. The third secures peace after war.
" AVe are enjoying this little Zoar of ours greatly. The junior members of the family have caught the lawn tennis fever of these parts in a very acute form, and either are giving or going to tennis parties everv dav in the week.
" I am gradually getting into harness again, preaching here and there (quietly and tentatively and none the worse for it as yet.
" If only I can stand the winter here I shall do well, physically and financially.
" I see that Isbister announces a second thousand of the sermons as ' now readv ' !
" This looks healthy and is more than I had anticipated."
" Stoke Dry, October i, 1884. " Keep the enclosed as the ajjple of your eye. I have but this one copy. I am asking for more, but do not know if I can get them.
"You will see that the special subjects on the papers are for 1886. But this is in order to allow of all the bishops coming into line by that date.
" We, of course, can have the same subjects in 1885.
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CHAP. XVII
" I see that the whole episcopate have adopted the scheme ex- cepting Sodor and Man.
" I regard this as one of the greatest successes of niy life. Ten years ago I started the idea with Westcott in my study and I have been pressing it on steadily ever since.
" I see I have omitted to notice that Oxford stands out still. The Don prejudices are almost invincible in Oxford.
" But practically the episcopate are agreed, and the advantages of the scheme will ere long be so apparent that none will wish to break it up, provided the chaplains and heads of theological col- leges do not try to improve it and worry the bishops with fads. If they do, there will be a speedy end of the whole thing.
" w. c. p."
The following bishops agreed to the subjoined arrangements respecting ordination examinations :
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of Yoi'k, the Bishops of London, Dm-ham, Winchester, Norwich, Bangor, Gloucester and Bristol, St. Albans, Hereford, Peterborough, Lincoln, Salisbury, Carlisle, Exeter, Bath and Wells, Manchester, Chichester, St. Asaph, Ely, St. David's, Rochester, Lichfield, Liverpool, Newcastle, Truro, Llandaff, Chester, Southwell, Ripon.
ARRANGEMENTS.
1. That the same Special Subjects for Examination be required from
Candidates for Deacon's Orders in the Old Testament, New Testament, Ecclesiastical History, and Latin.
2. That the General Subjects of the Bishop's Examination be —
(a) The Contents of the Bible ;
(6) The Creeds and XXXIX. Articles (Histoiy, Text, and
Subject-matter) ; (c) The Prayer Book (History and Contents).
3. That the Special Subjects for each year's Examination be agreed
upon by a Joint Committee, consisting of four Bishops (the Bishops of Durham, Winchester, Gloucester and Bristol, and Chester) and foiu- Members of the Council of Management of the Preliminarv' Examination.
To J. C. MacDonnell.
"Stoke Dry, October 28, 1884. " I spent a very interesting and on the \\ hole a very encouraging time in Northampton. I preachctl t\^'ice — once on Sunday at the
1883-85 ILLNESS; DISESTABLLSHMENT 205
dedication of St. Crispin's, and once on Sunday at St. Sepulchre's, It certainly was a great fact to see 250 hond-fide Northampton shoemakers filling neax'ly half the new church ; and to have pointed out to me chiu'chwai'dens and committee-men, zealous Churchmen and communicants, who two years ago were fierce Bradlaughites and infidels.
" I talked with one of these. I shall not easily forget the quiet earnestness and modesty of the man, nor the way he spoke of his conversion through hearing a sermon on ' the Prodigal Son.' It was ' that,' he said, ' that did it.' I felt at the moment what a divine unending power there is in that great word of Christ. How mightier than all our words and deeds ! How often in the world's history has that word, " I will arise and go to my Father," moved hearts that nothing else could move
" I had the opportunity of a long and full discussion with Thornton as to the future ritual of St. Crispin's and St. Sepulchre's. It was thoroughly straightforward on his part, and quite satisfactory in its conclusion. He has much pressuie to resist from his own side, and much attack and denunciation to endure from the other.
" Not one of the ultra-evangelical clergy came to the opening of St. Crispin's, and I have been attacked by both clergy and laity of that partv about the doctrine and ritual of St. Sepulchre's. I have taken no notice of the attacks, but have quietly made a concordat with Thornton as regards the things complained of, and told him that so long as he keeps within this I will uphold him.
" I am none the worse for my work at Northampton, and have now a three weeks' rest before the Northampton confirmation. Monday next I go to Addington to stay with the Archbishop until Thursday ; Monday week to the episcopal caucus at Danbury. You and your missus must come to us after these wanderings are over. " W. C. P.
" P.S. — I picked up last week a mot of mine which I had for- gotten and which may amuse you.
" Wales declares that on one occasion when travelling with me, he remarked that my robes were getting soiled. To which I replied : ' Well, it is a comfort that I have my laundress (lawn dress) with me ! '
*' Score me one for that."
" Stoke Dry, December 13, 1884. " When we meet on Wednesday, the 17th, I shall have on that day entered on my 64th year.
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ARCHBISHOP MAGEE chap, xvn
" Who would have thought this possible last year ! " God's mercy, both in chastening and in healing, has been very great.
" How small, in the presence of last year''s memories, seem our pi'esent troubles and contentions !
" God give us all grace to remember that it is the ' unseen things ' that are eternal, and these visible and tangible cares and wonies temporary only ! *' W. C. P."
To Rev, A. F. Ayxward.
" Palace, Peterborough,
"December 21, 1884.
" I have no hesitation in giving you my j udgment in the affir- mative as regards the return to the practice of Evening Communion in your church ; and strongly and decidedly in the negative as regards the use of unfermented wine in the Holy Communion on any occasion. The former is a question of expediency ; the latter a question of principle. Evening Communions are not, I think, at all desirable, and are rarely if ever really necessary. But where they have been the practice, and where estrangement from the Communion might be the result of abolishing them, I see no such sinfulness or illegality in them as should prevent their continuance, at least until you should have taught your people to prefer the better way.
" As regards the use of unfermented Avine in the Eucharist, the case is entirely different. Its use is, in my judgment, illegal, the Church commanding ' wine '' and not syrup to be used. It is at any rate contrary to the practice of the Catholic Church for eighteen centuries, and there is no plea of expediency to excuse it. The onlv possible plea advanced for it (and it is a Aveak one) is the case of one who is in danger of I'elapsing into intemperance, if he even in communicating taste or smell fermented liquor. Even in such a case I hold that such a one should refrain from communicating, accepting this loss of privilege as God's punishment and chastening for his sin, and comforting himself with the teaching of our Church that he who being unable to participate for any reason does by faith and in his heart feed on Christ, does receive the benefit of His Passion. But the case you describe has not even this weak plea for it. It arises simply from the false opinion entertained by Good Templars that any partaking of fermented liquor is sin. Those who hold this opinion are not diseased by intemperance but misled by fanaticism.
1 883-85 ILLNESS; DLSESTABLISHMENT
207
" To administer to these the Holy Communion otherwise than Christ hath commanded, is not to strain Christian charity out of pity for the weak, it is to pervert a Christian ordinance out of weak concession to the heretical opinions of those who regard themselves as strong and sounder in faith than the Church and their pastor. I should add that this practice of using non-fermented wine in the Eucharist has been recently condemned by the Upper House, and if I remember rightly, by the Lower House also, of Convocation of this province. I therefore do not hesitate to advise, but further to direct you, to discontinue it. I am also clearly of opinion that this should be done openly, and not in any way in disguise or conceal- ment, either of the fact or of your reason for it. — Very faithfully yom-s, " W. C. Petebbokough."
To J. C. MacDonnell.
" Stoke Dry, December 28, 1884.
" . . . . This is the result of my staying from church this after- noon, instead of going again to hear the dismal repetition of stalest Evangelicalism from an old Rip Van Winkle kind of curate whom Thompson has picked up as his locum tenens here.
" Really I had not supposed that such a sermon could be preached by any man in these days.
" Listening to it took me back some forty-five years of life, to the times when such ' preaching of the Gospel was the rule ; and yet it did not sound dreary then. Because, I suppose, as all men nearly held those doctrines then, a considerable number of clever men preached them and put life into them.
" But to hear them now — from a dull, elderly, pompous old man — seems like listening to a spinet played by an elderly lady, and sung to with quaverings that make you sad to think how she and her instrument were once young and voted charming.
"I misbehave myself di-eadfuUy under it, my wife tells me, sighing audibly, fidgeting, groaning.
" All very unepiscopal, and I fear harassing to the worthy old gentleman.
" Judge from all this what cheerful Sundays we enjoy here.
" I am not progressing much and fear I may have much suffering before me — though Walker declares no danger.
" But life becomes a burden under the presence of a constant ailment, and one too, which tends so lai'gely to deprive you of the power and pleasure of active existence.
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CHAP. XVII
" I tremble at the thoughts of next year's confirmation toui- for instance !
" However, God's will be done. In this as in all things else. He knows best. Yours ever affectionately, if not cheerfully,
" W. C. P."
" Stoke Dry. Fehntaiy 22, 1885.
" You will receive by Saturday next a copy of a letter of mine to the Archdeacon resj^ecting prayer in churches for troops in Afiica.
" I could not stand the prayer set forth by the Upper House of Convocation.
" It asks God to take into His hands ' the cause ' for which oar Queen and country send out our troops. If He knows what that ' cause ' is, I do not ; or at least so far as I can guess at it, it seems one which I should not care to ask Him to take into His hands, lest I should be imprecating punishment instead of asking a blessing.
" To me the whole of our Egyptian warfare seems the most causeless and unrighteous war we ever engaged in.
" I never could see what right we had to attack Ai-abi, who had as good a right, and far stronger provocation, to rebel than ever had our pets Mazzini and Garibaldi. And as to the safety of the Suez Canal, he never thi'eatened it and would have been only too glad to have covenanted with us for its safety.
" As to the succeeding battles and campaigns they seem to me to have had but one object, the keeping of the Ministry in place; for which I am not disposed to thank or entreat God.
" At any rate, while many think as I do, the introduction of debateable matter into united prayer seems obviously undesirable. The whole of the prayer, too, seems balder and flabbier even than oiu- occasional prayers are. It stuck too much in my throat to recom- mend it to the clergy who, however, will doubtless do in this as in other matters pretty much as they please.
" They have a large variety of prayers from which to choose. Among the rest a prayer by the Bishop of Rochester which describes the Mohammedan Arabs as heathen !
"I have not attempted to compose a prayer, and have recom- mended simply the usual form of commendation before Litany and * all sorts and conditions of men ' with special mention of sick, wounded, and mourners who are, oddly enough, omitted from the Archbishop's prayer. ** W, C. P."
IS53-S5 ILLNESS; DISESTABLISHMENT
209
To Bishop Mitc iiinson.
" SroKE Dry, Fchruavy 23, 1885.
" ]\Iy dear Bishop, — I trust you will not think me ungracious or ungrateful, when I say that I really cannot change the decision I have come to in the two confirmation cases in question.
" It would be pessimi exempli in the diocese if, after formally and finally declining a request and assigning at length what seemed to me sufficient reasons for so doing, I were to recall my refusal merely because you were kindly willing to undertake the labour of the change.
" If it had been only, or at all, on the ground of its laborious- ness I had declined to make it, your offer would, of course, cover all difficulty ; but this is not so.
" I have declined both requests on principle and advisedly.
" Mr. 's demand is simply preposterous.
" Its principle is that no confirmation should be held at two miles distance from any parish church. As most parish churches are not that distance from each other his demand simply amounts to the holding of confirmations in nearly every one of the parish churches in the diocese.
"As there are 540 of them and only 365 days in the year, it docs not need much knowledge of arithmetic to work out a quod est absurdmn.
"As regards your three pleas for him, (1) Confirmations have
not always been held at ; on one if not two occasions they
have been held elsewhere.
" (2) He is ' new to his parish ' and ought therefore to have waited a little before proposing to alter the arrangements made by the bishop of it, after seventeen years' experience.
" (3) ' Thirty-five candidates ' can, I hope, most of them walk two miles, and if they cannot conduct themselves decently on the wav they had better not come at all.
"I may add, that I conferred on Friday last with the thi-ee archdeacons, and their verdict was that his demand was ' quite un- reasonable ' ; and that, as far as they knew, the supply of Confirma- tion centres in the diocese was ample.
" As regards the general question, I quite feel with you that the increased zeal for confirmations on the part of the clergy is hopeful and to be encouraged. I may add, that I have largely stimulated and encouraged it already
VOL. II. o
210
ARCHBISHOP MAGEE
CHAP. XVII
" I have repeatedly held supplemental confirmations when reasonably requested, and that not for thirty-five but three candi- dates, and even for one.
" But there is a limit on both sides of the question, and if the old distances were, as they certainly were, mischievous, the modern rapprochements are sometimes needless and unreasonable, e.g., the Bishop of Lichfield tells me, that he has considerably diminished the number of Bishop Selwyn's centres, with the effect of increasing the number of candidates.
" I fully sympathise with the earnestness of the good clergy in this matter. But their zeal is not always tempered by knowledge, nor by consideration for the many and m-gent claims on the time and strength of bishops. And there, is besides, amongst even the best of them, a good deal of ' godly jealousy ' and rivalry as regards the choice for centres of other parishes than their own.
"As regards the future I am perfectly ready to consider and reconsider any general plan for confirmations proposed to me.
" The present one of a three to four miles radius has been more than once discussed, both with rural deans and archdeacons, and approved of.
"All that I am fixed in is my resolve not to subject the list once announced to the perfectly endless criticisms of individual incumbents, who must learn that they, as well as their bishops, must make some sacrifice for the general good of the diocese."
"Stoke Dry, Uppingham,
"August 17, 1885.
" My dear Bishop, — I do not think there is any action that I can lawfully take as regards either of the letters you enclose me.
" As regards the suffragan question, I am, as I have said, quite willing to submit a proposal to the Government.
" There are, however, two difficulties in the way, one for Govern- ment, the other for you to consider.
" The first is the construction of the Act of Henry VIII., which, as I read it, provides for the consecration of Suffragan Bishops, and therefore would seem to be inapplicable to the case of an already consecrated bishop. This is, however, for the law advisers of the Crown to decide upon.
" The second, and much more serious difficulty is this : I must according to the Act submit two names to the Crown for selection.
" Now it is possible that the Crown might select not yourself but
1S83-85 ILLNESS; DISESTABLISHMENT
211
the other person whose name I had submitted together with yours.
" In that case you w ould not be suffragan and there would be a suffi-agan holding a position above yours, to say nothing of the superfluity of bishops thus created.
" Nor could I, nor indeed ought I, to avoid this risk, name as my second possible suffi-agan a bogus personage whom I thouglit the Crown would not select.
" Even supposing this permissible as a device, it might turn out that the Crown might either bond Jide select the less desii-able number two, or, seeing through my device, refuse to appoint either.
" I confess to dreading the leaving, as I must leave, to the unfettered choice of the Crown, the appointment of a possible suffi-agan other than the one I wish for.
" This difficulty, however, concerns you far more than it does me.
" Forasmuch as the result of such a selection to me would be, at the worst, the appointment of a suffi-agan more or less eligible, but still eligible ; whereas for you, the result would be an awkward complication, with a good deal of the personal element introduced into it.
" If, on carefully weighing this latter difficulty, you are prepared to run this risk, I have personally no objection to putting the mutter before the proper authorities.
" But I should, in your place, think more than once before deciding on such a step.
"The case is quite different from that of a diocese in which there is (at the tin)e of the request for a suffi-agan) no assistant- bishop.
" In that case the diocesan bishop sends up the names of two men, eitlier of whom would suit him well.
" But in your case I send up two names, one of whom I wish for, and who wishes it himself, and the other whom I do not particularly wish for, and who could only be appointed by passing over you.
" Pray think this over, or better still come and talk it over with me, before I take what may prove an irrevocable step."
" Stoke Dry, Uppingham,
" August 24, 1885.
" My dear Bishop, — I am now at liberty to write to you on the subject of Evening Communion which you tell me is desired by some of your parishioners.
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CHAP. XVII
" Our views respecting such an institution are, I expect, verv much the same.
" I do not, as many of our rather High Church brethren do, re- gard it as sinful or as forbidden by the Church CathoHc.
" But I do regard it as very undesirable and only to be consented to under urgent and proved necessity.
" It seems to me objectionable mainly on the ground that it is a lowering of the ordinance, not to meet the needs but to gi'atify the slothildness of communicants.
" There is really no reason but sloth why men should not com- municate either at morning or early celebration, and to give them an evening one is simply religion made easy by taking the cross out of that religious life which of all others should suo-o-est the thouffht of self-sacrifice.
" Possibly something might be urged for it on behalf of over- wrought artisans in our great towns ; but surely nothing on behalf of the dwellers in country villages, who would any day of the ^\■Qek rise at day dawn and travel ten miles to a market if thev hoped thereby to make tenpcnce.
" If such men will not come to the Holy Communion unless it is given them in the evening or afternoon, they are better awa\- from it.
"Afternoon Communion is, moreover, more objectionable than evening, inasmuch as it comes immediately after the Sundav diimer of the country folk, and is therefore likely to be somnolent if not crapulent.
" For these reasons I strongly dislike it and discourage it. " But I have never seen my way to prohibiting it. " I leave the question to the judgment of the individual pastor in each case.
" In your case the additional ground for caution is that your episcopal office and position would certainly have weight and vogue with those who might be glad of such an excuse for their own self- indulgence. — Yours most truly, " C. PEXEiiiiOROuGH.'"
To the Editor of the Times.
Stoke Dry, September 7, 1S85. Sir, — I am just now receiving a great many lettere with reference to a supposed recent pastoral of mine on Church defence. These are, as may well be supposed^ of very various kinds, and deal with a large variety of topics. They are laudatory, argumentative, inquisiti\e^
1S83-8S ILLNESS; DISESTABLISHMENT 213
didactic, sarcastic, and occasionally abusive, and they ask my opinion uj)on nearly every possible question of Church history, ritual, doctrine, and practice. As I really have not the leisure for letter writing wliich some of my correspondents, to judge from the length of their commu- nications, evidently enjoy, I ask your permission to inform them, one and all — from the earnest Churchman who heartily thanks me for my pastoral to the still more earnest anti-Churchman who denounces me as a "highly-paid drone," "an enemy of Christianity," and "a Judas who ought to go to his own place " — that I have not recently issued any pastoral on the subject to which they refei". The paragraph which has been so entitled is an extract from a lecture of mine on the voluntary system, published some twenty-five years ago, and which extract some one, who thinks better of it than some of my critics do, seems to have thought it worth his while to republish in the newspapers. Under these circumstances, my correspondents, friendly and otherwise, will, I trust, j)ardon me for not replying severally to their respective letters, and for contenting myself with this general acknowledgment of having received them, and with thanking the writers for the attention they have bestowed upon my words. W. C. Peterborough.
Tu J. C. MacDonnell.
" Stoke Dry, Uppingham,
"September 21, 1885.
" I am glad that you are having so pleasant a vacation.
"IMine has come to an end at last. After gradually getting into harness again by sundry sermons in the country churches all round here, I fairly broke ground at the old pace in Leicester last week. I preached at a church consecration and took the com- munion service, spoke at a public luncheon, and presided at a public meeting, all in one da}' ; and I was not a hair the worse for it all.
" This week I take a harvest sei'\ ice at Nassington, next week I induct Pitts at Loughborough, and the day after lay the founda- tion stone of a new church at Belgrave.
" And so on and on, until the Conference ; and then sundry more works, including your little pound of flesh at Misterton.
" So you see I am taking a regular ' header ' into the diocese once more.
" I am glad you liked my letter to the Times. I was fairly womed into writing it. I did not say in it what I am sorely tempted now and then to say, that a good many persons are of opinion that it is the special duty of bishops to sit in their studies with the, windows
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ARCHBISHOP MAGEE
CMAP. XVII
open, in order that every ass in the country may put in his head tliere and bray !
" Apropos of Conferences, I have asked the Dean to open the sub- ject of DisestabHshment.
"I wish that on the same subject you would say a few words, as to the effect of DisestabHshment on the Irish Church, and us to the difference between the terms given then, and those now proposed for us by the Liberationists.
" I shall find my share of the question very difficult. I must lead on it, yet I cannot do so at sufficient length to constitute a real manifesto for the Church or the diocese ; and compression is dan- gerous when every word is sure to be severely criticised.
" However, I must do my best. The portrait is to be on an easel on the platform to be unveiled at the proper moment by the hands of the Chancellor. " W. C. P."
The Bishop held his Diocesan Conference in Peterborough on October 14, 1885. We all looked forward to a stirring address from the President, as the question of Disestablishment had come to the front again. But the thorough and exhaustive treatment of the subject which it received surpassed our expectations.
I give the following extracts :
I ask. Why am I to place unlimited confidence in a majority } Are majorities always in the right Have they never in times past been in the wrong Have minorities never been in the right ? Is it so in private life Are the majority of each man's acquaintance here persons in whom he reposes unlimited confidence, and if not, why must it be so in public life For my part, I am unable to trust implicitly in the purifying and elevating influences of the multiplication table, or to believe in the infallibility of the odd man.
And this much more I will say for them (tlie people) and that sin- cerely, that I have far more trust in their honesty and justice than I have in the honesty and justice of many who are just now posing as their only true friends and advisers. King Demos has come of age, and is being crowned. I believe him to be a youthful monarch of much promise, with the best intentions, generous in the main, kindly and honest. But I see him, like other youthful monarchs, already surrounded by a crowd of fawning and flattering courtiers, offering for their own ends to indulge all his desires, to minister to all his passions, and assuring him, as courtiers have done before, that he is the best, the wisest, the noblest of all monarchs. Nay, I see his court aheady
1883-85 ILLNESS; DISESTABLISHMENT
215
so fully completed th.it he is provided even with court chaplains as cringeing and obsequious as court chaplains have been of old, and who are just now busy preparing for his use a new edition of the old Church catechism in which he shall read that his duty to his neighbour is to covet and desire other men's goods, and not to keeji his tongue from lying.
I rcmemberj if others have forgotten, the history of the disestablish- ment of the Irish Church. I remember how the scruples of many were quieted by assurances (not, I am bound to say, from the author of the measure, but from many of its advocates), that if only its prin- ciple were adopted there was room for any amount of concession and compromise as to its details ; and I remember how, when its principle was adopted, the concessions and the compromises were sent upon a journey to Jupiter. As it was then, so will it be again, and so our assailants are telling us with a frankly cynical candour. Mr. Gladstone in his recent utterance on this subject, Avhich, if it has all the solemnity and impressiveness has also, I venture to think, a little of the ambi- guity of the ancient oracle, tells us that if ever it is effected, it will be with a large regard to equity and liberality.
Well, I turn to the programme of those who, if ever it is done, will have the doing of it, and I find that they give by anticipation a flat denial to Mr. Gladstone's projihecy. They say that disestablishment is to be effected on the principle of "justice to the nation and not generosity to the Church," and, certainly, they are as good as their word. Whether there is or is not equity in their proposals, liberality
there is none, and they themselves disclaim it — " S2)eeches and
Addresses," p. 32.
A striking testimony was given at the conclusion of the speech by a clergyman near me who, turning rountl to his neighbour, said, " That was the blast of a trumpet."'
The Bishop's portrait, which had been painted by Mr. Frank Holl, was unveiled subsequently by Lord John Manners, and an address was presented by the Rev. W. Wales, chancellor of the diocese, who stated that the portrait and the address were the out- come of the joy felt in the diocese at his lordship's recovery from his long illness.
From the Bisnop of IVIanchestkr (FiiASEn).
Manchester, October 15, 1885. My dear Bishop of Peterdorough, — I have just had read to me by my wife, in whose mouth no syllable was lost or had less than its due
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weight given to it, your splendid "Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae." I thank God for having given you power to utter it. Laid by as I am and forbidden to take part in any active conflict, it nevertheless de- lights me to hear such a trumpet-call.
I cannot say how angry I feel with those so-called statesmen and leaders, who tell tlic peojile " Let us know what you wish, and we will do it ! " No attempt is made to lead or to guide ; and the " drift of things " is to overwhelm reason, conscience, conviction, everything. Admirable is what you said about " unlimited trust in the people," about the " flatterers of Demos," and all else on that point.
Do pull your Thucydides down from the shelf and read that splendid passage in which the historian contrasts the statesmanship of Pericles with the demagogy of those tliat came after him (Lib. IL c. 65).
O that Churchmen would turn away their thoughts from idle con- troversy to measures of real reform, to remove all preventible or reme- diable scandals, which make her defence even to her most loyal sons so difficult !
But you have sounded a note which ought to be a rallying one to us all. — Ever yours, admiringly, J. Manchester.
From tJie Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone.
Hawakden Castle, Chester,
October 24, 1S85.
RIy dear Lord Bishop, — In your address on Disestablishment you have treated me with a just indulgence. If the distinction may be drawn, I think my statement is not ambiguous but incomplete. It also appears to me that a complete statement would have been out of place, setting aside other considerations, from one who has no more expec- tation of being himself called upon to try the Church of England on the question of establishment than of being called on to take a personal jjart in determining the question of the monarchy.
How very sad are these sudden episcopal deaths ! Bishop Eraser will be much and justly lamented in many ways by Manchester. And Bishop Woodford had so far as I know fulfilled right well all the favour- able anticipations formed of his devotion and his wisdom. — I remain, respectfully and faithfully yours, W. E. Gladstone.
The Lord Bishop of Peterborough.
To J. C. IVIacDonnell.
" Peterborough, Decemler z, 1885. " This election contest is demoralising every one. Gray, instead of till l< in": diocesan business talks election and I listen to him !
1SS3-S5 ILLNESS; DISESTABLISHMENT 217
]My calculation, which please keep to refer to after the event, is as follows.
"Liberal majority over Conservatives alone, G6. Liberal mino- rity against Conservatives and Nationalists, 14. Liberal and Nationalists majority over Conservatives 146.
" This makes Parnell king, whichever way the elections go in England ! He can unseat the Conservatives and seat the Liberals, whenever he pleases.
"This means Irish revolution first, and then an embittered struggle between the revolutionary and conservative forces in England and Scotland, the revolution winning and being merci- less after the bitterness of the fight.
" I give the Church of England two Parliaments to live through.
" This one now coming, in which she will be merely worried and humiliated.
" The next, in which she will be assailed and disestablished in the Commons.
" The third, in which the Peers will give way, and the thing is done.
" The Parliaments, too, will be short-lived and stoi'my. Glad- stone's retirement will bring this one to a close.
" The second will dissolve on the Church question early.
" The third will settle it ; say ten years for all this.
" Now, please put this letter by, and let us read it, if spared, ten years hence, on the Lake of Como whither ^ve shall have gone to spend our few remaining disestablished years."
'To Peebendary GuiEii.
" Peterborocgh, December 5, 1885.
" One word only of explanation. I had carefully read your able paper at the Plymouth Congress, and was quite aware that you advocate the direct veto on the liquor traffic.
" But this is not M'hat the C.E.T.S. advocate in their resolution, what you would have us bishops oppose.
" If I understand them and it rightly, they go for the vesting of licensing power in some body elected by ratepayers. This I think worse of than I do of your Permissive Bill ; and I prefer a Maine liquor Bill to either.
" The Permissive Bill would at least be free from the taint of political corruption that cleaves to all proposals for elective licens- ing bodies, in any and every shape or form.
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" Politics in England mean, more and more, bribery and intimi- dation. Bribery of whole classes instead of, as of old, individual voters, and intimidation of classes likewise by larger classes, and both of these in the interest of ambitious and unprincipled dema- ffoffues.
" For this reason I dread and detest this idea of handing over social power, i.e., power over the liberties and happiness of indivi- duals, to boards of every sort, from parish vestries up to or down to that most blatant and factious of all vestries, the House of Commons.'"
To J. C. MacDonnell.
" Peterborough, December 25, 1885. " Our Christmas letters of good wishes ought to have crossed each other. But yesterday I was travelling in from Stoke, and all the afternoon busy with arrears of correspondence, and so let the ])ost go out before I could write on anything but business. You do not need, however, the exact arrival of ' good words ' from me to assure you of the good wishes and hearty affection of me and mine for you and yours. May you have many and very happy re- turns of these blessed seasons, all of you ! Truly, as you say, at our time of life we cannot expect cloudless anniversaries. They bring us gi-ave memories and some anxieties, and always the sense of shortening days and the approaching close. And yet we would not willingly miss the bitter sweet of them, the sweets far outnumber- ing as they do the bitters. Truly it is a marvel to me to find my- self after my two years of illness where and what I am. God give me grace to do well and wisely what w ork He has still for me to accomplish. " W. C. P."
CHAPTER XVIII
CHURCH PATRONAGE BILL; CHURCH CONGRESS, MANCHESTER
To J. C. MacDokxell.
" Peterborough, January 4, 1886. " The article on oaths is out in the Contemporary, and has ah-eady been honoiu-ed by a leader in the Daily Ncxcs.
"Fair enough a leader from the Daily Ncics point of view, which is not of course mine.
" I am glad to see that it specially notes, with displeasure, my rap at Bradlaugh, which Farrar wanted me to omit, and which I more than ever feel was needed in any article on the subject coming from me.
" I am now working at my House of Lords speech on Patronage, to fit it for an article for the National Review.
" I met the editor at Addington last week, and arranged this with him.
" We had a very interesting, and to my mind very instructive, episcopal caucus there. The details are quite too long for a letter, but I may say that I found all my brethren there present exactly of my mind as to Church reform.
" The caucus consisted of the two Archbishops, London, Dur- ham, Carlisle, and myself — quite strong enough a cast to ensure om* leading the episcopate in the right path when we meet. We worked hard at a Pati'onage Bill, and it was curious for ine to find my seed sown eleven years ago ' bearing fruit clause after clause, in the forthcoming Bill, ' after many days.''
" But this was really in the minds of all of us only a minor part of what lay before us. That was, we all agreed, an episcopal manifesto on Church reform to be followed by episcopal action in Parliament, either by one comprehensive Bill, or, as I suggested, failing this, by a set of resolutions.
" We are to meet again ere long, and I hope good may come of it."
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CHAP. XVIII
" Peterborodgii, January 6, 1886.
" I return you Salmon's interesting letter. It hits, as he always does, the nail exactly on the head. The extinction of the loyalist minority in Ireland is the aim of the Irish and Irish- American revolutionists. The extinction of the Protestant minority is the aim of the Irish priesthood.
" As these two minorities ai-e one and the same, the pi'iests and the revolutionists are for the present united.
" When their aims are accomplished by the aid of rival English factions, the revolutionists and Irish- Americans will oust the priests, and there will be an Ii'ish Republic.
" ]\Ieanwhile, there will be much plunder and outrage, and ultimately a good deal of cutting of throats in our blessed country.
" The English Government or Governments will continue putting up Irish loyalists to auction, as they are putting up land for sale, in small lots, a little at a time, until there is either nothing more to sell or no one to bid. Then they will retire from the scene and ' wash their hands of Ireland,' and very dirty hands they will have to wash.
" I wish that Salmon could be persuaded to write his views to the Times; no man could do it better; and a letter of his just now, after Sir J. Stephen's and Lord Grey's, would tell immensely.
" As to ordination matters, ' what have I to say to these ? ' Let you and Farrar and Jellett ' divide the land.' I give you carte blanche amongst you.
" j\Iy article* is causing some ferment. I enclose you a cutting received this morning. It is a specimen of the ' misconception ' I anticijDated when writing it. Nevertheless, I am satisfied I was right in doing so. My article takes some of the sting out of the certain Affirmation Bill of next Session.
" It cainiot now be claimed as an anti-Church triumph pure and simple; and this was my main object in writing it.
"I hear from Newell that I have 'converted him.'
" Others write warmly approving. I shall be pelted for a while and then praised. I care little for either.
" I am growing very indifferent to the opinions of men. As life grows shorter we think less of our fellow travellers, and more of the end of the joui-ney."
"Peterborough, January 16, 1886. " The enclosed, like all Salmon writes or says, is excellent. " How often have I said to you and others what he says of
* On Oaths.
I8S6-SS
CHURCH PATRONAGE
221
the English infatuation in regarding the British Constitution asau absohite pill for earthquakes all over the world.
" But Englishmen are so very English, which is quite as bad as Irishmen being so ' vewy Hirhli.''''
" I am writing in haste, going out to snatch a walk while it is fine.
" I have just been planning a new church and parish for Peter- borough, at the end of Park Road, taking in sections of St. Mai-k's, St. PauFs, St. Mary's, and Paston ; we have got .£'1200 in promises already for it, dPSOO more will give us as much of a church as will cany endowment from the commissioners, so this looks healthy.
" I go to town next week to see a strange sight — a Queen opening a Republican Parliament."
" FuLHAM Palace, S.W.,
"February lo, 1886.
You see from the above address that I have received hospi- tality from my brother of London. He drove me out here this evening through a dense cold London fog, which has now lasted two days.
" ^^'e half expected an adventure on the \\'ay, inasmuch as a message had been sent in the afternoon from the police to say that ' the unemployed ' were wrecking shops in the Waterloo Road hard by, and to advise the locking of Lambeth gates.
" However, the police or the fog, or both, had dispersed the rioters before we started, and we had a perfectly peaceful journey. I have spent two weary days hammering out Church Patronage Bills and other reforms all day long, in a small committee, consist- ing of the two Archbishops, London, Durham, Carlisle, and mvself. The Church Patronage Bill was fairly licked into shape, and I think into good shape.
" But as to the other reforms we are widely at variance.
" The Archbishop of York was the most conservative, the Bishop of London the most revolutionary, while Dmham, Carlisle, and I took positions more or less to either side, but mainly in the middle. It was curious to see how the question of disestablishment at every turn in the discussion seemed to break in, and sway to and fro, according as the speaker did or did not believe it imminent.
" I strongly m'ged the dealing with all Chm'ch reform solely on its own merits, and without any oblique reference to Disestablish- ment and Disendowmcnt, and this was the conclusion to which ultimately we all came.
522 ARCHBISHOP MA GEE chap, xvm
" But as to what the reforms should be, and when they should be introduced and how, we were very much at sea.
" To-morrow the episcopate meets in conclave to say, doubtless, a vast deal, to agree as little, and ultimately to do less. This at least has been the result of every bishops' meeting I have yet attended.
" The fact is the bishops are too able a body of men ever to agree much.
" Every man can pick some hole in every other man's proposal, and does it too, as a matter of conscience and principle, so that at last every plan gets like a sieve and holds no water.
" I am very, very weary of the whole thing, and wished myself a thousand times home again with my microscope, where magni- fying small things is less hurtful than in bishops' speeches.
"London is talking of only two things just now — what the rioters have done, and what Gladstone is going to do ; and they think a good deal more of the former than the latter.
" A shop front or a club window in London is so much larger and nearer an object than a boycotted landlord or muidered tenant in Ireland. Even a Parliament in College Green affrights the cockney less than a mob in Bond Street.
" For which blindness they will be punished ere long by having both. " W. C. P."
To the Bishop of Wixchester. " Please no ansxcer to tins !
" Athen^dm Cldb, February 17, 1886.
" My dear Brother, — I know you must not be troubled with business. But your doctors have not forbidden gossip about business. So I venture to send you a few lines to tell you ' how your brethren are faring' in council.
" And rirst, let me say how universal and sincere were the regrets at your absence, and how earnest and affectionate the wishes for your speedy restoration to us. Youi* letter on the subject of Parochial Councils was read by the Archbishop, and exactly hit as well as guided the tone of general feeling on the subject.
" Om' whole course on Church reform is, I think, now in a wise and safe groove. Practically it amounts to this, that we adopt the four points of the Cambridge Memorial in principle, but with cautions and qualifications as to details ; and this is, I think, all that could be desired.
1886-88
CHURCH PATRONAGE
" The opening of the House of Laymen was a really interesting and even impi-essive sight.
"The Archbishop's speech was able, dignified, and dexterous. Altogether the best thing I have yet heard from him.
" I attended at his request the House of Laymen to-day, to explain the provisions of the Church Patronage Bill, and had the ])leasure, or otherwise, of a very severe cross-examination by able men in the presence of reporters on some ticklish subjects. I hope I did no harm at any rate.
" My impression of the assembly was that it was dangerously conservative, and on points of detail very ill-informed.
" I expect the result of their deliberations will be to minimise our Bill, with the effect of the bishops posing as advanced reformers and the laity as obstructives. So much the better for the bishops.
" To-morrow we hope to finish our report on Church Reform.
" The rest is ' leather and prunella.'
" Gloucester and Bristol proved himself handy, dextei'ous and good tempered as ever ; Oxford sensible but obstinate ; Exeter •sensible and brief ; Truro good and gushing ; London able and honest, and your unworthy brother of Peterborough bitter and sarcastic, and occasionally jocose, more suo, vel suadente diabolo ! '
" However, all is, I think, going well and safely, and that is the great matter.
" How I wish we could have had your mitis sapientia to smooth rough places and make crooked ones plain.
" Most heartily do I, as do all your episcopal brethren, pray as well as wish for your complete recovery. How strange that / should thus be writing to you — I whose death two years ago you must have been hourly expecting to hear of ! So does om- Father in heaven order for us, even as He will, and orders ever lovingly and well.
"May He be with you while you are passing through this, I trust and pray, passing cloud. — Youi-s ever affectionately,
" W. C. Petekborough.'"
To J. C. MacDonxeix.
" Athenaeum Club, February 17, 1886. " I am ' dead bate ' after two very weary days Convocational and other work, coming after four days of Episcopal Conference the week before.
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" Still, I must send you a few impressions of what has passed and is pas'^ing.
" Wc met, as I think I told you, at Lambeth last week, an assembly of the whole episcopate, to consider twenty- three subjects, of which we considered Jive '.
" However, these five were important, and were effectually dealt with. We spent a Avhole day over Church patronage, and the greater part of the next on Church reform generally. I left before the other subjects were discussed.
" On Tuesday last, in Convocation, Gloucester and Bristol brought in Church reform, with special reference to recent memorials, and I followed in a speech fairly reported in the Guardian.
" After a brief discussion, Gloucester and Bristol's motion for a committee of the whole House to consider memorials was agreed to.
" Thereupon the Ai'chbishop and some twelve of the bishops, all in our Convocation robes, adjourned to the House of Laymen, which his Grace opened in a really effective, dexterous, and dignified speech.
" The whole scene was impressive and deeply interesting.
" Eighteen peers, seventeen members of Parliament, and sundry eminent commoners were gathered there to discuss with bishops and clergy — or, rather, alongside of us — Church questions.
'•' It was really a bit, and may prove an important bit, of Chiu'ch history, at which I was very glad to have been present.
" After the conclusion of Convocation, Gloucester and Bristol and I came here to draft a report on Church reform for the committee of the whole House to-day.
"We agreed on the heads, and he put them in shape, and we have been all day debating them. They amount practically to the adoption of the Cambridge Memorial with some setting and adorning.
" At 2.30 I attended, by the Archbishop's request, at the House of Laymen, to explain the provisions of the Church Patronage Bill.
" Between my statements and their cross-examination of me, I spent a rather anxious hour, in which I hope I said nothing amiss, but in which I was subject to a very severe heckling- from all sides.
"My impression of the assembly was that it is dangei-oiislij conservative, and on points of detail very ill-informed.
"I greatly doubt their assenting to abolition of sales of advowsons.
"But if they do not, we bishops shall pose as advanced
1886-88
CHURCH PATRONAGE
refbriners, and the C'luirch laity as obstructives ; aiul this will not be a l)ad position for us to occupy.
" To-morrow I have a meeting at the Ecclesiastical C'onnnissioners"' on their illegal pew-rentings, on which I expect to be defeated ; and in the afternoon we shall finish the re])ort on Church reform. As (tU mv main })oints are already acce])ted, I am content with it. Altogether I am glad I came vip, but shall be doubly glad to get down again.'"
" g. A. B., February i8, 1886.
" I keep you au coiirmit with events ecclesiastical at this interest- ing moment in Church history.
"I attended the Ecclesiastical Commission this morning, and carried bv unanimous vote mv resolution on pew-rent scales, of which I talked to vou when last we met.
" The Commissioners have resolved ' that no scale of pew-rents be hereafter authorised by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners except those under which one-half of the sittings are left free and as^ favourably situated as those which are rented.''
" This is really a great advance on past rules, and a real reform {juietly achieved.
" It relieves me, too, from all necessity for any attack on the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in the House of Lords.
"I told the Commissioners, accordingly, after thev had passed mv resolution, that they had carried out Sir E. Henderson''s police regulations, and had ' muzzled a dug\ as I should not now harl\: in the House of Eords !
" So — solutls r'lsit tdhulis — I departed, greatly relieved in mind, and feeling that honestly I had ' done the State some service.''
" ^^^e are now hammering away at our reply to the Reform IMeniorials, and on the crucial question of parochial councils with statutory powers.
" Dear me ! How I feel, as I get older, ' quantum est in rchu.s Jnn/ian'i-s- Inaiw'' ; and yet, without enduring all this inanity and conciliating it, no ])rogress can be made. Yet I find it so hard to conceal my contempt for little things and little men that I fear I often offend the latter.
"Anyhow, if I were ambitious of pi-oniinence in Church affairs, I am getting enough of it on all sides, both friendly antl un- friendly.
" It is, I may say to i/(n(, some comfort and encouragement to me to think and hope that, if I have been raised up from the edge
VOL. H. p
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of the grave, it is beciiuse the Master has still some work for me to <lo. May He give me grace and strength to do it !
"So now again I turn to my duty of listening without groaning.
" W. C. P."
From tJtc Bishop ok Wixchestku.
" Farnham Castle, Surrey,
"February 20, 1886. Mv DEAR Brotiiku, — It was so good of you to write such a pleasant letter to me.
It came just when I was dej)ressed by reading an unkind criticism on ■A production of mine, which may be veiy unworthy, but which was certainly treated iniworthily. Being in a low state physically, I felt it more, and your letter quite set me up. I have read in Times and (hiardidn most of the Convocation work, and especially your own .sayings, but your summary of the ])roceedings has thrown a pleasant light on all.
It is rather a misfortune that the House of Laymen is so very conser- vative, politically as well as ecclesiastically : but it is good that the bishops should come out in the fuller relief, as anxious to sweep away cobwebs.
Your picture of yourself is not very flattering, but you know that we should not value your wisdom the more if it were to lose its wit.
I should miss terribly what you are pleased to call j^our sarcasm, if you soared always on angel's wings and made us forget that we were fellow mortals.
How much I value your kind words and prayers.
It is indeed a comfort to know that you have thrown off your terrible malady ; never, I hope, to renew it.
You have been much and constantly in my prayers ever since that trying time. I trust that God has granted you to the prayers of many.
I do not know where to direct this, but Peterborough is safe. — Ever, my dear brother, affectionally and gratefully yours,
E. H. WiNTON.
All here would unite in kind love to all of you if they knew I was writing. I am^obliged to write by stealth.
To J. C. ^NIacDonxell.
"Peterborough, February 22, 1886. " Convocation is over and done for this time. And it has done what I really cared about— namely, laid down the lines for Church reform. When that reform may come is another question.
1 886-88
CHURCH PATRONAGE
007
"My own belief is that it will not come until we have obtained leave from Parliament to refimn ourselves; and that this will not be (^ranted to the bishops and clergy in Convocation alone is (juite <.'ertain.
" Amalgamation of the two provinces and uniting with them a lay representation is the .s'uic qua non of all c(mcessions of Home Rule to the Chui'ch.
"But this must grorc, and cannot be mamifacturcd. I dislike and dread all paper constitutions.
" I hope you will approve, in the main, of our episcopal manifesto on reform. It is almost entirelv the work of Gloucester and Bristol and your humble servant. It is not so strong as it ought to have been against legal parochial councils. But where many minds have to be deferred to, you must sacrifice strength and precision to unity.
" I began here yesterday a series of sermonettes at the afternoon cathedral service, to continue until Easter; subject — The Church Catechism. The first qud congregation, at any rate, was a decided success."
"Athen.^um Club, Pall Mall,
" March 16, 1886.
" Here am I, alive and well, after a journey in the snow and a speech in the frosty atmosphere of the Lords.* As regards the latter and its results, I am fairlv satisfied ; and that, ijou know, is a good deal for me to say. I think I said all, or nearly all, I wanted to say, and nearly as I meant to say it.
" As usual, however, / joked, .mculente diaboh) — or, rather, ■suadente higetiio — but really and mainly in order to get the Lords to listen to me. At first they were very indifferent and talkative, evidently caring little about the subject, and looking on it as a bishop's craze and a bore. By degrees, however, I got them to laugh first, then to listen, and at last to agree largely with me.
" I spoke for exactly an hour, and sat down with a fair amount (for the Lords) of ap})lause.
"Then up rose Grimthorpe — cool, able, sarcastic, and con- temptuous— making mincemeat of the ' free and open ' and their law, but evidently })ut out a good deal by finding that I was not their mouthpiece, and evidently having expected a different line from that taken in my speech.
" However, his speech evidently took greatly with the Lords, and I thought all was up with the Bill and with me.
• Parish Churches Bill, " Speeches and Addresses," p. 204.
i
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CHAP. XVI 11
" Then Nelson made a feeble extreme speech, \\hich rather hurt than helped me. Next Granville rose and suggested withdrawal of the Bill !
" I thought then all was over, when, to my surprise, up got Selborne and strongly supported the Bill, while, viore sua, pharisaically rebuking both me and Grinithorpe. For that, ho\\ ever, I cared little. The Bill, I thought, is now safe. Then comes the Lord Chancellor, danniing it with faint praise and making a division much more dangerous ; then I poked up Cantuar to recommend a second reading and Select Committee, which Cranbrook approved of and I assented to, and so, as old Bunvaiv says, ' I went niv way."
" The upshot of it all is that I have escaped the discredit and the Church the injury of the rejection of the Bill, and that pewdom has got a decided shake, and the M'ise and moderate reform of pew abuses has decidedly advanced.
"Of course, on the other hand, I incur the wrath of the 'free and open," whom I fairly flung over, and without flinging o\er Mhoni I would never have carried the second reading. For that, however, I also care little ; and so, on the whole, bar the jokes, I am satisfied. And, ' after all,' there was no very great harm in the jokes, and, after all, a man is himself and cannot help being him- self— and so there is an end of the matter, and I am fairly well out of it.
" I must stay in town now to go with Cantuar to A\^indsor on Friday to present the Convocation address to the Queen.
" He wants me to stay for Thurlow's motion on the Sunday opening of museums. But that I will not do, for fear lest I should yotey?;?' it ! and, at any rate, because I cannot speak against it.
" The Queen wants me to preach to her on April 4. So I nnist put oft' my Peterboi'ough confirmations on that day and do as she Avishes.
"I am keeping fairly well, spite of this ever-recurrent niid-Avinter. " But it is, as you say, very lowering.
" I had a wonderful evening with the microscope last night, old ]\Ir. Fitch, a friend of Statham's, having brought over his."'
" Athen^um Club, March i8, i886, " Since writing to you on Tuesday night I have been busy makiu"' all the arranoements for the Select Committee on my Bill, and have got a very good one, though, I fear, rather a hostile
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one. The rule of the House is tliat the mover of a committee submits his hst lirst to the leaders on both sides and then gets all the parties named to consent to act. So after getting up my list carefully I submitted it to the whips on both sides. It is very amusing work, and quite after my own heart — manipulating lords. It is a Diocesan Conference Committee in excelsis, and it needs tact and i nun ense deference, and now and then the lubrication of a joke, and so I managed nearly ^\•hat I wanted. I was surprised in the process to find how many peers were in favour of my Bill and would have voted for it had it gone to a division, and I may say how many expressed approval of my speech.
" To my amazement, Kimberley came and sat down beside me quite promiscuous and pleasant, and told good pew stories and others for a quarter of an hour.
" I said a few words in Committee to-night on the Lunatics Bill.
"As that is a subject of which I know something, what I said was well received. Altogether, I may say it to you, I have got back to my old place in the House of Loi'ds, and perhaps to a little more.
" This is a vain-glorious confession one would not make to every one. But I may make it to you who know, I hope, that though I am not, I fear, abounding in charity, yet I do not ' vaunt nivself."
" To-moiTow I go to address the Queen at AVindsor. I have paired to-night against Thurlow's Museum Opening motion.
" Cantuar was urgent with me to stay and vote ; but I coidd not stay and vote without speaking, and I would not like to speak on such a subject unless carefully prepared."
"Peterborough, Apyil i8. 1886.
" You see that my prophecy is coming true. G. O. M. will carrv his Repeal Bill by sacrificing the Land Bill, and with it the land- lords, whom he hates, and also by retaining the Irish contingent in Westminster, whom Chamberlain and the Radicals love, for the sake of their help in plundering landlords in England.
"These two concessions, plus three acres and cow, and down with the Lords, will carry as cruel, as cowardly and as reckless a measure as ever was proposed in any legislature.
" It is the old story — Irish interests sacrificed for English political necessities. Qiialis ah hiccpto.
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" I am sick of the whole subject — too sick to speak on it. I could not trust myself.
" I must get away, A\ ith E. for my excuse for a sea voyage. . .
"Peterborough, May i^, 1886.
" I will turn Freddie off" on June 1.
" I write in great haste as my rural deans came at three o'clock and my hands are very full.
" You have seen, of course, Gladstone's thoroughl}' immoral and thoroughly mischievous manisfesto.
" You see, as I prophesied, he throws over the Irish landlords, and that on the false pretence that they have not done what if they had done it M ould have been an act of unparalleled baseness, namely, accepted a measure mischievous for their country on condi- tions of their interests being secured.
" Of course, this is not his true reason. That is, that the sacri- fice of the landlords is essential to the passing of the Home Rule Bill.
" How shameful, too, the hounding of class against class in England in order to gain the agricultural labourers' vote.
" Is it not, just what I foretold you, ruin for Ireland, effected by the help of revolution in England ?
" I had some interesting conversations on Saturday night at the Academy dinner with various men of note, and I have a letter from one to show you when Ave meet. But all this will keep until then.
" I e;o to Stoke for a w eek's rest to-morrow.""
"Athen^um Club, June 8, 18S6. " I lay down my mantle of prophet and admit myself fallible as other folk. Up to twelve o'clock last night I gave the G. O. M. a majority of four, and so did many another man. No one seems to have dreamed of a majority of thirty against him. It is crush- ing for the present. What the election will bring forth no man can foretell.
"• But G. O. M. goes to the country with a sadly damaged prestige, and with the multitude this counts for much. This club last night witnessed after its quiet fashion to the intensity of the political excitement. It was empty. At one time I was the only guest in its halls. All had gone to the House of Commons either to vote or to wait in the lobbies to hear the result of the division. This morning it was a sight to see men as they came in, rush to the papers, read hurriedly the announcement ' Defeat of Govern-
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nicnt,'' and then go about exclaiming, ' Bravo ! ' and ' Thank God ! ' and this is the staid and sober Athenaenm !
" I am picking up interesting scraps of news from the battle- fiekl given me by various combatants, amongst others by Tre- vclvan, M'ho tokl me that every man who promised to vote against the Bill did so, and e\ ery waverer who reserved his judgment voted for it.
" He gratified me much by telling me that my point about the importance of going to the country with a single issue was the one which had weighed most with him all along. He added, that had it been otherwise we should probably have seen the abolition of the House of Lords.
" The general opinion of Gladstone's speech was that it M as not one of his best — too rhetorical, and evidently made in fear and dread of Parnell.
" The speech of the latter, cool and conciliatory in manner, M as regarded as aimed, in Jhct, at Gladstone ; to M arn him against further concessions, and to insist on Irish Executive and including Ulster.
" It is curious to get those apercus upon speeches by those who heard them, and M'ho know how to hear hctxceen the words.
" I must not write more now as I am off to dress for dinner at Lambeth. To-morrow I go to the Isle of Wight, to stay until IMonday morning, and to leave behind me, I hope, my fen fever. This is already much better. Last night it seemed to come to a crisis. At least, I hope so."
" FuLHAM Palace, S.W.,
"June 21, i886.
" I got to the House at five o'clock and found it very full, a large whi}) having been raised on the Conservative side against Tim Healy's Election Expenses Bill. To my dismay, I found myself the sole bishop in the House and no less than four ecclesiastical Bills coming in.
"Most of these had been unexpectedly hurried up Irom the Commons, and one of them, the Extraordinary Tithe Bill, a very important one, having arrived in the House of Lords only at two o'clock to-day, after material amendments on third reading in the House of Commons on Friday night last.
"Aston from Q.A.B. was raging in the lobby, and sent for me to oppose the Bill — I who have not a hop-pole in my diocese and know nothing of the question. The Archbishop M'as expected but
ARCHBISHOP MAGEE
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liad not come. What I could do I did. I got hold of Lord Sudley,and got him to undertake that Government would announce the Q.A.B.'s objections should be considered, and if found insuper- able the Bill should not be pressed further. To my great relief, at six o'clock the Archbishop appeared, and then we held a con- ference with Selborne and Cranbrook in the Archbishops' waiting- room and agreed on the course to be taken. I then saw W. H. Smith as to the Westminster Bill.
" He assented to my amendment, which is that ' all rej)airs and restorations are to be approved by the Ecclesiastical Commis- sioners,'' and this he undertakes shall pass in the House of Conunons.
" Then came a Shop-hours Bill which bishops were expected to support ; and then a Q.A.B. Bill for relieving clergy from instal- ments. All these the Archbishop and I saw through safely ; he s])eaking, I holding my tongue, but waiting to help if needed.
" The flight of the Bills, some Jortij in number, Avas like a driven pack of grouse late in the season. So laws are made for this nmch- onduring and little understanding nation.
"To-morrow at 12.30 I go to the Home Office to confer with Sudley and Aston and others as to the Tithe Bill.
" So you see I have found some, or someone else has, work for my ' idle hands ' to do. I dined at Lambeth and drove out here in a cab, arriving at 11 p.ji.
" Fen fever in abeyance for the present.""
To Mrs. jNLvgke.
"FuLHAM Palace, SAV.,
"June 22, i886.
" The bishops met this morning and I got their agreement to certain amendments which the Bishop of London and I took down to the Home Office, where we met the Radical and Conservative House of Connnons supjiorters of the Bill, the Q.A.B. representa- tives, etc. We fought our points for two hom-s, and carried every one of them. The Radical man was fierce but honest, the Con- servative civil but treacherous. Bishop of London dogged, Peter- borough elaborately civil and polite, and the othei-s after their manner. Bishop of London says that the more disgusted I A\ as the more civil I became, and that he enjoyed my laboured politeness and gentleness immensely.
" However, we got all that was possible for the poor dear clergy,
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who will be sorely hit by the Bill and who of course will denounce the bishops for betraying them.
" Then came the Westminster Restoration Bill in the House of Lords, on which I carried an amendment, which, with my speech, you will have seen in the Times.
"What I said was very well received and carried unanimously.
" Then I drove out here to dinner, at 7.30, having worked for eight hours.
" To-morrow I wind up m\ Parish Churches Committee, and in the evening dine at Lambeth. Then I have two days' rest.
" I am somewhat better. This work and excitement is curing the fen fever.
"I enjoy my visit here much, and am generally jolly." To J. C. MacDonnell.
" 35 Great Cumberland Place,
"Hyde Park, W., June 23, 1S86.
"I have just arrived here on a visit, until Satui'day next, to my brother of Gloucester and Bristol. I left Fulham this morning for the House of Lords, where I finished oft' the business of the Select Committee of the Parish Churches Bill.
" The dissolution has cut our labom's short ; to begin or not to begin de novo in the new Parliament.
" At three o'clock the House met to rush sundry bills through, including the Westminster and Tithes Bills. I attended to see them through, and thereby got into a speech unpremeditated as usual.
" Lord Salisbury, apropos of a Temperance Bill, thought proper to chaff' the ' Right Reverend Bench," who really had nothing to do M'ith it ; and ask us ' to make up our minds as to whether it ^\ as wrong to drink beer ' !
" This was too much for me to stand and I accordingly replied to his lordship a little in his own line ; and then went on to say a few words on the general question of legislation for morals, which to my surprise were extremely well received by the House.
" Of course I shall be savagely attacked for them by the teeto- tallers. But for this I really care nothing.
" I i-eally think that I have strengthened my position in the House in the last three days, and that too in a manner in which I could not, as it were, help it. Circumstances seemed to force on me the part I took, and I think that no one blames me for it.
234
" I saw Dean Bradley this morning, and lie entirely assents to and approves of my amendment to the Westminster Bill. He thinks it will not hinder and mav even help its passage through the Commons.
" I dined to-night at Lambeth, ' Festival of sons of the clergy,' Lord Mayor, sheriffs and sundry notables, turtle, whitebait, venison and speeches as usual.
" It was the Archbishop's wedding day, so we glorified his Grace and Mrs. Benson.
" The ceremony was altogether quaint and old-world, and worth seeing for once.
"I am free and easy now for three days. Next week I open a church at Leicester."
" Stoke Drv, July 3, 1886. " I agree with you as to J. Bright's speech.
" I had noted the Cook tourist epigram and also the almost equally good one upon the proposal to have the Irish M.P.s coming and going at Westminster as ' intermittent Irish fever in the House of Commons.'
" But the new electorate will not appreciate these hits. They are beyond and below J. B. Such is the Nemesis of the advanced politician. He is sure to be distanced by the moi'e advanced, and finds himself at last sti'andetl on the bank, while the muddy stream flows past him.
" J. B. is now half a Conservative — Gladstone half a Republican.
" W. C. P."
The following letter from Mr. Bright to the Bishop shows how these two men, so strongly opposed upon other questions, agreed upon this one.
From the Right Hon. Johx Bright.
" One Ash, Rochdale,
"August i-j, 1886.
My DEAR Bishop of Peterborough, — I ought to have written to you two months ago, but my correspondence has been a great burden, and I have put many letters aside for a time.
But now I wish to thank you for your most friendly letter referring to the course I have taken on the Irish question. I have not been moved by fears as to the breaking iq) of tlie Empire, or as the cITeet the proposed measure might have upon Great Britain. I have acted
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from my continued sympathy with Ireland^ and in view of the true interests of Ireland.
I am quite sure the whole Irish people^ North and South alike, can be and will be more justly governed from Westminster than by or from any Pai'liament in Dublin ; and nothing seems to me more shocking than the scheme of handing over the loyal portion of the five millions of the Irish population, being in number, I believe, at least two millions, to the government of the men who have disturbed and demoralised Ireland during the last seven 3 ears.
The active men of the Pamellite conspiracy are rebels ; and I believe that now if England were at war with France they would do what Wolfe Tone and others did ninety years ago, invite the French to invade Ireland to save that countiy from Great Britain, and to establish an Irish Republic. I have no faith in their conversion or their promises, and I M ill not trust any portion of my countrymen to their sense of justice, or to their honour. As to the justice, nothing can be foreseen, but I hope a resolute Government may do something to preserve order, and that a continued disposition to give all to Ireland that justice requires may improve the temper of her people.
I hope we may see no more of measures of capitulation, such as the constituencies of Great Britain have recently, and so emphatically, condemned.
Your letter gave me much pleasure, and I thank you for it. Believe me very sincerely yours, John Bright.
To J. C. MacDoxnell.
" Athen.tum, July 8, i886.
" I dined last night with the doctors, some 200 strong, imder Sir J. Paget's presidency (Jubilee of Medical Benevolent Fund).
'• He had the Bishop of London and Cardinal Manning on his right and me on his left. They both responded for the toast of the Church. How Manning must have grinned inwardly at such a junction ! London spoke honestly and cleverly, Manning elegantly and neatly and with much unction. Your humble servant was given the Army, Navy and Reserve Forces ! and that at a moment's notice ; not a very hopeful subject for an episcopal speech.
" I got through it as well as I could, and had the pleasure of seeing one mild little jokelet of mine murdered in the Standard report of to-day.
" I had said that of the three forces, my only interest was in the navy, inasmuch as bishops in governing their dioceses Avere often 'at sea.' The Standard printed it that the Church was a
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ix'scrved force because she A\ as ' esteemed ' ! If they had even made me say steamed it would have had a nautical flavour.
" Sir J. Lister in returning thanks for some toast said something civil about 'Irish eloquence'' and then to my amazement dashed into a ' sentiment ' as he called it ; ' may that island never be separated from us but its union always maintained,'' which the audience cheered lustily and unanimously, for a minute at least.
July 9. I broke this off last night to go and d^ne with Justice Bowcn and Hutton. I found there besides Hutton, Lowell the American ^Minister, and Mahaffy of Trinity College, Dublin, and an Englishman named Morison Avith a handsome and clever wife and ditto sister-in-law. We had a very pleasant party ; Mahaft'y very amusing, Lowell dry and quaint and cool, a Home Ruler, not because he believes in it as wise or good, but because it must come, this being the nineteenth century and strong and resolute government impossible under our democratic institutions.
"We soon by common consent abandoned the Irish question and took to literature and stories — Irish, American and English, and enjoyed ourselves much.
" I have just seen the telegram announcing the rejection of Trevelyan !
" Hartington''s seat is very shaky too. How curious it will be if the thi'ee leaders of Liberal Unionism fall in the conflict, and the rank and file nevertheless win !
" It will have been the soldiers' battle. " W. C. P."
The foUowino- letter refers to a small book on the Atonement written for a series entitled, " Helps to Belief."
"Stoke Dry, Atigi'si 13, 1886. " Could you find and send me by passenger train, "(1) Your own Donnellan ' Lectures on the Atonement;'' " (2) Hagenback's ' History of Doctrine ;''
"(3) That volume of Dormers 'Person of Christ which deals
with the Atonement.!^
" This, you see, implies that I am really setting to work.
" I have taken for my text, or theme rather, St. John's statement
of the Atonement, 1 John ii. (1-2).
" It seems to me to put the Avhole doctrine, scientifically, thus : " (1) It affirms the existence of sin. ' If we say we have no sin.'' " (2) It aflirms conditional forgiveness. ' If we confess onr sins/
1886-88 CHURCH PATRONAGE 237
" (3) It affirms that in order to this conditional forgiveness there was needed the removal of an obstacle to remission of sin. ' He is the propitiation for our sins.''
" Forgiveness of the penitent is then made possible by Christ, who is our propitiation.
"This seems to me the Biblical doctrine of the forgiveness of sins. And this threefold statement traverses three objections to the doctrine.
" (1) The denial that there is any such thing as sin. This is the objection of the Materialist and Necessitarian.
" (2) The denial that, if there be such a thing as sin, thei^e can be any forgiveness for it.
"This is F. Newman's objection, in 'The Soul,' based on the uniformity of law and the certainty of its penalties in the moral as in the phvsical world.
" (3) The denial (granting sin and forgiveness) of any need for anything more than penitence on the part of the sinner in order to forgiveness.
" This is the Deistic or Socinian objection.
"The first two objections are on the ground of the scientific impossibility of any doctrine of sin and forgiveness.
" The third is on the ground of the superfluity of any propitiation, and also of the injustice of the jiopular theory of the Atonement as required by the justice of God.
" In dealing with these objections, I meet the first by the fact of the human conscience and also by the argument that at any rate they must admit that man Ifs out of harmony ro'ith late and that this must be remedied in order to his happiness, i.e., ' sin,' or what we call sin, ' is the transgression of law,' and the result of this is })enalty.
" (2) I meet the second by admitting fully the invariableness and universality of moral law and its penalties, and therefore the im- possibility of remission of penalties even to the penitent in any system of moral government.
" I grant, nay insist, that nature, apart from revelation, reveals an unforgiving God, or system ; and therefore I argue it needs a revelation to assure forgiveness and a ?niracle to eft'ect it, remission of penaltv being as much a miracle in the moral world as raising the dead in the phvsical.
" (3) I meet the objection that propitiation is su])erfluous by referring number three objector to number two, and by asking how
^38
ARCHBISHOP MAGEK
CHAP. XVIII
iindev a system of moral government there is room for forgiveness; and as to objections on the ground of injustice, I throw over the popular forensic explanation of atonement as an explanation only, and as one we are in no way concerned to defend. All we are bound to maintain is that reason and Scripture both declare that there is an obstacle in the way of remission of sin o)i tlie side of ■God, and that Christ has removed this not merely by His death but by His incarnate life and work.
" Lastly I would touch lightly and tentativelv on the idea of humanity being in Christ as in Adam, and on the idea of a neio .deporture for the race in His new life out of death, and also on the mediatorial work and office of Christ. ' ^Ve have an advocate Avith the Father.'
" Now read this over kindly a second time, and tell me what you think of it all. " " W. C. P."
In the autumn of 1886 the Bishoj) paid a visit to Ireland, and it Avas on this occasion that he revisited his old school at Kilkenny (Chapter I.). While visiting his old friend Dr. Jellett at Ahinagh Kectory he was taken ill and had to return to Dublin for medical advice. His ailment was, if not very dangerous, of a most dis- tressing character. The following letter shows how completely it upset all his plans. Before it reached me at Peterborough ]VIrs. Magee had joined him in Dublin, and after a short time she Ijrought him home a convalescent but still very weak.
To J. C. MacDonxkli..
" Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin,
" Siptcinber 26, 1886.
" You have pi'obably heard by this time of what our Killarney trip has ended in — a had attack of gouty inflannnation in the glands of the mouth and the tongue which has confined me to my room here for four days, and is likely to do so for twice as many more.
" I have not been so ill, nor suffered so much, since my great ill- ness. I have put myself under your namesake. Dr. R. MacDonnell, a man of great repute and an old accpiaintance. He tells me that there is no cause for uneasiness, that I have no constitutional symp- toms whatever. Pulse and tenijierature normal. But this does not prevent my feeling rnificr(d)ly ill and low, l)esides being unable to swallow anything save liquids and hardly to speak. MacDon- nell says that my holding my visitation 'is totally out of the
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question," and he forbids it absolutely. Now I want you to confer with Gray and to send out necessary notices of postponement for nie.
"I am really too unwell to attend to this or any other business just now.
" I sent my wife yesterday a draft of an adyertisement for papers and letter to rin-al deans. Please see lier and Gray, and take this offinij mind. — Yours affectionately and miserably,
"w. c. vr
"January 27, 1887.
" . . . . We did not do much at the bishops' meeting. But Manchester and I got their lordshijjs to agree with us on one or two matters of importance. He (Manchester) is proving already a valuable and leading man amongst us. Shrewdlv sensible and calm judging, and carrying weight accordingly.
" What a blow to Salisbury is this defeat of Goschen !
" The stars in the courses fight against the Conservatives.
" I fear that anarchy and faction will triumph ere long. There is not patience enough in a Democracy to hold out and play the waiting game. They will have everything settled out of hand, and consequentlv they will speedily -settle their men ha.sh, and stew in it afterwards — Irish Home Rule, purchased by Welsh and Scotch Radical and Nonconformist votes, and sold to Gladstone for Dis- establishment and Revolution hereafter.
" This is my forecast."
" February 5, 1887.
" . . . . I have been corresponding with Chamberlain on the Irish question !
" I was moved by the perusal of a recent speech of his to send him some thoughts of mine on the agrarian element in the Irish problem. He received them venj civilly, and wrote me a long and very interesting letter in reply.
" My three points were :
"(1) Produce rents, instead of fixed ones, on the principle of tithe rent charge, rising and falling automatically.
" (2) Stringent provisions against sub-letting by the new peasant proprietary.
" (3) Prevention of harsh evictions by giving the tenant before eviction an appeal to a county court judge, who should decide how much he should pay and order him to ))av by instalments as in a county court judgment in England.
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" Siicli judjimeiit to be enforceable hij the court, not by the landlord, and bv imprisonment if necessary.
" On all these })oints Chamberlain agreed with me entirely, adding- much interesting matter as to his ideas of local govern- ment as distinguished from Home Kule.
" I will show vou his letter. I kept no copy of mine."'''
"Athen^um Club, March 3, 1887. " ' There is na doot,' etc. / am better, and much better, now it is all over and done. Mv speech was, I think I may say to you, a success.
" I was cheered when I got up, a ^ erv rare thing in the House of Lords, and cheered when I sat down, and listened to attentivelv throughout.
" The Archbishop of Canterbury thanked me warmly and said ' Spoken nobly,' and J. Ryle told me I 'had saved the Bill.'* That is an exaggei'ation, as Salisbury decided its fate by pronouncing for the second reading.
" But I do think I helped to this. Things looked very black in the beginning of the evening.
" No less than .s/'.r peers came to tell me that they feared thev must vote against the Bill, and one of them (Brabourne) was even ])repared to sjieak against it ! My first hour in the house was spent in lobbying these Morthy aristocrats, and beseeching them to allow the second reading.
"Then I coached London on the points on which they disliked the Bill, and warned him that unless we showed ourselves quite opr-n to alter or omit these, all Mas over with us. He took the hint and spoke verv judiciously and dexterously, though a little heavily. He was followed bv Lord Cowper as patron of seventeen livings, who spoke like a gentleman, but all in the old stvle about the right and innocence of selling benefices.
Then I rose and Mas, as I told vou, to my surprise, actuallv cheei'ed bv lay peers as M'ell as s]nritual. I spoke for about thirty- five minutes, guided by the conversations I had previously had, and taking the line I had told you of ; reasoning as to the Bill and Marning as to consequences of rejecting it. Interspersed M-ith them came a fcM' hits at Grimthorpc, Mhich Mere verv mcII received.
" The Peers evidently liked to see him roasted, though they had l)cen all but mesmerised by his speech on Monday.
* The Church Patronage Bill.
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" I think they were obliged to ine for giving them an excuse for shaking off his domination. Luckily for me and the Bill, he was not there. His effort on INIonday brought on a fit of the gout, and thus I was not tempted to say sundry things that his presence might have provoked me into saying. Selborne made a very tell- ing quiet judicial speech in favour of the Bill.
" Salisbury half blessed half banned it, but decidedly supported second reading ; and what is more important, declared against sending it to a Select Committee. Then all the house nearly sHpjied away save the bishops and front Government bench who sat for half an hour, not listening to Earl Fortescue who steadily prosed on in a high pitched voice, like the setting of a saw, about something or other in the Bill, nobody knew what ; and then we passed second reading and went home.
" But it was at one time touch and go, and I was told that on IVIonday night, had a division been taken, the Bill would certainly have been rejected.
" ' AlFs well that ends well,' and the ending for me will be a good night's sleep, which is more than I had last night ; and so no more from your humble servant to command, " W. C. P."
"Peterborough, March 5, 1887.
" Thanks for your pleasant letter. The report of my speech in the Times was agonising, one half omitted, and the other half mangled out of recognition ; all the life and point of it knocketl out.
" Salisbury spoke for ten minutes, I for forty ; and he is reported at twice my length and verbatim.
" Even my little joke about the 85 and 25 was mangled. I said we are 25 not 85, and there is onhj one Ir/s/tman amongst us!
" However, these are small matters. The great question is about the passing of the Bill.
" The Archbishop has overloaded it ^vith a number of compli- cated and rather fantastic ])r()\ isions for a great Diocesan Council of Presentations, none of which I ever saw or heard of until now, and has poorly stated his reasons for so doing.
" These damaged the Bill and him and us, in the eyes of the IjOrds. I did not like to throw him over publicly and totally, but I did disparage the Council and intimated that I cared little about it. This was all omitted in tlie I'hnes report. So / am held re- sponsible for his nia'iserles. So historj' is made.
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" Practically the result may be, as 3 0U sav, that the Lords, re- jecting this mode of dealing with parishioners' objections, may in compensation give more ]M)wer in that direction to bishops.
But much will depend on the conduct of the Bill in Committee ; and as I cannot take that out of his Grace's hands, and do not care to have to vote against him probably more than once in the Com- mittee stage, I shall certainly stay away. He cannot in decencv press me up again, and if he does I will sturdily say no. If lie cannot fight a Bill through Connnittee with the help of London, and his ally Selborne, he should never have brought it in.
" \V. C. P."
IMPRISONMENT FOR CONTUMACY.
To tlie Editor of the Guardian.
May 21, 18S7.
Sm, — The accompanying letter was wi-itten by me in answer to a request that I would introduce in the House of Lords a Bill for the substitution of deprivation for imprisonment as the punishment for contumacy. As I have since received similar requests and suggestions from others I shall be obliged by your publishing this letter as the best reply that I can make to them. W. C. Peterborougu.
Palace, Peterborough,
April 12, 18S7.
Dear Sm, — I entirely concur in the opinion expressed by the Central Committee of the Union of Clerical and Lay Associations, " that the present state of the law which enforces imprisonment upon clei'gymen as the only possible punishment for contumacy is unsatisfactory." I also think as they do, that deprivation should be substituted for im- prisonment in the case of clerks condemned as offendei's against the laws ecclesiastical who continue contumacious." I am, however, quite imable to comply with your request on then- behalf that I would introduce a Bill into the House of Lords to amend the law in tliis respect. Apart from all considerations of health or leisure, as I'egards nivself, I am of opinion on general grounds of pmdence and common sense, that it is unwise to attemjjt enforcing by speedier and more certain penalties than now exist obedience to ambiguous and debatable rubrics. The rubrics for alleged disobedience to which the clergymen referred to in your letter have been imprisoned are, many of them, in my opinion, of very doubtful meaning, and some of them have actuallj' received contradictoiy interpretations in our courts of law. The first duty on the part of those who govern tlie Church towards those whom they aie called to govern is to make the rules they are to obey clear
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and definite ; and then, if needs be, to provide punishment for disobe- dience to these. To reverse this process is only to breed confusion and strife. For this reason, I sliould never have voted for nor supported the PubHc Worship Regulation Act, had not its introduction been accompanied by Royal Letters of Business to Convocation for the revision of rubrics — a revision which I fully hoped and believed would have been accomplished well within the limit of three years named in that Act as the term of grace for contumacious clerks. Unfortun- ately, Convocation did not think fit to avail itself of the opportunity then given of effecting peace in the Chuixh by a wise, tolerant, and liberal revision of the rubrics in dispute. That opportunity has passed iiway- — never, I fear, to return — and we are now reaping as we then sowed. Having done at the time all that in me lay to bring about a peaceable and lasting settlement of these rubrical troubles in the only way in which such settlement seemed to me just and possible, I feel myself discharged of all further responsibility in the matter, and cer- tainly I do not feel myself in any way called upon to jiromote further legislation upon lines which I believe to be mistaken, and which, if carried further in the same direction, could not fail to prove alike exasperating to the clergy and miscliievous to the Church. — I am, faitli- fuUy yours, W. C. Peterborough.
From the Rev. A. Lloyd.
Vicarage, Newcastle-on-Tvne,
March g, 1887.
My Lord Bishop, — You will, I feel sure, forgive me for troubling you when you read my story. The other day a lady came to me in distress, caused by doubt. I lent her, as I frequently do in such cases, your Norwich sermons. After a week or so she came back and told me these had helped her more than anything she had ever read. She asked me if any more had been written and published. It was this that led me to trouble you with a letter — first, to say what a real help these sermons have been to many who have come within my reach, and then to ask you if you would kindly tell me of any other pursuing a like train of thought. — Again asking you to forgive me, believe me to remain your faithful servant, Arthur T. Lloyd.
To the Rev. A. Lloyd.
*' Palace, Peterborough,
"March 13, 1887.
" Dear Sir, — Absence from home and much stress of work have prevented tny earlier reply to your very gratifying letter. I an>
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iiuleed thankful to know that words of mine have helped aiiv struggling soul to conquer doubt. I had infinitely rather hear thi* than hear an^' anioimt of praise for anything I have ever said or written. I do not recall to niy mind anything else that I have pub- lished of the same nature as my Norwich sermons, unless it be a little tractate of mine, recently published, on the Atonement. It i'orms one of a series of tracts entitled ' Helps to Belief,' and is published by Cassell & Co. The other tracts in the series are bv eminent -wi-iters, and I have no doubt that your friend would find them helpful.
" Believe me, with thanks for your kind and encouraging letter, faithfully yours, " W. C. Peterborough."
In Julv 1887 his medical advisers sent Bishop j\Iagee to take the A\ aters at Contrexeville. Before returning home he visited Gerard- mer from where he wrote the following letter :
To J, C. MacDonnell.
" Gerardmer, Vosges,
•■August 8, 1887.
" Somewhere or other in this world, there is, I believe, a Diocese of Peterborough. It has, I have heard tell, its cathedral and dean and canons, its troublesome incumbents, its anxious curates, its diocesan conferences, and its inevitable bishop. But it is a verv long way from this place, and seems to me a very small and un- certain sort of spot on the earth's surface. Here I am, a tourist, a voyageur, a farceur if you will, ' taking mine ease in mine inn ' — a most comfortable one — and enjoying all the delights of doing- nothing and thinking of nothing, in the midst of charming scenery and out of the reach even of the sound of the English tongue.
" This is a charming place, a miniatm-e Swiss village, situated just outside a deep, long, pine-clad gorge in the Vosges hills — thev are hardly mountains, but are highly respectable elevations. A bijou lake, about two miles and a half in circumference, lies just at our doors ; and all round us pine woods, traversed bv brawling, clear mountain streams, suggestive of trout, shade you from the fierce August sun, and encourage you to stroll about and rest and do nothing deliciously. There ! that is a fair bit of English literature for you dashed oft" extenipoi-e, 'a poor thing, sir, but mine own,' and coming out of the abundance of my jollity and ease. Truly I wish you were here to enjoy it Avith me.
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" This hotel is by far the best I have been in since I left England. Every thing arranged with an idea of French open-air comfort, a kind of comfort that I take to most kindly ; as you would have said had you seen nie taking my cafe noir and cigar on the terrace here after an 11.30 breakfast, preceded by a cafe au lait in the pine woods three miles off, and a stroll by the side of a murmuring stream afterwards, winding up with a sponge bath and tending, as soon as I shall have posted this, towards a midday siesta. The heat here just now is tropical, quite as bad as in England, no rain, I have seen but four showers since I left home. But the air is <leliciously clear and sweet, not altogether like that of the Precincts just now. Bother the Precincts. I should like not to see them for another month.
" Nevertheless, I mean, please God, to be in them this day week, leaving London on Monday evening, coming via Paris. I suppose vou have made all necessary arrangements for the September ordination."
"Peterborough, December 23, 1887. " This last case confirms me in my design of putting limitation on the preaching of deacons, and I have prepared accordingly a letter on the subject to incumbents, of which I will send you a copy ere long.
" It will cause some gi'owls, but that I cannot help.
" Have vou noted the declarations of the two Roman Catholic Bishops, Limerick and Clonfert, against Boycottinj; and Plan ot Campaign
"They are very important, and have, I suspect, some connection with Persico^s mission. " W. C. P."
The Palace, Peterborough.
Rev. and dear Sir, — Yom" curate, whom I have just ordained, will now enter upon the duties of his diaconate.
I have reminded him, and I now venture to remind you, that the first, if not the most important part of these, is his due preparation for the office of the priesthood.
In order to obtain this higher degree in the ministry at my liands, it is necessary that he should pass, in the ensuing twelve months, two examinations, the standard for which is in this diocese not lower, but higher than that for deacon's orders. It is therefore essential for him that he should have due time for preparing himself for these examina- tions, and accordingly I trust that wliatcver arrangements you may
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make for the diseharge of his other duties you will make careful and stated provision for this.
The plea which is sometimes urged by deacons who unfortunately foil in their examinations for the priesthood is that the pressui'e of other engagements has left them no leisure for study. In some cases this plea has, I fear, been too amply j ustified, and, although I have never been able to accept it is a reason for admitting an unqualified deacon to the office of a ''priest in the Church of God," I have strongly sympathised with the curate, whose failure has not been owing to his own lack of care and diligence, but simply to the lack of that time which is not at his OAvn disposal, but at that of his incumbent.
I earnestly hojie, therefore, that you will, in this respect, do full justice to your curate, and that you will also, as far as you can, assist and encourage him in his preparation for the priesthood.
As regards one most important part of his new duties — that of jneaching — I grant him my licence to preach only on condition that he does not preach in tlie parish church more than one sermon of his own composition in each month. Should you require him to preach more frequently than this, I wish him to copy out and to read from the pulpit, either one of the homilies of our Church, or a sermon from one of those named in the accompanying list.
Should there be any other sermons which you may wish him to j)reach, I am prepared to sanction his doing so provided such sermons have been previously approved of by me.
On liis preaching in mission chapels or school-rooms I place no restric- tion, though even in these it is not, I think, desirable that he should preach too frequently.
Twice in each year on the occasion of his examination he will for- Avard to me the MS. of the last sermon of his own composition which he may have preached in the parish church, and from this I shall be able to judge whether his period of probation as a preacher may pro- perly be abridged.
I have informed him that on his strict compliance with these condi- tions his ordination by me to the priesthood must depend.
Commending these rules to your kind and careful consideration, I am, rev. and dear Sir, faithfully yours, W. C. Peterborough.
To J. C. MacDonnell.
" Palace, Peterborough,
" Christinas Day, 1887.
" Many happy Cliristniases to you and yours, or at least may all remaining Christmases be happy ones — happy in pleasant memories and assured and peaceful hopes. Truly, as you say, our roll of
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festivals is drawing to its close. The more need have we to cherish the old friendships which survive the waste of time, and carry us buck in memory to the old days, not in the 'blank azure' but in the golden light of the pleasant past."
" Athen/EDM Club, March ii, 1888.
" Did you ever in your eminently respectable life dance on the tight rope ? And did you ever do so in the presence of royalty ? No Then I have beaten you.
" For I have this day performed that exceedingly difficult feat, and dead beat do I feel after it. I suppose you saw (for it was aimounced in all the papers) that H.ll.H. was to worship at White- hall this afternoon with all his famil}', to keep his silver wedding, and that the Bishop of Peterborough was to preach. Not an easy thing to do, under anv circumstances, to preach to royalty in a pew opposite you, and also to a large middle-class congregation on a special occasion. But only think of having to add to this a sjiecial allusion to the late Emperor of Germany's death, and the present Emperor''s condition, and all this within the space of forty minutes, the utmost length that it is considered good taste to inflict on H.ll.H. Add to this that he specially requested an offertory for the Gordon Boys"" Home, and of course implied some reference in the sermon to this. So that I had, within forty minutes, to preach a Charity sermon, a Wedding sermon, and a Funeral one. INIatch me that if you can for difficulty.
"It was trying, and cost me much sweat of brow and sleepless- ness at night, more especially as nothing nuist do me but to preach on 1 Cor. xii. 25, 26, and to deliver my sentiments on Christian Socialism inter alia. The thing got hold of me and I could preach on nothing else.
" However, it is done and over, and I think fairly done. But oxen arul uart-ropes would not hale me to the preaching of such another discourse.
" How cui'ious it is that I have now preached for the fifth time an unexpected funeral sermon on some great occasion.
Lady Augusta Stanley, Dean Stanley, the late Emperor of Russia, Prince Leopold, and now the German Emperor, all died a dav or two before I had to preach either to royalty or on a special occasion, and for each I had to make a special funeral eloge. I doubt if that ever occmTed in the life of any other preacher before.
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" I really feel as if I had, as regards my preaching, what the Italians call \h.e jeUutura — the evil eye. I do not bring luck to those who ask me to preach.
" I hear that there is no doubt that the new Emperor"'s disease is fatal, and likely even to be soon if not rapidly fatal. No one now doubts its cancerous nature.
"The Archbishop of Canterbury was at Whitehall to-night in robes to receive H.R.H.
" He had urged me to come up on Thursday next to fight Grimthorpe over his Grace's Ecclesiastical Procedure Bill. I finally declined this on the honest plea of physical inability with all my other work. But besides I do not care to be the gamecock of the Episcopal Bench. I fought for them last ^•ear and saved, they tell me, the Patronage Bill ; now they must fight for their own hand.
" If his Grace and London cannot do their plain duty in fighting Bills for the Church through Parliament, they had better 7-^sign, or rt,9sign some ^PoOOO a year to the poor country bishops they w ant to do their work for thom.
" ' Zonam qui perdidit {iion) 'ib'it.'' I stay at home.
" W. C. P.^
"Elton Hall, Peterborough,
" April 5, i8SS.
" I agree with you that at any rate I have saved the suffragan- ship for the diocese, and certainly, whatever happens, it is not my doing.
" Apropos of this Suffragan Bill, I heard, oddly enough here, from Penrose Fitzgerald, M.P. for Cambridge, the account of its failure last year in the House of Commons, which is at any rate amusing.
" It seems that it was down for second reading on a certain night when a sharp debate had just terminated on the Margarine Bill, in which Fitzgerald, a Cork man defending butter, had come into collision with Biggar, a northern bacon-seller, who naturally patronised margarine.
" At about 3 o'clock in the morning Fitzgerald, who had taken charge of the Suffragan Bill, tried quietly to slip it through, as a small, quite non-contentious Bill, when up got Biggar, who opposed it as a Bill for creating ' margarine or bosh bishops.' ' In fact hishoprecns,'' At that time opposition was fatal, and the Bill A\as
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lost. But for that fact I should now have had Bishop M. as my suffragan.
" Who would imagine that an Ii'ish pig merchant would have hindered English bishops from getting suft'ragans !
" We have been staying here since Tuesdav night in a great house with a large party, peers and peeresses and baronets and their ladies, all pleasant company; and have enjoyed everything save this terrible weather. Snow again this morning.
" ]'*enrose Fitzgerald has been telling us a series of the most delicious of Irish stories, all of them new to me. I hope I n)ay remember them to retail to you.
" Any one of them will make your fortune as an Irish story- teller for a season.
"We return home to-morrow, and on Sunday commences my Confirmation tour."
" Peterborough, June 13, iSSS.
"I am greatly uplifted by getting a promise of ^1000 from ]\Irs. Herrick for our new Church Extension effort in Leicester, which aims at raising =£?! 9,000 in five yeai's and =£^600 a year of annual subscriptions instead of ^^300. This is a ' big thing."" But if it succeeds we shall get Jour new parishes with clergy, and at any rate we shall get a good deal done in that direction.
" I had a letter to-day from Hassard (now Sir J. Hassard) from which I find that the Leicester sufFraganship is progressing througli the Government offices, and will soon, therefore, be a Jhit accompli.
" All things at the moment, therefore, are roseate in hue, and seem to promise a careless vacation for yours ever affectionately,
" W. C. P.
" Fancy me with a ' Sir ' secretary and two ' my lord ' ai'ch- deacons and suffragans. I am getting algebraically into a very high power.'"
"Peterborough, June 14, iSSS.
" Enclosed you have my ' sintimints ' as to unauthorised publica- tions of sermons. ' I have suffered many things ' at the hands of piratical editors, and at last I have ' spoken with my tongue.'
" I daresay that the Contemporary Pulpit man Avill have his say in reply, and that I may have another letter to Avrite in answer to him.
" But I think I have a strong case, and shall have many sympa- thisers. " W. C. P.''
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To the Editoi' of the Times.
Palace, Peterborough,
June II, i888.
Sir, — I have just received a copy of a publication, purporting to be a series of Sermons on the Church Catechism by the Bishop of Peter- borough, reprinted, aj)})arently, from the Contemporary Pii/pil. I ask 3'our permission to state that this publication has been made without my consent or knowledge ; and that (with the exception of the first sermon of the series, which was partially corrected by me) I am in no way responsible for its contents. The facts of the case are interestuig as an illustration of what preachers, who, like mj-self, do not use manuscript, have to suffer at the hands of reporters and editors of religious periodicals. I have preached lately a series of short sermons in Peterborough Cathedral on the Church Catechism. These were reported in the local newspapers ; and the editor, I think, of the Contemporary Pulpit, or, if not, some other editor, sent me shortlj' after a pi'oof of the first of these for coiTCction, with a view to publication in his magazine. I found it, as might have been expected, both im- perfect and inaccurate.
I could not afford the time, even if I had the ability, to reproduce the sermon from memory. I was obliged, therefore, to content myself with rendering into English a good many sentences which were c-ertainly not printed in that language, and with erasing one or two amazing docti'inal statements which were the reporter's and not mine.
The remaining sermons Avere published in the Contemporarij Pulpit without any revision or correction from me, and are now republished in ])ermanent form, for the profit of the publisher or editor, with tlie heading " Magee Extra ; price sixpence." I am aware that for this kind of literary assassination, an unhappy preacher has no legal redress ; lie is completely at the mercy of penny-a-liners and enterprising editors, who make " pernicious nonsense " of his discourses, and then vend them for their own gain. I do not grudge them their gains, though, if I might be allowed the choice, I would gladly pay them what they might think their venture worth, on condition that they would forego it. But what I do complain of is, that because I will not, and indeed cannot, reproduce for them my sermons, I must submit to the publication and circulation of all the bad EngHsh and worse theology which they tliink fit to give to the public as mine. I com- plain, too, of the further annoyance of having to answer numerous letters from perplexed, and occasionally angry correspondents, who ask, " Did you reallj- say this ? " Can it be possible that you said that ? " and of having to write to eacli one an assurance that I never
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said "this" or '•'that/' and an explanation — sometimes a long one — as to what I really did say. I know that these complaints of mine will fall — so far as enterprising editors are concerned — upon deaf ears. Preachers are their natural prey and diet. But, as a matter of common honesty, I think it only due to any intending purchaser of this parti- cular " Magee Extra " to apprise him that, if he expends upon it the sum of sixpence, he will get for his money a good deal more of the " Extra " than of the Magee." — I am, Sir, faithfully yours,
W. C. Peterborough.
To J. C. MacDonnell.
" Athen^um Club, July 15, 1S88. " At Inst the Suffragan Bishopric of Leicester is an accomplished fact. Thicknesse and Billing were consecrated to-day in St. Paul's. The service was a verv impressive one. The Archbishop was assisted by eight bishops, home, colonial and American very judi- ciouslv intermingled. The choir of the grand cathedral, with its really splendid rercdos, lent itself nobly to the function. The sermon by Bishop W. Ho\v was suitable, earnest, and nearly eloquent, and the demeanour of the bishops-elect all that could be desired. All the details were carefully arranged and A\ell car- ried out, save only that the Bishop of Peterborough read the m rong epistle !
" I have met one or two bishops — Graves, Doane of Albany, and Howe — who urge me to attend the last session of Conference,* but I am not yet pci'suaded. If, as they say, the minority is deter- mined not to be suppressed, they do not want me ; and if they are not so determined I am not likely to make them do so. Besides, there is the question of the cost of another week in town, no small matter in these hard times, and the utter weariness of the whole thing for me. I fear that of all the ailments of old age there is none more severe or disabling than that of ' don't care.' I find it, at any rate gaining on me very fast. I keep asking myself, what is the good of worrying and fretting and torturing yourself for the future of a conference Avhich ten years hence in all human probabi- lity will assemble without you I am very sick of the endless ' talk, talk, talk,' even of able men, and want a little rest and peace from this strife, or, at any rate, noise of tongues. I want to get away from it all, and ' be quiet,' as old Walton says, ' and go
* The Pan-Anglican Synod.
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a-fishing/ So I am still in the mind for comino- away and letting my ' influence and good fame,' that you talked of, take care of themselves.
" So no more at present."
"Kylemore Castle, Galway,
" September 2, 1888.
"Fancy me, within a quarter of a mile or so of poor old Duncan's hotel, on the shore of the lake I fished more than thirty years ago ; but in a handsome, luxuriously furnished castle, surrounded by beautifully wooded grounds with gardens and houses, worthy of u ducal mansion in England, living on the ' hoighth of good ating and dhrinking,' a French cook and all things to match — stepping down from the castle terrace into a boat, with keeper at my dis- posal, fishing for sea trout and salmon, until lunch bell rings, and then lunching on all the delicacies of the season, with flunkies of great stature in waiting, and most agreeable society, and then out again after salmon and trout. That is the life I have been leading for the last ten days, in the hospitable abode of Mitchel Henrv, formerly M.P. for Galway. I have been also to Leenane, and down the Killery Harbour, e%en on to Lobster Island, where you and your missus ate lobster to such a shameful excess, and to my great disgust, because I was not well enough to do the same. I ha\ e seen Loch IVIuck and Loch Fee, and the old lodge w here Mr. and Mrs. Nee took us in and did for us ; and more than that, I have visited Renvyle, where, forty-five years ago, I spent a fortnight when I was a scholar of Trinity College, Dublin. How strange it all seems to me, and how nmch of my past life it brings back again. I have enjoyed it all greatly, slaying sundry white trout, and even a salmon, and gaining health and strength for my winter diocesan campaign.
" The weather has been very bad however, here, though not so bad as I hear it has been in England.
I found to my disgust that my fishing right hand had forgot its cunning. I am only now able to fish as I ' used to was.' But six years of neglect of any art makes one rusty.
" I have given up Killarney — you know that of old I preferred fish to scenery ; besides, I had not time to do Killarney properly in the fag end of a month's tour.
" The diocese has been veiy peaceful, and the clergy have to 6ome extent spared me lettei's."
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" WoRSLEY Hall, Manchester,
" October 4, 1888.
"I have had, as you mav supjiose, but little time for letter writ- ing in all the whirligigs of a Church congress, held seven miles aM'ay, to which I go early and from which I return late.
" To-day, however, I got away early, and have a few minutes \n which to tell vou my 'sintimints'' about it all. We an'ived heretoa late for the opening sermon by W. Ebor — not, I hear, a successful one, and veiT badly heard owing to the unacoustic properties of Manchester Cathedral .
" The opening scene in the great Free Trade Hall, holding 5000 people, and crannned, was very fine. The Bishop's address was decidedlv able and telling, and very well received. He is evidently popular and making his mark already in Manchester.
" The papers on results of Biblical criticism were disappointing, with one exception. Wilson of Clifton gave an able and thought- ful essay, on the effect of criticism on theology, wonderfully conser- vative and constructive for him, and well worth careful studv and thought hereafter.
" The others were heavy and wearisome. The Bishop put some life into the subject in winding up. But the whole of the discus- sion, if so it can be called, was decidedly one-sided, and conceded more than I thought necessary, and a good deal more than I should have expected the large mixed audience to receive patiently. Thev did, ho\\ever, so receive it, and indeed I was greatly struck all through with the wonderful tolerance and growth of wider thought in this congress, both on the platform and below it. Things were said and borne with, and even applauded, which if said ten, or even five years ago, M ould have been hissed by a large portion of the audience.
" I did not go to the working-men's meeting that night ; but I hear it was an immense success, the Bishop of Ripon and Balfour <|uite bringing the house down with very able and eloquent speeches. Yesterday there was, I am told, a really gi-eat mis- sionary discussion ; and there, too, much that was new and bold Avas said and listened to. In the afternoon we had Atheism Agnosticism and Pessimism to deal Avith. The papers were by Hutton (of the Spectator), Wace and Momcrie. Three abler or more telling papers I never listened to — quite the cream of the congress to mv mind. Wace's especially, on Agnosticism, \wa.?r admii-ablc, and its effect was greatly enhanced by the simple
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•earnestness of its cleliveiy ; then, suadoitc cp'iscopo prcsidente, up rose, but ill prepared, the Bishop of Peterborough. He was most kindly received, and moved by that and by the subject, spoke for nearly twenty-five minutes, the audience insisting on his 'going on,' and cheering, as the Daily Ncxcs says, ' wildly ' when he sat down. He dealt with the more popular aspect of the sub)ect, ■endeavouring to strengthen the faith of ordinary laymen rather than to discuss the arguments of those Avho assail it. I think that I succeeded, and I have since been warmly thanked for what I said by competent men, and that is better than being- praised.*
" This morning we had Creeds, Catechism and Prayer-book, their adaptation to needs of the day. Of course Me had much wild but also much sensible talk. But I was immensely struck V ith the conservatism of the audience ; they evidently were against all meddling with Creeds or Catechism, and all ditto with the
* "I have said that Christianity solves, as no other philosophy can, the «nigmas of Hfe. Have you ever thought how strangely and how marvellously Christianity is at once the most pessimistic and most optimistic of all the philo- sophies of life ? In one aspect it is essentially pessimistic. What can be more pessimistic from the view of humanity than this, that it was so utterly lost that it needed the Omnipotent to come to its rescue ? What can be more optimistic than the thought that divinity has allied itself with humanity, in order that humanity may be made partakers of the divine nature ? Yes, Christianity is pessimistic, and there are reasons enough for it. We see that human nature can descend from the glory of a Paul or a John to the foulness and horror of a White- chapel murderer, prowling round the streets at night for his prey. We see how human nature can rise to the height of a Father Damien, accompanying to their doomed exile a crowd of ghastly lepers, giving his life for them, in order that he may minister to them in what remains to them of life — dying as he is now dying for them and with them. Between these two extremes, who can frame a theory •that will fit both ? Who can tell us why there is so much of the ape, the tiger, and yet so much of the angel in men ? Christianity can tell us. In the redemp- tion and glorification of humanity through Christ humanity has lost itself in Christ as its regenerator. You, the pessimist, tell me of the sorrow, the suffering, the misery of humanity ; and I tell of the time when death shall be destroyed, and when sorrow and sighing will be done away with, and when men will weep no more. You tell me here of mystery and difficulty and perplexity ; and I tell you of the time when we shall know even as we are known, and doubt and mystery, like sin and sorrow and shame, shall fade away in the white light around the throne on which sits the Lamb that died for mankind. There, in the future, lies the com- pleted optimism of Christianity. Here, in the Christian life, though working feebly and imperfectly as it does, is to be seen the evidence of the truth of Christianity that we may take home to our hearts. Let us strengthen this evidence, each one of us, in our daily Christian life, and meanwhile we can patiently await the time when the day of full unclouded vision shall dawn, and the shadows of our fears and doubts shall flee away for ever." — Extract from the Bishop's speech.
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Prayer-book, save in the way of greater elasticity in using it, and the providing of" supplemental services.
" Once or twice we got into igncs siippo.-i'ttos about the orna- ments rubric ; and I (who was in the chair acting for Bishop of M. who had lost his voice) was a little afraid of a row. All, however, passed off' smoothly, and in the latter part dully.
" The best speech by far was made by Bishop Barry, Bishop of Sydney, thoughtful and well balanced. I \\ i.shed, as I heard, more than ever that he had been sent to Chester.
" I have taken my leave, J. think, of the Congress, as I want a day's rest and strolling about to-morrow. VCe hope to leave on Saturday. " W. C. P."
At the conclusion of the meeting a gentleman (Mr. Clifford) mentioned to the Bishop that he was starting in a few days for ]\Iolokai. The Bishop sent a message to Father Damien adding : " I would send him my blessing, but he would not care for it from a heretic bishop."
From E. Clii foud, Esq.
MoLOKAi, Decembey 23, 1888.
My dear Lord Bishop, — You will, I know, like to hear my impressions of Father Damien with whom I am spending ray Christmas. I find liini just what I hoped and expected, a simple, honest, sturdy man (49 years old) modest and affectionate. He is so hearty and wel- coming, and so glad of all the English sympathy and goodwill. I gave him your message, and he shook his head deprecatingly at your con- fession of being "a heretic bisliop," but received your words with a veiy beautiful and touching smile.
He has no martyr airs, but is truly devout in the midst of all his practical work — building, carpentering, educating, writing and keeping accounts.
I have his autograph for you, and if you like my sketches of him you will be most welcome to a photograph.
To J. C. IVIacDoxxkll.
"Athen.eum Club, November 14, 1888. *' Here are two Irish stories, \\'hich I got from Atkinson, one of the Times counsel and an Irishman, whom I met last night at Lincoln's Inn.
" (1) An Irish country girl came, or wrote — I forget a\ hich — to an Irish Q.C. to make a claim for 'justice.' The injustice she
256
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CHAP. XVIII
complained of was this : the League promised £^ to the tenants in such a house for resisting eviction.
" ' Now I was the girl that split the policeman's head with a spade handle and I got nothing ; and Bridget Malony got a lot of the money and she only threw a little boiling water on him. I only want j ustice agin her ! '
" (2) A sum of 0^30 was subscribed by a local league, for the shooting of an obnoxious agent. The money was lodged with a trustee who bolted with it.
"The man who had been told off for the job, was heard to com- plain loudly of the rogue who had cheated an ' honest poor man ^ out of his money, adding : " Td shoot the agent for £QQ still, but bedad Fd shoot that trustee Jor nothing.''
" I do not think you have heard two better stories than these for some time at any rate. I send them on to you while they are fresh in my memory, before they grow cold by keeping. — Yours ever, " W. C. P."
MR. GLADSTONE'S LOGIC.
To the Editor of the Timex from the Bishop of Peterborough.
November i6, i888.
Sir, — Mr. Gladstone's latest argument for Irish Home Rule is worth considering from the logical point of view. It is as follows : — (1) A man, it is alleged, was scourged to death in Ireland in the year J 798 for wearing a shamrock. (2) Such " progress has been made " since then that a bookseller can now publish with impunity a book with sham- rocks stamped all over its covei-s. Therefore let us grant Home Rule. The force of this argument is not very great, even taking the facts as Mr. Gladstone states them. Most persons would, I imagine, regard these as but slender premises from which to draw so large a conclusion. Such as it is, however, it is somewhat weakened by two considerations, which Mr. Gladstone — doubtless from inadvertence — omitted to state. These are: (l) That the alleged "horror" occurred under the rule of an Irish Parliament. (2) That the '■ remarkable pi'ogress " since made has been effected under the rule of a British Parliament. Mr. Glad- stone's argument correctly stated, therefore, would run thus: (l) An Irish Parliament sanctioned or permitted horrors in 1798. (2) A British Parliament has made a repetition of such horrors impossible. Therefore let us restore the Irish Parliament !
To the ordinaiy mind I venture to think that the inference is the other way. But then Mr. Gladstone's is not an ordinary mind. Nor are his ways those of ordinary men. As to these ways, let me say one
1886-88
CHURCH PATRONAGE
257
word ; not from the logical, but from the moral point of view. Let me express the pain and indignation with which \, as an Irishman, regard the course to which Mr. Gladstone has more than once lately resorted of raking up the evil memories of nearlj'^ 100 years ago, and using them either as reasons for granting Home Rule or, worse still, as palliations and almost as justifications, for like horrors — or, shall I sa}"^, "deviations from humanity" } — occurring in my unhappy country now. The Irish Rebellion of '98 was a savage insurrection, savagely suppressed. There were horrors in it on both sides, of which all Irishmen are now ashamed, and which they would gladly consign to oblivion. To revive their memories now can serve no purpose save that of rekindling animosities of race and creed fast vanishing under the healing influences of time, and so of largely increasing the difficulty of any peaceable government of Ireland under any kind of rule, whether English or Irish. It is sad to see one, who was, alas ! once a great statesman, and who is still a powerful politician, resorting to such ignoble and poisoned weapons of party strife, regardless of the Avounds he is thus inflicting upon the country whose interests he professes to have so much at lieart. Fleclere si neqiieo siiperos, Acherouta movebo was the utterance once ascribed to an angry heathen goddess. Thei'e is a feminine spitefulness and recklessness in it which made it quite an appropriate sentiment to place in her lips. It hardly becomes those of a " Grand Old Man." Anglo-Celt.
VOL. II
R
CHAPTER XIX
HUXLEY AND AGNOSTICISM ; BETTING AND GAMBLING ;
SOCIALISM
To J. C. MacDonnell.
"Peterborough, January 5, 1889. " How well I remember writing the enclosed ! You and I were then meditating a certain joint publication to be termed ' Maxima and Minima." * Not even the Minima have yet appeared, and the magnum opus, like many another, has been lost to an impoverished age.
" Those old letters are like ghosts coming often uncalled for and startling us with their old familiar faces— pleasant some of them and some of them ugly, but all of them dead and bearing the stamp of death — and yet they will survive ourselves.
" I wonder how many letters of mine are now flitting ghost-like about the world. There are some of them that I should like to see again, and not a few to which if I saw them I would say, ' Avauat ! '
To the Dean of Cashel.
"Chanter Hill, Enniskillen,
" December 23, 1862.
"Very reverend and dear Sir, — I address you with some hesitation under peculiar circumstances which I hope will plead my excuse for thus intruding upon a stranger. I had the pleasure of reckoning among my most intimate of friends the gentleman whom, I presume, I must designate as your predecessor. For although I have not seen any announcement of his death, nor of your appoint- ment in his place, I cannot but conclude that both these events have occurred without my knowledge.
* See vol. i. p. 83.
1889-91 AGNOSTICISM ; GAMBLING; SOCIALISM 259
" It is now nearly two months since I wrote to my dear, and, I fear, deceased friend, a long letter on a subject of some interest to us both. I have received no answer from him. I am aware that as a Dean of our beloved Church his duties consisted in the dignified performance of nothing (a task for which my late friend was not pre-eminently qualified).
" I cannot therefore suppose that his silence is owing to any press of occupation, and as I never before knew him to fail in his corre- spondence, I have only too good reason to fear that my old friend has succumbed under the weight of his new hat, and so fallen a victim to the conscientious discharge of the obligations of his office. I write to you to ascertain if my surmise be correct, and if it be, whether you have heard anything of the late Dean's will, and to whom in particular he may have bequeathed the hat in question. He promised it to me, on condition that I would write his epitaph.
" I subjoin it in the hope it may be deemed worthy of inscription on the rock which overshadows the venerable Cathedral of Cashel.*
" W. C. Magee.
" P.S. — If my dear friend be living give him the best wishes of the season.""
To J. C. MacDonnell.
"37 WiMPOLE Street, W.,
" January 17, i8Sg.
"I have come here to dine with my new chancellor at a farewell dinner and evening reception given to Phelps the American Minister and his wife.
" As usual, at the Jeunes' I met all manner of celebrities and pleasant folk ; but most pleasing of them all were the Phelpses. After dinner I had the luck to sit near him, and he gave us some choice American stories.
" I heard too a good story of Father Healy, who was breakfasting with Gladstone lately, and Gladstone said to him : ' Father Healy, I went into a church in Rome once, and was offered a plenary indulgence for fifty francs ; on what principle does your Church grant such things ? ' Father Healy replied : " Well, Mr. Gladstone, I don't want to go into theology with you, but all I can say is that if my Church offered yoro a plenary indulgence for fifty francs, she let you off very cheap.''
" These London parties have a great charm. You meet every- * Here follows epitaph in doggerel Latin.
260 ARCHBISHOP MAGEE chap, xix
one worth meeting-, and hear more in one night than you would in a year of county dinners.
" I must go to bed — twelve o'clock past."
" Peterborough, January 30, 1889.
" I go to London on the 20th to a bishops'* meeting, when Grimthorpe's Bill, inter alia, is to be considered.
" The Archbishop is coming round at last to my view of the case, and is disposed to allow his Bill and Grimthorpe's to be refeiTed to a select Committee. I fear this will entail my attendance at said Committee, and the inteiTuption of my diocesan work in con- sequence.
"Truly our bishops do not as the Spaniards say 'eat bread gratis.''
" I wish that there were a Bishopric of Tinibuctoo and that I were bishop of it, though even there one might be tempted to supersede the cassowary and eat up some troublesome missionary ' skin and bone and hymn book too.''
" I have an interesting correspondence with Graves * and Plunket about the consecration of Cabrera. The latter (Plunket not Cabrera) has taken the bit in his teeth and will go forward, spite of all remonstrance. He will hurt the Irish Church, and not help the new Spanish one — me judice.
" 0''Brien's escapades are doing good to the cause of Union. The English are a very dull people but they are not fools ; and they are beginning to see through these pre-arranged farces.'"''
" ATHEN.EUM Club, March 19, 1889.
"Your account of the Ordination preliminaries is most satis- factory. I have no doubt that the Sunday function went off well. My wife and I are slowly gaining ground, but neither of us is well yet. Last Sunday''s sermon in St. James''s Chapel seems to have brought me a return, though not a severe one, of my cough, and hers is still heavier than I like to see. With this, too, continues for both of us the strange depression and confusion of head that has accompanied this cui'ious sort of cold from the first. Neverthe- less, we are both decidedly better, and must be content with and thankful for that much.
" I am giving up some of my Leicester work for safety''s sake. Can you take me in next week
* Bishop of Limerick.
1889-91 AGNOSTICISM; GAMBLING; SOCIALISM 261
" I want, I fancy, change and fillip, if I can get them. IJttle or nothing is stirring here in Church or State that is new. The Lincoln trial drags its slow length along, and Government is staggering under the Pigott panic and its result, the Kensington election. Gladstone is full of venom, notwithstanding the good instructions he received from me in St. James's Chapel on Sunday last, when he and Mrs. G. sat under me, and he looked positively younger than I did.
" I hope to leave this for home on Friday next, so you had best send your answer there. " W. C. P.''
To H. Wright, Esa.
"Palace, Peterborough,
"April 6, 1889.
" Dear Sir, — I am unable, having no MS. of my sermon at St. James's Chapel, to give you precisely what I said on that occasion. Substantially it came to this — that Christ's kingdom, as He Himself has told us, ' is not of this world ' ; that His laws for it are laws, not for the world, but for the Church ; and that the attempt to turn them into laws for the State, enforced by civil penalties, would be, as regards those on whom they were to be enforced, an intoler- able tyranny, and as regards the State an impracticable absurdity.
" No State which adopted them as its laws could survive for a week. How could a State exist which forgave all its offenders — i.e., all the criminal classes — until seventy times seven or which never resisted evil, but tui-ned always its right cheek to the smiter, or which gave to every one that asked of it, and never turned away from any who borrowed of it These are all of them councils of perfection given to spiritual men, and only endiu-able or possible so far as men are filled with the spirit of self-sacrificing love. For the State which is a kingdom of this world to impose these as laws upon all men would be, as regards its citizens, as I have said, tyranny ; as regards itself, suicide.
" Christian Socialism, so-called, is therefore a thing intolerable if enforced, and only tolerable and ])ossible when voluntarily adopted. It is, as I said, only one of many attempts to make the laws of the State and the laws of the Church one and the same ; and, as such, is foredoomed, like all its predecessors — the Papacy, and the Fifth Monarchy men, and the Puritan laws of New England — to certain and speedy failure.
262
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CHAP. XIX
" This is, I think, a fair summary of what I said, or, at least, endeavoured to say, on the occasion to which you refer. — I am, faithfully yours, " W. C. Peterborough."
The following letters refer to a controversy in the Nineteenth Century, between Professor Huxley, Dr. Wace and the Bishop, arising out of Dr. Wace's paper on Agnosticism, read at the Man- chester Church Congress.
To J. C. MacDonjsT?ll.
" St. Mark's, Leicester,
■•April 9, 1889.
" I have but a minute or two in which to answer your letter, in the full swing of my work here. The said work has proved extremely interesting, and I hope useful, though, of course, ex- tremely fatiguing.
" Besides preaching, confirming, and presiding at numerous com- mittee meetings, to say nothing of speechifying at a mayor's dinner, I beat the bounds of one parish a day in company with the incumbent, going naturally over the newer parishes and districts, which appal me by their growth.
" We have got our great Church Extension scheme well laimched, and if only we can get money we shall sail into harbour.
" The spirit of the clergy is excellent — brother-like and business- like too. But this raising funds is, of course, the great crux. We have got over the great difRcultv, however, of settling how we are to distribute them.
" I am to address a great meeting of all the Leicester church- wardens and church- workers on Thursday night on the subject, and that will wind up for the present my Leicester campaign.
" My strength holds out fairlv, though I do feel tired at nights. As regards my duel with Huxley, I find that I made, after all, a false stroke in it.
" It seems to me, on re-reading the sentence from which I quoted, that it may be, and most probably was, the case that he was writing ironically ; and this, of course, I must acknowledge, and so ' climb down.'
" I am sending a line or two to that effect to the Nineteenth Century, in which I take final leave of this small (very small, as far as I am concerned) and personal controversy. Huxley will have his crow, and I must let him have it, and there is an end of it.
1S89-91 AGNOSTICISM ; GAMBLING; SOCIALISM 263
" I have read only a review in the Spectator of Mallock's article. It is exactly on the lines that I sketched for you. ' Pereant qui ante nos nostra dicunt.''
" I always had the intention of writing to the same effect, and now I need not, and, indeed, cannot.
" Mallock is one of our ablest writers in magazines. He nearly maddened F. Harrison by his squib entitled ' Positivism on an Island.' If you \ia.\c not read it, get it, and enjoy a hearty laugh over it as I did."
" Peterborough, April 13, 1889. "I have despatched my amende to Huxley to the Nineteenth Century. I am afi-aid he will not thank me much for it ; for really his last article outsteps the bounds of literary decency, and 1 have intimated that I think so. I have said, however, that this is my last word in this merely pei'sonal controversy ; so if he pitches into me again I must grin and bear it. After all, in the matter of trailing his coat he is far more Hibernian than I am."
" Peterborough, April 14, 1889.
" I send you enclosed what the printers call an advance proof of my apology to Huxley.
" You will see that it is, in substance, just what you say in your letter of the tone of his last article, and, indeed, of most of his articles on the same subject.
" I have, I hope, given him a fairly palatable salad, which I have di'essed on the reverse principle to that of the Spanish recipe, which is " oil like a prodigal and vinegar like a miser.' I did not care to take him seriously, and thought that a tone of civil and good-humoured contempt was the best to adopt.
" Of course, he will have his innings, more mo, in the next Nineteenth Century. So let him ; for there must be some end to a Gontroversy. "W. C. P."
To Bishop Mitchixson.
" Peterborough, April 14, 1889. " .... I am not surprised at five bishops rushing at you, nor at fifty doing so, if there were so many of them, so long as whenever any one of them asks you to go a mile with him you go with him twain. But they might have a little mercy on you and on me. " I had rather that Thicknessc had not put all his confirmations
264
ARCHBISHOP MAGEE
CHAP. xi>:
in Lent for the reason you give ; but I will certainly not allow it to be made into a precedent for nie, nor, I hope, will you for yourself.
" Between Easter and Whitsuntide is the true time for confirma- tion, but even I have had to give way as regards Leicester. My visit there was a very intei'esting and, I hope, a useful one, though very laborious.
" The clergy are now all of them pulling together as I never knew them pull before ; and the whole Church Extension work is now in a good groove. What money will be forthcoming for it is another question.
" I have beat the bounds of all the new parishes and districts, preached two Church Extension sermons, and addressed an evening meeting of churchwaixlens and synodsmen from every Leicester parish.
lleally I worked as if my name had been Mitchinson instead of Magee.
" Gladstone's watchword, ' Remember Mitchelstown,' easily trans- mutes itself for me into Remember Mitchinson. — Yours ever most truly, " W. C. Peterborough."
To J. C. MacDonnell.
" Peterborough, April 17, 1889.
"Enclosed you have what youi' 'well-meant interference' has deprived the world of. Burn it, or keep it to remind you of what influence a certain Canon of Peterborough possesses over his Bishop.
" I still think you are right, nevertheless I cannot understand the distress of the good people you speak of at Huxley's article. That seems to me as weak in argument as it is execrable in point of taste.
" What can be the worth of criticism based on the assumption that St. Mark's is certainly the first of the Gospels ? or that if it were, it necessarily followed that nothing which did not find a place in it ever really occurred ?
" Was ever history so dealt with before His theory as to the Resurrection is simply preposterous : even Strauss laughs it to scorn. Apart from all its physical impossibilities, think of the absurdity of supposing that our Lord lived in Judea, after his crucifixion, for the ordinary space of human life — no human being
1889-91 AGNOSTICISM ; GAMBLING; SOCIALISM 265
apparently having ever heai-d of Ilim, and this though Jews and Romans were equally concerned in discovering and punishing Him. Think of Him too — ' the noblest ideal of humanity,'' as even Huxley calls him — lying ywc?M, while his disciples were announcing every- where His resurrection. A Sunday School teacher ought to be able to refute such trash.
"The fact is that Huxley''s bumptious air of omniscience imposes on feeble folk. He may be a great scientist, but he is a very poor historical critic.
" Wace, if he answers him, ought to knock him into a cocked hat. Then he is so thoroughly disingenuous. To call the Gadarene miracle ' a part of the Christian faith,'' for instance, when he knows that no one of the Creeds requires any Christian to believe in any one of our Lord's miracles, or even in the inspiration of the Gospels ; or to say, that St. Peter required a vision to induce him to baptise Cornelius, and therefore could not have heard our Lord's command to baptise all men, when he must know that St. Peter required a vision to induce him to visit Cornelius, and that in his speech on the occasion he expressly quotes our Lord''s connnand. Of course, too, he knows perfectly well that the difficulty in the Early Christian Church was not in the least as to baptising Gentile converts, but as to not also circumcising them.
"These are only specimens of his controversial dishonesty, which some one ought to expose. I will 7iot be that someone, for I do not care for the trouble, and there are plenty better able for the task. But Christianity must be indeed in a ' parlous ■* state if it is seriously endangered by such an assault as this. A good thing to do would be to write an article, entitled " Christianity reconstructed out of the admissions of its critics.'' There is hardly a fact in the Gospels, save the miracles, not admitted by one or other of them, and as to the order of the synoptic Gospels, every permutation of these can be found in their writings.
"But the real danger to Christianity lies in the ignorance of these things amongst ordinary Christians, and in their false theories as to inspiration. However I must not write for you a refutation of Huxley, only do read his article over carefully, and just note in pencil its inaccuracies, loo-ical and historical, fallacies, crude theories, and say Avhat the residuum is worth. For my own part I feel my faith greatly strengthened by the thought that it is all that an astute and bitter enemy can say against it.
" Nevertheless, if as you say tlici-c are those m Iio would be pained
266
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CHAP. XIX
b\ lay dealing with hiin on the personal question as I had done, and not instead of this, defending Christianity against him, you Avere cjuite right in advising me not to do the former.
"I have just come back from confirming at King's Cliffe, and from setting right sundry foolish and angry and idle persons in that part of the w orld ; and I am spending an idle horn- in giving you the above ' sintimints.'' "
" Peterborough, April i8, 1889.
" I -liould like to have attempted a serious reply to Huxley. But I shrink from the labour of detail required for it; and a mere ' sketchy ' notice would only provoke a long and fierce reply, entailing a rejoinder, and soon ad infinitum. The beginning of strife with Huxley is ' the letting out ' of very dirty ' water.'
"I had a few lines to-day from the editor of the Nineteenth Century, thanking me for my few lines, and saying that the last sentence of it was ' pathetically just.' My mention of Gethsemane and Calvary had no refei-ence to Holy Week, but to Huxley's attack on the truth of the ResuiTection.
I have carefully read Mallock's article. It is masterly and crushing ; indeed I do not know when I have read anything more masterly.
" Huxlev will find it hard to ansicer him, even if he replies to him, which I doubt."
" Peterborough, April 30, 1889. I send you the Nineteenth Century for May. If ever there were a man ' smashed and pulverised ' by another, it is Huxley by Wace in his rejoinder. You will see that on several points he takes just the line that I sketched in my letter to you. One point only, I think, he touches weakly, namely the necessity in Huxley's theory of alleged resmiection of our Lord, of imputing fraud sub- sequently to the Crucifixion. Wace speaks only of the fraud of Joseph of Ai'imathea. He ought to have added and also on the part of Christ. This he should have pressed strongly.
" But on all other points his exposure of Huxley is complete and merciless. I cannot see how Huxley is to get over it.
" Knowles has very judiciously put this article first, and my little ' envoi ' last.
" The offensivencss of which I accuse Huxley is amply illustrated by Wace ; and the relative importance of Huxley's quarrel \\ ith me and Wace properly maintained.
1889-91 AGNOSTICISM ; GAMBLING; SOCIALISM 267
" Send me back this number on your peril, after you have enjoyed it as I did."
"Peterborough, May 11, 1889.
" I have been ' in evil case ' since last you heard from me. I have just brought out a third edition of my bronchial catarrh, with additions and improvements, and the editing has been a most trying process. On Saturday last I dined at the Royal Academ}', when the intense heat and stifling want of ventilation, lasting through five mortal hours, and ending with a big speech, fairly did for me. On Sunday morning I felt so seedy that I saw Andrew Clark, who thought that ' with great care I might get through my Confirma- tion torn'. On Sunday evening I was, howevei', much worse and very feverish, and on Monday Clark ordered me to bed, where I lay until "Wednesday coughing incessantly and sleepless.
" On Thursday I was so far recovered as to be able to get here and surrender myself to Walker, who thinks that in about ten days I may be well enough to go somewhere for change of air.
" Work of all kinds Clark and Walker strictly forbid, declaring that they will not ' answer for the consequences ' if I get a fourth attack. You may imagine my difficulty about this week's Con- firmations, which were to have begun on Monday last at Wymond- ham. By dint of telegraphing and postcarding I got notices sent in time everywhere, save to Houghton-on-the-Hill, where, alas ! there were candidates present and no bishop to confirm them.
"Mitchinson came to my rescue, nobly and unasked. By crowd- ing three Confirmations in a day and uniting centres, he actually managed to pick up four of my di'opped stitches, and will take all the rest next week.
" Meanwhile, I am very slowly mending. I have in fact had a naiTOw escape from severe bronchitis or pneumonia. After all, it was as well that I was floored by the Academy dinner, inasmuch as if I had started on mv tour I should most probably have been laid up at some covmtry parsonage, miles away from any doctor, instead of being laid up at the Jeimes', and within five hundred yards of Andrew Clai'k.
" I have plenty of gossip for you whenever we meet. Inter alia about my meeting with and talk Avith Huxley at the Academy. But I am not yet equal to much letter writing, and have a deal of it in the way of answers to get through. As soon as I am well enough I shall simply cut the diocese and go away to some un- known spot, abroad or at home, and have a fair fight for my life."
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CHAP. XIX
"Stoke Dry, June 17, 1889. " Your account of the Ordination doings is most satisfactory. I am not surprised at the dogmatic ignorance of some of the candi- dates. Dogma as now taught in many theological colleges and in Oxford means simply one dogma, ' the Real Presence,'' and that a false one.
" I am seriously meditating the boycotting of one or two of these Theos — Ely especially— but of that more hereafter.
" I am glad to find my choice of a foreign tour facilitated by your condemnation of Holland and Belgium. Most probably I shall now go from Southampton to St. Malo, and slowly and leisurely drop home from there via Havre. But Stoke is doing- wonders for me already. My cough is all but gone and I can manage a two-mile walk now without fatigue. My missus and I are honeymooning here very pleasantly. To-morrow we go to Petei-borough en route for Broadstairs, where I mean to spend a week with E. and then take A. de M. to St. Malo.
" I have got through some 120 pages of Salmon's really splendid work. For learning, logic and wit combined, with clear and candid statement, I have seen nothing to beat and few things to compare with it. " W. C. P."
The Bishop introduced into the diocese the now almost universal custom of receiving the candidates for orders into his house for the week preceding their ordination, and of presenting each candidate with a Bible or Testament.
He was always very anxious about the ordination examina- tion. He left the papers upon the regular class books and Greek Testament to his examining chaplains, but always reserved to him- self the duty of giving questions upon doctrine, especially those which were subjects of debate at the time. These papers were always given two days before the ordination, when for the first time the candidate priests and deacons met together. I have seldom known him give a paper without one or more questions upon the subject of Inspiration. He told me he could see the gradual change of opinion upon this subject during the course of his episcopate, and the complete departure from the old theory of verbal inspiration. The Bishop read all these answers himself, and called in the writers one by one, and gave them every opportunity to explain what might seem, prhiul facie, incorrect or heterodox. He was very lenient in his judgment in this way, and ga\ e the candidates as wide a margin
ISS9-9I
AGNOSTICISM ;
GAMBLING;
SOCIALISM 2G9
as possible. He said he always erected a golden bridge to enable them to retreat out of an untenable position. His difficulty generally arose with men such as he describes in a previous letter.* Sometimes however he found a candidate obstinate as well as ignorant. He pointed out to one man that his answers on one point were a direct denial of the Articles ; that what he said might perhaps be explained consistently with them, but that if he catego- rically denied the teaching of the Articles, which he was about to subscribe, it would be impossible to ordain him. The candidate persisted and would not accept any help towards explanation or retreat. When he found the Bishop would not give way he said, Well, my lord, I appeal to a General Council." " Oh very good," said the Bishop, " but you cannot expect me to give you priesfs orders till the General Council has decided the point."
The Bishop always ended the services of the week by giving an address to the candidates for forty or fifty minutes in his private chapel at 9 p.m. From this every one else, not excepting the chaplains, were excluded, and the Bishop addressed the candidates alone face to face. Though I never heard one of these addresses, I could see that the candidates had been deeply moved and impressed by them, and the Bishop used to return from them much exhausted by his efforts.
To J. C. MacDonnell.
" Stoke Dry, Wednesday,
"July 10, 1889.
" Your letter with its enclosures reached me here this morning, the day after my return from Normandy. We (Arthur and I) have had an extremely pleasant tour, visiting Dinard, Dinan, Avranches, Mont St. Michel, Coutances, Bayeux, Caen and Rouen, and returning bv Dieppe and Newhaven. During the whole trip we had not a drop of rain. Mont St. Michel alone is worth the journey. By the way there is a paragraph in the Pall Mall Gazette from ' a Corre- spondent,' who saw me there ! praising my French, and dispraising my poor wide-awake.
" I have retui'ned quite well and ready for my Irish trip, August 6.
"I am sorry to hear of your lumbago; but if old fellows like you and me fancy ourselves young and ' govern ourselves accord- ingly,'' Mother Nature will correct us after her fashion. I am * See December 26, 1876.
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settling down to three miles a day, steady quiet strolling, and find it ample.
" The great cathedral function must complete itself without me as I am lying here jjerdu, supposed to be abroad.'"
" Stoke Dry, July i8, 1889.
" You will, I am sure, be pleased to hear that the new Leicester Church Extension scheme has greatly prospered already.
" I attended a meeting of the board yesterday in Leicester, to the great surprise, and I may add, satisfaction of the members. I ^^•as rewarded by learning that the A.C.S. has given us <£300 a year in curates' grants, and that £5Q5 has been promised in annual sub- scriptions in Leicester. On the strength of this, we have agreed to appoint six new cur'ates at once. This is really wonderful, and a matter for deep thankfulness.
" The moral effect of this large addition to the clerical staft' w ill, I expect, be great, and will lead to gi-eat increase of effort and of funds."
" The Gresham Hotel, Dublin,
" September 11, 1889.
" You will see from the above address that I am so far on my return journey. I hope to sleep at Chester to-night, and to be at Stoke Dry by 4.30 p.m. to-moiTow. I came away from Kylemore a few days earlier than I had intended, as I had to see to some legal business in Dublin cn route. Having some spare horns on hand, I visited ' ould Trinity ' this morning. It made me feel fearfully old and sad revisiting the scenes of my youth, and thinking of then and now !
" How few there are of those whom you and I knew there who are still in the land of the living !
" The whole place was for me full of ghosts — ghosts of dead men and vanished buildings, and vanished youth and hope and pleasure and work and ambition.
" All seemed strangely weird and sunset-looking to my old eyes. I saw, as I entered, two tall sturdy plane trees in the first court, that were planted twenty-five years after I had graduated. I went slowly up the passage to the Provosfs door, where I used to run up long ago to ask old Foozle's leave to go to the country. Salmon had not returned, and I looked round on all the Provosts' portraits in the ante-room — your father's so lifelike, old Kyle's, and Eh-ington's and many another ; and alas ! Jellett's — grey and death-
1889-91 AGNOSTICISM ; GAMBLING; SOCIALISM 271
like — done, iiiid badly done, from a photo. I visited hall, chapel, library, all the old haunts, and felt sadder and sadder all along. " In the library an old, grey man came up to me and shook
hands. It was , the slim, youthful and perky — all the youth
and perkiness gone out of him. Dear, oh dear ! how old he made me feel ! He showed me sundry new things, buildings, etc. I thought them dull and ugly like myself. Ehea fugaces ! Fifty years ago ! This Jeremiad leaves me only space to say I shall be at P. on Tuesday, ready for candidates."
"Peterborough, October 15, 1889.
" I have been, apropos of this charge about preferment, looking up my appointments in this diocese. They amount in all to 154. Deducting from these 29 honorary canonries and 6 exchanges (35), I have given away of preferments with emoluments attached 119.
" Of these I have given
To Curates in Diocese . . . .73 To Incumbents „ .... 39
To Strangers ...... 7
Total . . .119
" Of the seven strangers, three were appointed to livings so undesirable that they had each of them been refused by three or four, and in one case by Jive, clergymen in the diocese before I offered them out of it; and lastly, of these 119 livings, arch- deaconries, and canon residentiaries, I gave one, of the value of ,£'290, to a far-off' cousin — Percival, at St. Mark's, Peterborough — so far off' that I actually did not know of the relationship until after I had appointed him.
" I doubt if many bishops could show a clearer record in the matter of preferments than this. " W. C. P.
The Bishop presided at the Diocesan Conference at Leicester, October 24 and 25. His opening addi'ess dealt with the questions of " Lay or Clerical Brotherhoods and " Ritual," and among the subjects for discussion were " Free Education," " Socialism," and " Betting and Gambling." The subject of brotherhoods had occu- pied his attention for some years, and he was anxious to have tried the experiment in Leicester, but the Conference did not welcome the idea. The Bishop's utterances on the subject of ritual on this
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occasion supply so clear an account of the history of the question, and his own relation to it, that I give the following extracts :
The question they really had to settle was wlicllicr a hcneficed clergy- man of ike Church o f England mas at liberhj to say and do in his parisli church whatever he liked, and, if he was not, how he was to be restrained, and who was to restrain him. There was the Ritual question in a nutshell. No one, he imagined, would say that the clergyman should say and do what he pleased ; hut there was a reason why he should not have this licence, which had not heen sufficient!}' noted. A beneficed clergyman of the Church of England was not chosen by his parishioners. He was imposed upon them, whether they liked him or not, and he was irre- mo\'able by them. That was a state of things which would be abso- lutely intolerable, if it were not that the clergyman so imposed upon them had not his own choice as to the public worship, but had to use some prescribed form. Did they think any body of sane parishioners would tolerate a clergyman being perfectly free to do, and say, in his jjarish church what he liked, miless they had the appointment and dis- missal of him A Nonconformist might use what prayers he liked in his congregation on Simday, but they had the right to dismiss him on Monday if they did not like the prayers. The Nonconformist prai/ed as he pleased, and the congregation paid as they pleased. He was not speaking to disparage that system, he was only calling attention to the fact that the Church could not have at the same time the licence of the Nonconformist ministry and the security of the Established ministry. They must make their choice between the two. If the\' were to have the security of the Established ministry, then, if it was established hy law, it must be governed by law. Law was the only safeguard of liberty. It was the protection of the liberty of the con- gregation agamst the tyranny of the clergyman ; it was the protection of the liberty of the clergyman against the tyranny of the laity ; it was the protection of the clergy and the laity against the tyranny of the bishop, and the protection sometimes of the unfortunate and perse- cuted bishop against the pressure of these parties.
But if there was to be a law, then the law b}' which the clergy were to be governed should be clear and indisputable. He asked if the rubric was clear and indisputable. ... A rubric, about the meaning of which men equally learned, honest, and able, disputed could not be regarded as other than of doubtful interpretation. His own opinion was that the rubric was ambiguous, and even designedly so. . . . The law they were bound to obey should be unambiguous, and in order to get that they must either have it better defined, or they must get a sentence of some generally recognised and authoi'itative court, which
IS89-9I AGNOSTICISM; GAMBLING ; SOCIALISM 273
should say what should be the meaning of the rubric, and what was therefore to be taken as the law of the Church for the future. Either a generally accepted court or an indisputable rubric was clearly an essential requisite for peace. Had they got such a court which was generally accepted Most certainly, he said, they had not.
Parliament a good many years ago was of the opinion he had ex- pressed, that it would be reasonable the Church should amend the rubric, and it accordingly granted the Convocations a letter of licence for the {)urpose of amending not merely the rubrics generally, but the particular rubrics in dispute, mentioning them by name. Convocation therefore spent seven years in discussing the rubrics of the Church, but they never touched the bone of contention, and at the end of seven years they were exactly where they were when they began. They spent seven years discussing small minutiae of the rubrics, and no one could now tell what these were. And so that great opportunity passed from them never to return. At that time Parliament was prepared to grant, and was desirous and anxious to grant, any reasonable, large, charitable, and tolerant revision of the rubric the Church could agree to. Unhappily, however, the time was not opportune. The Purchas judgment had lately been passed, and the Ridsdale judgment was about to be passed. One party desired to maintain a victory, and the other to reverse a defeat, and both parties, therefore, for once, were in agree- ment to leave the rubric untouched, and what the result of that had been they were now understanding. There were but two bishops who then earnestly advocated that the opj)ortunity should be taken for giving to the Church a largely tolerant, but still a clearly defined, rubric, and one w'as himself, the other the great Bishop Selwyn ; but they were disregarded, and the opportunity was lost. At the present moment they found themselves once more face to face with the old difficulty, accentuated by all that had passed since then. Alluding again to Archdeacon Denison's proposal that there should be a tacit agreement there should be no ritual prosecution, his lordship said he had, he felt sure, his share of human infirmities and errors, and he had made manv mistakes as a bishop, but he had never yet been guilty of the infirmity or mistake of entering into a tacit agreement with any human being. Undei'standings invariably led to misunderstandings, and if he entered into an agreement with any person or persons which might concern the clergy of his diocese, they might believe him it should be an agree- ment veiy distinct and very perfectly and plainly announced by him, and that when he announced it he meant to stand by it.
Pcterhoroiis.h Diocesan Magazine.
The Bishop's remarks in summing uj:) the discussions upon
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"Betting and Gambling"" and "Christian Socialism"" exposed him to a storm of misrepresentation and abuse which led to his pub- lishing two articles in his own defence, in the Fortnightly Revicic for December 1889 and January 1890. The following extracts are gi\en from the account of the Conference in the Pderhurough Diocesan Magazine.
BETTING AND GAMBLING.
... They must carefully keep quite distinct the two questions,, whether a thing was wrong, and wliethcr it was or not desirable ta invoke the assistance of the State for the repression of that wrong. When it was proposed that the State should put down gambling at races, people asked — Where is the sin of gambling } and thought they had said quite enough. But eveia if there were no sin in racing or gambling it might be injurious to the State, and if so the State would have a perfect right to repress it. The State had a right to protect its own existence, and therefore they did not dispose of the proposal that the State should check or restrain gambling in clubs or elsewhere simply by asking the question " Is it a sin ? " That to his mind did not touch the question, because it was not the business of the State to jmnish sin. It was the business of the State to punish crime. Every sin was not a crime, and every crime was not a sin. If any one said the State should not interfere with gambling because gambling was not ini itself wrong, he should reply that the argument was irrelevant. On the other hand, when a man said that gambling was wrong, and there- fore that the State should put it down, he could not accept that either. It did not follow that because a thing was wrong per sc the State should interfere with it. The State had a perfect right, and it was the duty of the State, to interfere with what was injurious to itself. Gambling in gambling clubs and gambling houses was held to be injurious to the State as a matter of experience, and therefore he had not the slightest hesitation in saying that the magistrates of Leicester were quite right,, and were bound, to exercise the powers the law gave them in putting down gambling dens. Then he came to the question, which was entirely different, as to the actual sin of betting. He thought it was very difficult to define wherein exactly consisted the sin of betting. The only definition he could find for betting, Avhich included all forms of betting, was that it was a buying of chances. A man either staked,, or promised to pay, a certain sum of money upon the chance of a certain event happening. Betting was, however, distinguished from gambling. When they spoke of the word "betting " they did not always use it in a bad sense. If a man said " I bet you 5s. it will not rain to-morrow,"" or " I bet you 5a'. that I am right ou this or that point and that you are
1 889-9 1 AGXOSTICISM; GAMBLING ; SOCIALISM T15
wrong/' Ik- certainly said a foolish thing, but he thought it would take some time to prove that that man had committed a sin, and certainly he would not be called a gambler. By gambling he understood habitual excessive and injurious betting. He thought there was the same distinction l)etween betting and gambling that there was between drinking and drunkenness. All drinking was not necessarily a sin Drunkenness was, unquestionably. Similarly, he could not take it on himself to say that all betting was in itself necessarily a sin, but he thought he could say that gambling was sin, and tended to sin, and to terrible evil. It had in it always this element of sin, that it stimulated the passions of avarice and covetousness. Therein lay the close proximity of all betting to sin, and therein lay the distinct sin of gambling. . . . Now as regarded the action of the State. He was entirely in favour of all the State had done in the way of suppi'essing gambling. But he disliked partial and hypocritical legislation. To make it the law that the police should go to some gaming club and run in the men who were found there was right and proper. But when men were allowed to bawl out from a grand stand the market price upon a favourite horse, and do it openly, he could not see why the legislature should allow the one and forbid the other. He should be honest and thoroughgoing. He had the same dislike for hypocritical legislation upon that as he had for hypocritical legislation upon the drink traffic. He did not know anything more hypocritical in that matter, in his opinion, than the House of Commons having its drinking bar and keeping an abundance of drink, and passing resolutions for the suppression of the drink traffic by local option. If the House of Commons wanted local option let it try it first on itself, and shut uj) its own drinking bar. Then he would think more of the honesty of a legislator who wiped his mouth after drinking brandy-and-soda in the refreshment-room and then went in to pass a law to make his neigh- bour drink cold water. He thought the same thing held as regarded gambling, and he heartily wished that the law could put down racing and bookmaking gambling as it now does certain other forms of gambling. He saw not the slightest difference between the two. Racing might be a very noble and national sport. He dared say it was, but he confessed that it would not grieve him, but somewhat rejoice him, if he were to know to-morrow there was not to be another race- horse or racecourse in England. He might be told that that would have a very injurious effect upon the breed of horses. Very possibly. But he thought it would have a very beneficial effect upon the much more important breed oj men. But the day when they would see race gambling put down was very distant. They should, however, strengthen the hands of all in public office to use the power given them by the law for suppressing gambling as it had been done in Leicester. They
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slioukl warn their flocks against the dangers attending b3tting and gambling, and they sliould keep their own hands clean of it, by re- fraining fi-om the illegal and demoralising gambling of raffles at bazaars.
SOCIALISM.
There was another question — Whether, assuming for a moment that tlie laws of Chi-ist's gospel were socialistic, the State should embody them in its laws. He thought men talked very loosely, not only on that subject, but on a great many other subjects, of a Christian State, and the duties of a Christian State. It was his belief that a Christian State, carrying out in all its relations literally the precepts of the Ser- mon on the Mount, could not exist for a week. A Christian State which carried out in its laws all the directions of our Lord for the Christian individual could not long remain in existence, for a very simple reason. He supposed there were no two precepts more dis- tinctly taught in the Sermon on the Mount than the duty of non- resistance to evil and of forgiveness of injuries. Now, could a State con- tinue to forgive absolutely all injuries to itself.^ Would it be possible for the State to carry out the law that all its criminals should be for- given until seventy times seven ? Yet that was the law for the indivi- dual. To carrj' it out would imply that all the gaols should be opened, the police disbanded, and tlie magistrates dismissed — the giving up everything Avliich now implied that the State did not forgive offences, but punished them. Could they conceive the existence of a State which pledged itself never to I'esist evil ? If a French army were to land at Dover, should we be bound to " go with it " amicably all the " miles " on the way to London ? Is the Chancellor of the Exchequer bound to " give to him that asketh of him " It was to him perfectly clear that a State could not continue to exist on the condition of carrying out all Christian precepts for the individual, and tlieir Lord said so. He said, " My kingdom is not of this woi-ld." It was there- fore a huge mistake to attempt to turn His kingdom into a kingdom of this world, or to turn the kingdoms of the world into His kingdom. Again, he thought they could not speak of the State as if it was an individual and apply all the maxims of individual ethics absolutely to it. The State was not an individual. It was a trustee for a great many individuals. It had to preserve the rights, the lives, and the properties of those who were entrusted to its charge, and they could not make a greater mistake tlian to suppose that the relations of a State to other States, or to its own subjects, were simply those of one individual to anothei". But still more he held that any attempt on the part of the State to turn the laws of the Church into the laws of tlie State would only lead to absurd and legal consequences. The great
1889-91 AGNOSTICISM; GAMBLIXG ; SOCIALISM 277
law of the Cluircli of C hrist was self-sacrifice, and the motive power of that law was love. The princi2)le of the State was justice, and the motive power of the State was force, and that was the essential dif- ference between the two. If the State took the law of the Church and tried to enforce it by the penalties of the State, it would set up an absolutely intolerable tyranny. Take the case of Father Damien. Of his own free and loving will he did a noble thing and sacrificed his life for others' sake. But what would they have said if the State had seized on Father Damien, and comj)clled him to sacrifice his life by dwelling among the lepers } That would have been an attempt to en- force by the laws of the State the principle of Christian love. It appeared to him that those who were claiming that they should carry out in the laws of the State all the precepts of the Church were unconsciously attempting to do what men had tried to do in times past, and had failed in doing — to establish a theocracy. The Puritans tried to do that, and to carry out in the State the laws of God, as they believed them to be. The result was a tyranny so far-reaching, so harsh and austere, so unendurable, that men revolted against it, and the licence of the Restoration w-as the necessary result and outcome of the restriction and tj ranny of the Puritan commonwealth. Men nowa- days were for trying the same experiment, only instead of taking the Old Testament they were taking the New Testament as the model of their Christian state ; and he ventured to say that if they succeeded in doing this, they would establish a tyranny more intolerable than that of the Puritans with its theocracy of the Old Testament, because the laAvs of the New Testament were far deejier, more searching and wide- reaching in their force and application than ever were tlie laws of the Old. But he did not say that when we had proved that the laws of the Church can never become laws of the State — that therefore all re- sponsibility was taken awa)- from the Church in the matter of social relations and economic duties. On the contrary, it appeared to him that the duty of the Chui'ch was not lessened, but enhanced and doubled by that state of things. The duties of the Church lay upon her all the more because her laws could not become the laws of the State. It was her duty to infuse into the minds of men that spirit of love which should lead to greater sacrifices than law could demand. It was her duty, not to attempt to define the economical relations between poverty and ])roperty, capital and labour, but to impress upon the mind of the labourer, and far more upon the mind of the capitalist, the great broad law — do unto all men as you would they should do unto you. It was their duty to stand up in favour of the oppressed and suffering, and to speak words of truthfulness to those who were believed to be oppress- ing and injuring them ; and it was their duty also to speak words of faithfulness and truth to those who deemed themselves injured. The
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Clinrch should be fearless and earnest in her denunciation of all wron<r and injustice from ^vhichever side it came. It should endeavour to infuse into the hearts of all the Christian idea of justice, inspired and enlarged by love ; to try to make labour just towards capital and capital just towards labour^ and yet not to attempt to define what in every particular case was the precise amount of justice due on one hand or the other.
To Bishop Mitciiixson.
"Peterborough, November 4, 1889. " Mv DEAR Bishop, — I am receiving dailv sheaves of newspaper criticism and private letters on my poor little obiter dicta at the late Conference. Since the Jumbo excitement I have not seen so great a fuss made about so small a matter.
" If you take the next Fortniglitlu you will see a feeble attempt of mine at self-defence, to be followed by another in the next number.
"After that — mca me virtutc ijit'oZt'o— though I fear that my critics may say that this will not require a very large wrapper.
" The Leicester puritans are up in arms and Mrs. Grundy is very much distressed.
" ' Through evil repute and good repute,' nevertheless, yours most truly, " W. C. Petehborough."
From Dr. Saljion.
Provost's House,
Trinity College, Dublin, November 13, i88g.
My dear Bishop, — I was very glad to get the rejiort of the Peter- borough Conference. I don't know •where any one could find so much good sense for twopence.
You have put your finger on what has long made me almost hopeless of any solution being found for Ritual difficulties in England, I mean the prevalent feeling that a beneficed clergyman ought to be free to say and do whatever he likes ; or, in other words, that it is an outrage to prosecute him no matter what he does.
Fix a maximum as high as you like, you will thus get rid of a great many possible present jirosecutions ; but your maximum is certain soon to be exceeded and what are you to do then
Betting and drunkenness are horrible evils, but a great deal of non- sense is talked by the extreme opponents of both. Archbishop Whately used often to propose the question why betting was wrong. He used
1889-91 AGNOSTICISM; GAMBLING ; SOCIALISM 279
to be very successful in clcmolishing my iuiswers to tli;it (jucslion, and I think I was able to demolish his.*
One form of belting is recognised as a prudeiilial ditlij : I mean lifo assurance. You bet with an assurance company that you will die, they bet tiiat you will live ; and you are well pleased to lose your bet. Betting is, as you say, buying a chance ; but suppose each would rather have the chance than the price to be j)aid for it, why not ?
Two boys want to see a show ; each has only half the price of admis- sion. If they toss up, one of them has his wish ; if they don't, neither.
If people take tickets for a raffle at a bazaar, no one feels the loss of a. shilling for a ticket ; but if the object to be raffled for is prett}', the winner may feel the gain as much.
A clergyman once at a bazaar, when I professed to be shocked at his having a raffle, declared that he did it on the highest moral grounds. Without a I'affle none but a few rich j^eople had the chance of obtain- ing the really valuable articles. By a raffle he accomplished the Christian duty of putting rich and jioor on terms of perfect equality. People who cry out against bazaars lay down a principle they can't carry out, if they will not accept any money that is not given from the very highest motives. How veiy little is.
In point of fact the workers for a bazaar Avill take a great deal of trouble, and even spend a great deal of money, that they would not <jtherwise spend ; and people Avho would hardly give anj'thing gra- tuitously will give a good deal of money at a bazaar in return for being permitted to carry home with them a lot of things which they really regard as rubbish.
It is queer that it should be so, but we must take human nature as we find it. — I remain very sincerely yours, G. Salmon.
To Dr. Bauclay,
" Peterborough, December 6, 18S9.
" It was a pleasure to me to hear from you again, and specially so to receive your shrew d observations on life and fire insurance as a form of betting.
" It will interest you to know that I lately received a letter from the eminent scientist, Dr. Salmon, Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, in which he made exactly the same point. It so happened that a few days after I was dining in company with the Lord Chancellorj when the subject of betting and my speech having turned up, I mentioned Dr. Salmon's point ; on which Lord Hals- bury observed, ' It is curious you sliould mention that before me,
* Good and very Salmonian. — W. C. P.
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inasmuch as I lately said the same thing in a bonus case before the House of Lords when deUvering judgment/
" You see therefore how science and law in the persons of their most eminent representatives agree with your view of the real nature of all insurance.
" It is a comfort to me under the storm of abuse through mIucIi I have been passing lately, to find how many men of sense and ability agree with me. But truly nien of sense in this world are largely outnumbered by fools and fanatics.
"We join here in kind regards to Mrs. Barclay and yourself. — Yours most truly, " W. C. Petkuborougii."
To Dr. Saoiox.
"Peterborough, December g, 1889.
" ]\Iy dear Provost, — ^Thanks for your letter. I can well imagine that the bulk of the criticisms on my speech never travelled so far as Dublin.
" But they were by no means confined to postcards on this side of the water.
" The whole, nearly, of the religious press — from the Guardian down to the Methodist Recorder — had a gird at me ; while the whole of the Dissenting ministers in Leicester preached at me after their kind, and (what I liked much less or rather disliked more) the ii-religious and infidel press patronised me, and quoted me on their side. I do not think that I exaggerate when I say that I have received something like a hundred newspaper critiques on myself, besides those I received in letters and j)ostcards.
" I can only compare myself to the Jew, who being overtaken by a thvmderstorm while eating a ham sandwich, exclaimed, ' Ach ! and all dis noise for one leetle bit of pig ! '
" As regards Grant Allen's article, it is all you say of it. But I doubt the wisdom of advertising a very tenth rate and almost unknown man's lucubrations by a reply to it from a bishop. It ■will be said, here is a really damaging attack on Christianity, when bishops are compelled to notice and answer it.
" But I should nevertheless like to see it answered, and I will try if I can find some one who will take it in hand, whose failure, if he should fail, will not be conspicuous, as the failure of a bishop would be. The patent fallacy of G. A.'s article is surely his confusing the /«i*^or7/ of religion (assuming his history to be true) with a dtjinition
1889-91 AGNOSTICISM ; GAMBLING; SOCIALISM 281
of it. We have not defined a man wlien we have given a ])hysio- logical explanation of the generation of men. " ^V. C. P."
To J. C. IMAcDoxNEi.r.
" Peterborough, January 5, 1890.
" I receive now and then notices of the article, mostly insignifi- cant. One very bitter and stupid one appeared in the 7?oc7i', but that I expected. It is really amazing to me how widespread is the belief that the State is to do the work of the Church. The Rovlc actually maintains that the State is bound to punish all sins*. and is only prevented from tloing this by ' ignorance of men's motives ! ' It winds up with a delicious sentence, ' A perfect com- munitv would excommunicate all sinners ! If / had said this, I would have been accused of perpetrating an Irish bull. Of course a perfect community, i.e., a community of perfect men, would have no sinners to excommunicate. The only perfect man the world has ever known did not, however, excommunicate sinners, but ' received them and ate with them ' !
"All this shows me that my utterance was really needed and may- do good."
" Peterborough, January 7, 1890. " I return you Reichers very interesting letter. " His views as to English Church matters are very much my own.
"The Romeward tendency he speaks of will, I feai-, increase, and be greatly stimulated by Disestablishment. Nothing is more cer- tain than that a Disestablished Church, losing the moderating and restraining influence of Establishment, will develop into High Chuixhmanship at first.
" A pauper aristocracy are always the most aristocratic, falling back on their rank when they have nothing else to stand upon.
" Ultimately conies the reaction in the direction of latitudi- narianism ; but this is a long time in coming.
" The one party that is certain to be squeezed out in the long run is the Evangelical.
" Its individualism will never hold together a voluntary body. Dissent accordingly is rapidly ceasing to be Evangelical, and be- coming sceptical.
" These, however, are changes that neither you nor I will live to see, though we may live to see Disestablishment.
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" Quarry left nic yesterday radiant and thankfid for his small mercy of .£^145 a year net and independent position.
" To-day is bright and sunny. But the weather oenerallv has been dismal and malarious of late. Take my advice and take (|uiniiie as a prophylactic."
" Peterborough, Fchruary 9, iSgo.
" I w ish von would get a copy of this month's Nineteenth Ccnturij i\w<\. read Huxley's article in it, on 'Natural and Political Rights.'
" It is Huxley at his best, and on the right side. He never .shines so much as when knocking to pieces with his scientific liannner some modern political and democratic rubbish.
And this is a most effective demolition of the modern rubbish nbout ' Natural Rights.'' He expands at length and with great force my assertion in Good Words of this month, that 'nature know s of no rights, only of forces.' And his argument, that if all men have an equal and natural right to all the earth, then English- men have no more right to their portion of the earth (which they have appropriated) as against Chinese and Hindoos, than any one Englishman, duke or peer, has against the pauper Englishman, is perfect, and most delightfully put.
" His case of a tiger having a 'natural right' to cat a man, and a man having no more than a natural right to shoot the tiger, is -delicious.
" Of course for us Christians there is such a thing as a natiu'al right, arising out of the fact of the conscience being given man by bis Maker, and in that gift there being a right of appeal to the Lord of all, against his fellow man. Rut this, of course, is no part of Huxley's creed, while as against his fellow unbelievers his argument is unanswerable.
" I never could see why an atheistic ruler should pay any more regard to a pain in the conscience of his atheistic subject than he should pay to a pain in his head or his stomach. Indeed, less, for the latter would be a real pain, while he might regai-d the former as only an imaginary one. Anyhow, read the article and tell me what you think about it.
" I have decided not to go up to the bishops' meeting on Tues- day next. I should probably find myself in a minority of one, Avhich is not only a painful position, but a useless one. I think that until some mode is devised of bringing law to bear on lawless clergy their avoyna. vvill ^^■ax worse and worse until all law and order is at an end.
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" It is true the law is debateable and unsatisfactory ; but, unless some sharp pressure is applied, men w ill never aorce to mend it.
"Now as no other punishment than a ])raetically impossible im- ])risonment exists for law breaking, the law breakei's have it all their own way. When they are compelled, or compellable, to obey the law, they will join with reasonable men in trying to amend it.
"All this, however, my learned and ])ious brctlu-en \\ill not or ■cannot see; and for this blindness, verily, they will ere long '•ha\e their reward."
" Meanwhile, my saying this to them, sweetly even and gentlv as I should say it (am I not always sweet and gentle ?) would be to them as the 'idle wind.' I am only a poor wild Irishman, and they learned and wise and thoughtful Englishmen, who look down with all the fine contempt of an English univei'sity man upon the man whose degree is not of Oxford or Cambridge. Truly, your true Oxford or Cambridge Don seems to regard his university even as the Heavenly City of the Revelations. ' Without are dogs ! ' I might have had some influence, if I had only been an English university man, xc'dh a stutter ! I have all through my episcopate felt this keenly, perhaps too keenly. But the thing reached its height at the Lambeth Conference when, out of all the English dio- cesan bishops, I Mas almost the only one to whom was given no part in the opening discussion of their fifteen subjects, and when I had to fight for five minutes'' time in which to speak on one of them.
" I felt then that I M'as given a back seat bv my brethren. I took it without repining, and have found it so comfortable that I jiow do not care to leave it.
" There ! now the steam is well blown off, and I am quiet in my siding.
" I am daily expecting news as to Jones accejjting or refusing St. Sepulchre's. If he refuse I shall have a very difficult search for a fit man.
" I have a jnospcct of getting rid of the most extreme Ritualist in the diocese by offering him a small extra diocesan living. I like throwing my ritualistic nettles over my ritualistic brother's wall.
" All this is for your private ear, the living not yet being- vacant.
" I foi'got to tell you that I wrote to the Archbishop very briefly to say that as I could not attend his meeting of bishops, at which he told nie the principal subject was to be Lord Grimthorpc's Bill.
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I thought it due to him to say that I approved of it, and would be prepared to support it in Parhament.
" It would be a eurious irony of fate if I Avere to find myself supporting G. against the Archbishop. But I hardly think I shall go so far as this. I should have to encounter a storm of abuse and misrepresentation, and I have had enough of storms of that kind in my time, so I shall most probably stay away, or perhaps pair for G."
"Peterborough, February 21, 1890.
" The memorialists ask for trial by ' the Synod of the Province.' Now the only Synod of the Province that I know of is Convocation.
" It certainly claims to be so, and is so entitled always. And the Archbishop's judgment in one passage evidently contemplates trial by Convocation as the alternative to his present court. Very possibly an assembly of the Bishops of the Province may also be a Synod. But if so, this is only another illustration of the difficulties and ambiguities in which this whole matter of jurisdiction is in- volved.
" I may mention siib sig'illo that I consulted Jeune as to my law and facts before sending my reply to Lightfoot. He thinks all my facts correct, and my law defensible, so far that he ' would not undertake to assert a negative to it.' But he is doubtful as to what the Synod in this case Avould legally be, and so am I.
" Anyhow, Parnell and company and Gladstone and company will just now save me equally from criticism and attention. So securns judico.
I am giving a year's leave of absence conditional on his pro- viding a resident curate to my satisfaction. But this is, as I under- stand from him, rather as a prejiaration for his ultimate resignation.
" The laity are sometimes a little, or not a little, hard upon their clergy, and rather like to keep their noses to the grindstone with a view to compelling them to resign.
" I find it hard sometimes to keep a just balance between clergy and laity in this matter, and I confess that I rather lean to mercy to the parsons, though not I ho])e unduly.
" If a bishop were tried and acquitted by his colleagues of the province, no doubt we should hear from indignant presbyters of the bishops standing by one another, and of ' ask my brother, am I a thief.?'
" Hit high or hit low, there is no pleasing the parsons, nor per- haps the bishops either, in this matter of Courts Ecclesiastical."
1 889-9 1 AGNOSTICISM ; GAMBLING; SOCIALISM 285
" Peterdorough, Fchruary 24, 1890. "I return vou Roichers very striking and suggestive sermon. The idea that the first two chapters of St. lAike are by the Virgin Maiy and the first two of St. Matthew by Joseph is to me quite aiew, and yet so natural that one wonders not to have thought of it before. It gives a profound and tender interest to those two chapters of St. Luke. The whole of the earlier part of the sermon is striking and original, though I think that if I were a Salvation Army man I should reply to lleichePs reference to our Lord's silence in His earlier years, that this was during His preparation for His mission, and that when He had received His mission He ' did cry and utter His voice in the streets.' But of course the rebuke to boy evangelists and infant Gospel prodigies holds good equally and is very telling.
" As regards the latter part of the sermon, which deals with the deep and difficult subject of the Kevwaig in our Lords incarna- tion, I do not, any more than you do, see my way to denying R.'s conclusions as drawn from his premises. But, then, what are the premises ? What is the meaning of ' He emptied Himself ; or in other words, what were the exact limitations of His humanity
" This is nowhere defined, nor does R. really define them. That there were limitations we must believe ; but is the distinction R. draws between ' wisdom ' and ' knowledge in this matter tenable ?
" We are distinctly told that our Lord increased in wisdom, i.e., as I take it, in spiritual perception.
" If so, His KtvwaiQ extended to things spiritual as well as to things temporal ; and if so, when did His spiritual perception become perfect, so that we may accept Him, as we all do, as our Infallible Guide in all things appei-taining to spiritual life ? The whole subject is a darkly difficult mystery, and I am persuaded one which cannot be ever intelligible to us who have no standard by which to measure the perfect humanity of Christ. The question as stated is in terms a contradiction. How can there be a perfect man with imperfect knowledge ? Is not all lack of knowledge an imperfection or the result of imperfection ? Still, I think that H.'s statements are valuable as a correction to the Docetism into which we are all liable to fall when thinking of our Lord's divinity. Indeed, it has always seemed to me that current and popular theo- logy always is oscillating between Docetism and Patripassionism, according as men give prominence in their thoughts to our Lord's divinity or His humanity. On the apologetic side of Christianity
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ll.''s views woiilil give immense relief if we v.ere quite certain, as I have said, of our premises. But the whole subject is as difficult as it is ])rofoundly interesting.
" I think with you that Durham nnist have gone astray.
" If it were not for Wilkinson's notorious ill-health I should have said that the delay has been caused by its having been offered him, and by his being somewhere or other in Egypt and not within easy reach of telegrams. How hap])y I feel in not lia\ ing any personal interest in the matter."
" Peterborough, March 3, i8go.
" Have you read ' Lux Mundi ' ? If you have not, beg, borrow,, buv or steal it ; and if you borrow, forget to return it. It is a book which every one ought to possess who desires to gauge the religious thought of the day. It is the manifesto of High Church young Oxford — quite a different school of thought from the Oxfoi'd High Church of thirty years ago, and a great improvement on it. The old High Church school was, I always thought, remarkable for this — that it had no philosophy. It appealed to the imagination and the feelings, hardly at all to the intellect. It never had but one great intellect in its ranks (Newman), and he left it. But this new school has a philosophy, and a very real and deep one. It may, not irreverently, be described as the philosophy of the Incarnation. This is really the key-note of the book, which has this advantage over older books of the same kind (" Essays and Reviews," " Church and World,"" etc.), that the writers, though to a great degree independent, are nevei'theless all one in their root ideas, and have seen each other's articles and, as it were, ' played up' to each other. Like a violin, it is composed of many pieces, but all so put together as to give a harmonious note.
" The key-note is the Incarnation, and the idea of the Incarna- tion is wrought out, in relation to dogma, development, criticism, science, politics, ethics, etc., more or less successfully in each case, but in every case interpenetrating and sustaining the whole thought of the writer. It is an attempt to justify, "from the standpoint of the Incarnation, catholic theology in the presence of science, criticism, and modern theories of life. Altogether a very remark- able book, though of unequal merit. The first article, on Faith, bv Holland, is, I think, one of the weakest, though abounding with striking and suggestive thoughts.
" It gives a description but not a definition of faith ; and makes
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Christian faith something different in kind from other faith — whicli it certainly is not. The second, The Christian Idea of God," by Aubrey Moore, is the gem of the book— masterly, thoughtful, learned, and yet with no show of learning, and full of epigrannnatic sentences almost worthy of Pascal or Joubert.
"The 'Incarnation in llelation to Development," by Illingworth, is again a very masterly treatise. Lyttleton on the Atonement would interest you greatly, as it did me. But I think it has more of Anselmism in it than Scripture warrants. Gore, on Inspiration, is the riskiest in the book, and not, I think, intellectually equal to some of the others. He takes ReichePs view of the KiviuaiQ.
" Articles on Christian politics and ethics ai'e good, but rather sketchy and a little dreamy. But, take it altogether, it is a remarkable book, and one full of doctrine ' wholesome for these times.''
" If I thought vou would return it to me, spite of my advice not to do so, I would lend it to you when I have read it through. " Meanwhile, vale, sisquc mcrnor m^i."
" Peterborough, March 5, 1890.
" I am sending you ' Lux Mundi,' by parcels post. Mind you send or bring it me back.
"I am busy just now arranging what I hope may prove a useful series of moves in the diocese — too intricate a game to describe on paper, and some of which may after all never come off. Only fancy, Polebrook, near Oundle, which you remember I offered to Jellett, is now worth ^140 or £\50 a year only. The incumbent is resigning and I nuist find some curate who may be willing io take it.
" I am sorry to hear of the continuance of influenza in your neighbourhood. Walker tells me that it is at last decidedly on the M ane here.
" How this weary, dreary, unreal Irish debate is dragging out in the House of Commons ! I feel, as an Irishman, always ashamed of the transparent unreality and dishonesty of Irish debates, and English debates on Irish questions.
" The Celt has the curious faculty of bringing those who have to do with him down to his level, like a low-pitched voice in a concert, which brings down the rest. One comfort is, that nine days of this debating must sicken the English public of Irish matters, and give a chance for English legislation.
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" The Tithe Bill this yeai- seems a good one. Note the adoption of the Irish plan of placing a receiver over the estate of the defiiulting tithe-payer. But will the Bill pass ?
" Grinithorpe is, I hear, bringing in his Bill for snhstitnting deprivation for imprisonment into the House of Lords. I am announced as supporting him. I have told him that I agree Avith him. But going up to the House of Lords and kicking over a hornets'' nest to please G. is qnite another matter. " Bcafiis illc qui procul ncgvfus'''; coiitcntits vivat. I was contentious, I am now contentus, and enjoy the change. Juniorcs ad Inhorcs. Let my younger brethren groan in labour and deliver themselves of their speeches. I cannot conceive why I should meddle in the fray, and therefore shall not be tlelivered of any speech.
" On INIarch 21 I begin my confirmations, and shall have a heavy Aveek of them at Leicester.
" I am, however, thank God, in very fair condition, and feel quite tnpial to my work."
" Athen.s;um Club, June 17, 1890.
"I daresay you will hke to know 'how I fared' last night.* Fairly well, I think. The Lords listened attentively, did not talk .to one another during my whole speech, and cheered me — for them warmly — when I sat down.
" I said nearly everything I wanted to say, moreover, and said it, I think, clearly ; but the House was thin owing to Ascot, and my speech is burked in all the papers save the Times, and greatly ^ibridged there.
" Lord Granville, when I met him this morning, ' paid me his •compliments ' on my ' very able speech.''
"L^nluckily, all this entails a Select Committee, heaps of work, and possible diminution of holidays.
" I am tired, too, and yet must grind away at my sermon for St. FauFs to-morrow.
" I have been most unlucky in being obliged to do these two bis' things so close ; but I had no choice.
" I hope to get home on Friday for a day or two of rest ; but must then take up my quarters in town for a fortnight or three ■weeks and see this Bill through.""
"Athen^dm Club, June 25, 1S90. " I daresay it will interest you to hear of the opening of my campaign for the Children's Insurance — Magee v. Beauchamp. * Infants' Insurance Bill, " Speeches and Addresses," p. 285.
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" The Committee met for the first time to-day, a merely formal meeting to elect chairman and arrange days of meeting and order of business. There were ten of us, all told. I was moved into the chair by Derby and Spencer, and arranged days and hours of meetings.
" I had hardly done this, when Beauchamp showed his teeth. I spoke of ' order of evidence.' ' Yes,' snarled he, ' we have had no evidence yet' (meaning my speech). ' Your lordship shall have some presently,' says I.
" ' Is your lordship going to call Mr. Waugh ? ' (secretary of Pre- vention of Cruelty to Children, and B.'s pet aversion). ' I know of no reason why I should not,' says I ; ' but, as a matter of fact, very pi-obably I shall not do so.' And so Ave sparred on for a bit, until we fairly went in for tussle No. 1 — on the question whether all evidence should be given on oath. 'Certainly it niiLst,' says B.; 'I insist upon it. People's characters have been taken away. Ever\ - thing must be sworn to.' ' Not so,' says I ; ' w e are not a Court of Assize trying an action for libel, but a Committee considering a Bill, and thus open to all kinds of evidence, documentary and written.'
" ' I think so,' says Derby. ' Ditto, ditto,' says Lord Thring. And so, after some more spariing, I put the question, oath or no oath ; and Master B. was left in a minority of one.
" First round. B. knocked out of time, and a good omen for the futui'e. Committee evidently not with him so far. But I must be very cautious and courteous, and not presume on my victory. ' Noble lords ' do not like other ' noble lords ' being sat upon by bishops.
" However, so far I have begun Avell.
" Now that I am in for it I rather like it. But Beauchamp will do all he knows in the way of insolence, and that is a good deal, in order to put me out of temper ; which he shall not do, if I know it.
"So 'thim is my sintimints,' and 'no more at present from yours to command, and hoping this finds you well as it leave me.
"W. c. p."
" Peterborough.
" .... I must not write more to you now than just to say that two days more will end my House of Lords Connnittee worries for this Session. Alas ! we must begin again in November.
VOL. H. T
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" Beauchamp is worrying and insolent beyond belief, but I have steadily beaten him so far. Arthur and I go to Judge Bowen Friday week to stay over Sunday in Sussex, and to meet the G.O.M. and his G.O.W.
"Then the family or some of them go to Oxford to see the Merton infant take his degree ; and from Oxford the Irish tourists start for Dublin.
" Oh, how I rejoice to see the daylight of holidays after the African forest of weary Committee work !
" I am just now tired out and out. But a few days' rest and chano'e will make me all right."
" Peterborough, July 29, i8go.
" We are off from Oxford for Ireland on Thursday next.
" I had an immensely interesting two days at Judge Bowen's in company with G.O.M. and G.O.W. But how could I tell you the hundredth part of the conversation of a man who talked inces- santly from 9 o'clock a. 51. to 11 o'clock p.m. on every conceivable subject
" Some day when we meet I might tell you of some of his sayings, if I have not forgotten them. But assui-edly I spent those two da\ s in the company of the most amazing old man in Europe."
To Mrs. Magee.
" MiLRoy. Donegal,
"August 24, 1890.
" This has been an interesting day for me. I preached in the church (Carrigart), where I must have sat as a boy some sixty- three years ago ; and Arthur read the lessons, thus making four generations of Magees whose voices had been heard in that chmch, for doubtless Ai-chbishop Magee, when Bishop of Raphoe, must have preached or confirmed there in my father's time. The chui'ch, I am told, is quite unchanged save that open sittings have replaced the old square pews. Of course I did not remember the church, but I did remember the house where we lived. I visited it after chmxh. It is now inhabited by the dispensaiy doctor, who took us over it. I distinctly recalled the little sitting-room separated by a narrow passage from the kitchen, where I used to run in and leam the spelling of some hard word set me after dinner in the sitting-room. It was, I think, old Kilby * who used to help me on those occa-sions.
• The Bishop's old nurse.
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" Something remains, too, of the long narrow street of cabins that I distinctly remember as stretching away from our house. An old man at the door of the church stopped me to shake hands. He ' minded me well,' and told me how my mother kept the Sunday School, and what a horseman my father was. It was all curiously and a little painfully interesting to me. Arthur is within six years of my father s age when he came here."
To J. C. MacDonnell.
" Windsor Castle,
" Sunday, November 30, 1890.
" I preached to the Queen for twenty-tlu-ee minutes to-day, and dined with her last night. W. H. Smith and Lord Hartington were of the party — a conjunction here that bodes, I imagine, no good to G.O.M. Of course the one topic of conversation for all of us is the political situation ; which, by the way, is enhanced this morning by the news that the American section of the Nationalists - — Dillon, O'Erien and Co. — have declared against Parnell. All agree that he is, for the futuie, impossible as regards English statesmen ; but I have my doubts still as regards the Irish. How - ever, a day or two will settle all that.
"W. H. Smith and Lord Hartington are naturally radiant. I had a long and interesting talk with W. H. Smith about the Education question, which will, I expect, take rather an unex- pected turn, and one that w ill need wary steering for those who have to pilot the Church.
"Lord Hartington greatly amused me by his telling me of Parneirs visit to Hawarden. It seems he affronted the Gladstones by coming down twenty-five minutes late for dinner, and by not coming down to breakfast at all. I hear, too, on all sides that the G.O.M."'s last visit to Midlothian was a fiasco — awaking no enthusiasm ; and that Balfour, on the contrary, who followed him, w as a great success.
" The Archbishop of Cantuar is at the deanery here, where he's been staying for the last week, resting from the judgment and com- forting himself, poor dear man, with his friend's quiet society after his son'ow.
" Of course, as I am the preacher here, there has been a death. This time the death of one of the canons of Windsor — Capel Cure, Hector of St. George's, IIano\ er Square. I do hope that this time
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the vacant canonry may go to my dear friend Lord Normanby. It would just suit liim.
" I have just heard that I am to dine again to-night with the Queen at 8.45. What an hour !
" I find the life here rather wearisome, spite of its honour and glory, and shall be thankful to find myself home to-morrow.
" 11.15 P.M. It is ' bedtime, Hal, and all well.'
" No further news of any kind."
" Peterborough, December 29, 1890.
" Good and loving Christmas wishes may always be taken for granted between you and yours and me and mine. I send them both to you in writing, however, all the same.
" Truly we need all best wishes for our enduring this ten-ible weather. I see no signs to-day of its amendment. I do not re- member such a winter since 1861, when the frost nearly cost me my life in the Kilsby tunnel, on my way to Enniskillen, on my very roundabout journey to Peterborough.
" Percival accepts Nassington, and so ends my series of moves for this time.
" I was grieved to hear of W. Ebor's death. He had always shown me friendship and really good-natured kindness. He was an able, and was near being a great man. His place will be difficult to fill.
" I go to stay with Thorold in town on January 20, to attend bishops' meeting on 21st, and opening of Parliament on 22nd. I shall have some gossip for you then. " W. C. P."
To Bishop Mitchinson.
" Peterborough.
" My dear Bishop, — As regard the case of marriage licences for divorced persons, I have personally no scruple in granting them to the certainly innocent party. But as this is a question on which many feel differently, and for whom it is a matter of conscience, and as also the certainty of innocence is not easily attainable, I have long ago decided on making ' no rule ' ; and on leaving it to each individual surrogate to act according to his lights in each case as it occurs. No wrong is thus done to the divorced party, inasmuch as banns and registrar are open to them, and, on the other hand, the consciences of surrogates, and my own, are left untouched.
" Doubtless one uniform rule, in this as on other matters, is
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abstractedly desirable. But rule of all kinds in our Church seems out of date ; and the catastrophe which will substitute the will of the laity for the rule of bishops is so near at hand, that a little more or a little less of anarchy meanwhile is not of much consequence. We are now well over the edge of our Niagara ; and I do not gi'eatly care to strain my muscles in baling or trimming the boat on its •way down.— Yours ever most truly, " W. C. Fkterbouough.
"I have lately been examining Rotifers under my microscope. They are creatures of intense activity, darting about all over the field of the microscope, and whenever they do come to a stand occupying themselves in whirling about small ciliae, wheel-like in form, with great rapidity, unde derivatur Rotifer.
" I think of christening one of them as Rotifer Mitchinsonianus. Do you approve ; " W. C. P."
Letter from the Bishop of Peterborough to the Editor of the Times.
January, 1891.
Sir, — Cardinal Manning, who " has not had patience to read Pro- fessor Huxley's letters," asks, "What would our Lord and His .\postles do if they were in London now ? " The question is not an easy one to answer ; but I venture to remind the Cardinal of what our Lord actually did in Judea. On the only two occasions — and it is noticeable that there were only two — on which our Lord used His miraculous powers for the relief of hunger. He commanded His disciples to "gather up the fragments" left from the feast He had provided, "that nothing be lost." Surely, if there be any teaching for us in this direction, it is tliat of care, thrift, and prudence on the part of those who find themselves the almoners of even the most profuse supply of help for the destitute. Our Lord was warning His disciples then, and His words still warn us, that He will work no miracle to supersede the duty of consideration and forethought in dispensing charity, and that if we neglect this duty we must suffer accordingly the "loss" of what is — ^just because it will not be miraculously supplemented — a limited trust fund. Now, the question raised by Professor Huxley and by other critics of General Booth's scheme is not whether we should endeavour to relieve distress — that no one questions — but whether the particular mode of relieving it which the General proposes is a wise and a prudent one ; and further, whether, ■even supposing that it would prove so under his sole and exclusive management, it is likely to prove so under the management of his unknown and equally irresponsible successors. Surely this is a
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question which our Loi'd's followers now are not only justified in asking, but bound to ask, and very carefully to consider, before they risk in the promotion of so vast and so crude a scheme funds which might possibly be put to better use, and which, if misused, will be lost to the cause of charity. For my own part, I confess to a belief that if GUI' Lord's remarkable economy of miracles all through His life teaches one lesson more clearly than another, it is this — that we cannot be too anxiously thoughtful and provident in all our efforts for the relief of human suffering, and especially for the relief of poverty ; and that if there be one thing more contrary than another to the whole of His example in this matter, it is the weak indulgence of om* own feelings of compassion by rash, impulsive, and ill-regulated benevolence. Cardinal Manning, however', it would seem, is of a different opinion. Possibly, had he been one of our Lord's disciples on the occasions I have referred to, he would "not have had patience" to gather up the fragments. P. C. W.
CHAPTER XX
APPOINTMENT TO YORK: CLERGY DISCIPLINE BILL;
DEATH
The year 1890 was ])iactically the end of Bishop Magee's episco- pate in Peterborough ; change began with the new year. I had intended to close the history of this period with a summary of the changes which had taken place and the progress that had been made in the diocese in that time. But such a summary is scarcelv consistent with the plan of this work and would break the sequence and interest of the letters. Canon Stocks has given a full and accurate review of the history of the diocese in the Diocesan Magazine (August to December 18f)l), and the reader who would know more of the diocesan history than is to be found in the Bishop's letters must consult Canon Stocks' account.
We turn to the year 1891 to begin a new though too brief chapter of the Bishop's life and work.
To J. C. MacDoxxei.l.
" Peterborodgii, January 6, iSgi. "You will not receive this letter, I lear, before you will have seen in the papers the news of my appointment to the Archbishopric of York.
" Greatly as I could have wished to have told you of it the instant I received it, I was unable to do so. But I write to vou, though I cannot post my letter, within three hours after the receipt of it, that you may know — if you could for a moment doubt it — how at once my heart turned to my oldest and truest friend, at this new and strangely unexpected crisis in my life. I received this morning a letter from Salisbury's secretary, Schomberg INTcDonnell, telling me that Lord Salisbuiy had submitted my name to the Queen, ' who received it very graciously ' ; but adding
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tli.vt there was some (k)ubt as to whether I would accept; and that as it was 'very undesirable'' that there should be a refusal, Lord S. Avished to be assured on this point before making the offer. He also wished for the ' earliest possible ' answer, and McDonnell begged for a telegraphic ' yes ^ or ' no," addressed to Hatfield, M here he went last night.
" You may imagine how da::ed I felt by such an offer, accom- panied by a rec]uest for a ' yes or ' no ' by telegram.
" I quite understood Lord S.'s desire to be freed from importu- nities by my answer ; but it was a tremendous decision to make at a few hours' notice.
" I could not consult you, or any one save my wife ; in whose judgment you know I justly repose the greatest confidence. After such thought, and prayer, and consultations as I could give, I telegraphed ' yes.'
" I hope you will think I have done right. Many things ■weighed with me. Setting aside, as far as I could, all thoughts of increased dignity and income, I thought :
" (1) That the diocese of York — as distinguished from the Province — is not more, but less, laborious than that of Peterborough.
" (2) That the duties of the Province — as regards government and the haute politique of the Church — ai'e perhaps those I ain better suited for than some others appertaining to the office of a bishop.
" (3) That to these I could bring some considerable experience, baving taken some share in them from the first.
"(4) That if I was judged the fittest man for these, I had no right to decline an office which, by God's help and grace, I might be able to discharge for the good of the Church.
" (o) That there are some Church reforms (as you know) very dear to me, which I might be better able to promote as Archbishop of York than as Bisho)) of Peterborough.
•' (()) The belief that the climate of York would better suit me and mine than that of the Midlands.
" (7) That I should get rid of some of my mistakes here.
" All these considerations came rapidly through my mind, in the few hours given me in which to decide.
" And now that I have decided, if a clear conscience, and a great sense of relief, and a fresh spring of energy and hopeful pui-pose, are signs of a right decision ; I have them all. I feel a strangely new man for niy new place. I trust, too, that I shall in some
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respects be a new and other man. I am conscious of my defects for my high office — lack of dignity, impulsive speech, too great fondness for sharp and sarcastic utterances, impatience of duhiess and folly, and many another weakness and fault of which others could tell me. But I am, at least, on my guard as regaids all these.
" The lessons of twenty-two years are not, I trust, thrown away upon me, and if earnest and humble prayer to Him who in His ])rovidence has brought me through so chequered a life to this high place, can keep me straight, I shall not, I trust, go far amiss.
" I long, however, to hear what you think of all this. Come and see us, dear man, as soon as you can. I shall be at home all next week. We shall have much, very much, to talk over. How strangely this brings back my stay with you at Dalkey when the offer of Peterboi'ough came to me, and you comforted me and encouraged me !
" I feel now much as I did then ; less excited certainly, more hopeful perhaps. But what do you feel ?
" I know that, personally, this will not be pleasant news for you. Your other home here will no longer have its open door for you. Nor can we have the daily intercourse we used to have, when your residence came round. But you will always have the open door and the loving welcome at Bishop thorpe that you have had wherc- ever my lot has been cast. And York air will, I trust, often do you as much good as I hope it will do for me.
" But above all things I know I have your prayers — never more needed than now — that I may behave myself wisely and well in my most trying and responsible office.
" My heart, even now in the first flush of pleasui-e at recognition and hope of usefulness, begins to sink at the thought of responsibility.
" Pray for me, my dear friend, and believe me now and ever yours most affectionately, " C. Peterborough.'"
"Sunday, January 11.
" Salisbury's letter, offering the Archbishopric with the Queerfs permission, came this morning. The fact is now public news.
" W. C. P."
To Bishop Mitchinson.
"Peterborough, January 11, 1891. " My dear Bishop, — I owe it to you, more almost than to any one else, to give you the earliest intimation of my appointment to the Archbishopric of York.
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" The offei' of it came upon me with an ahnost stunning sm-pvise.
" I had not even once thought of the possibility of its being made to me. I trust that I have done right in accepting it. Pliysically I feel quite equal to the labours of a diocese, which, if larger, is, nevertheless, much more com2)act and workable than Peterborough.
" As regards other qualifications, I felt that these were for others, not myself, to judge of. And I accepted their judgment as an intimation that I may have some fitness for the great office.
" I need not ask your prayers. I know that I shall have these, as I have had from you every other help in times past. It grieves me to think that I shall find no Bishop Mitchinson at York. There is a sufft'agan there, but he cannot be to me all that you have been for years past. I fear that you have spoiled me for any other suffragan or assistant bishop.
" I am, as you may well suppose, overwhelmed with letters of all kinds to and from all manner of persons. You will not there- fore expect a long letter, much as I should like to say many things to you. I have only time now to add how truly and gratefully I am yours, " W. C. Petekbohocgh.'"
To Dr. Salmon.
" Peterborough, January 13, 1891.
" My dear Provost, — I knew that I should have your kind wishes and kind words on my preferment to the See of York. The fact that an ex-scholar of Trinity College, Dublin, has attained to such a position, has, besides personal regards, a sort of historical interest for a Provost of that University.
" Apropos of this fact I should like privately to consult you as to an offering I should like to make to my Alma Mater. I have always regarded a place amongst the busts of the great men in Trinity College Library as about the highest honour that could fall to any Irishman.
" Now I happen to possess a bust of my unworthy self, executed after I became Bishop of Peterborough, by an Irish artist (Watkins). On his premature death, I purchased it, in marble, from his widow.
" It is considered a good likeness. I have occasionally thought longingly of its finding a place in the library. But as long as I Avas only a bishop, this seemed to me rather a presumptuous thought. Now, however, that I am to be an Archbishop, I venture to think i\\a.t _fursan et nostrum nomen miscebitur illis. I should
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not like, nevertheless, to offer this bust for that [)urj)()se if I thought that for any reason the Board would not cave to have it. Could you ascertain for me, informally, how this would be If I may offer it with acceptance, I should be proud to do i-o. Might I ask that in that case it might stand beside the bust of my grandfather Believe me, yours most truh', " W. C. I'jiTiinBOROUGii."
From Dr. Saljion.
Provost's House, Trinity College,
Dublin, January 14, 1891.
My dear Bishop or Archbishop, — You have given a very delightful answer to my letter. 1 had scarcely expected any, for I thought it likely that at this time you would be rather overwhelmed with con- gratulatory letters, and therefoie that the shorter I made mine the bettei".
I will, of course, read your letter to the Board on Saturday, but I need not wait to consult them either formally or informally before replying. My only quarrel with you is that you seem to think it requires this promotion to make us proud of you, and pleased to know that you retain your kindly feelings towards us. We did not require external testimony to form our estimate of you ; but it is certaialv gratifying that that estimate has been so well confirmed. Now, tlic satisfaction generally felt here that your being an Irishman and a graduate of ours has been no bar to your promotion sufficiently indicates that such a man is not hkely to have been honoured in England beyond his merits.
Certainly the two busts beside each other will silently tell to every visitor to our library a very interesting chapter in the history of our college.
Another point I had intended writing about to you later, but thought it more prudent to say nothing about it when I Avrote last. Even now I am not desirous that you should be in a hurry to take notice of what I say. But the fact is that when I was arranging our list of college preachers for '91, I left two Sundays vacant in the month of June, in the hope that "something might turn up." — I remain, very sincerely yours, Geo. Salmon.
To J. C. MacDoxxell.
January ig, 1891.
" I could not, even if I desired it, delay my election. I cannot continue to work two large dioceses at the same time ; and work is already beginning to roll in from York.
* '■ It docs so."^G. S.
ARCHBISHOP MAGEE
CHAP. XX
"The Board of Trinity College, Dublin, will take my bust and place it beside my grandfather's.
Honestly, this pleases me almost as much as the Archbishopric.
" W. C. P."
Tu the Bishop of Norwich.
"The Palace, Peterborough,
"January 14, 1891.
"My dear Bishop, — No kinder nor wiser words of congratulation have reached me than yours ; none, too, more welcome. I have been most unexpectedly called on to decide, in a very brief moment of time, on the momentous choice of accepting or refusing the great office which I have accepted. I should not be in any measm-e tit for it were I to think of it without misoivins;. Such letters as yours help me and encourage me to think that I have chosen rightly. I know that I have, and shall continue to have, your prayers that the Great Master, whose call I seemed to myself to hear, will grant me a double portion of His sufficing grace for the double share of work He has given me to do.
" I do believe that physically I shall be equal to the duties of the See of York ; for, though it is territorially larger, it is much more compact and workable than this of Peterborough. The climate, too, I am persuaded, \\\\\ suit us all much better than that of the Midlands.
" I am receiving pleasant and fraternal letters from the bishops of the province, my duty of presiding over whom causes me my greatest misgivings.
" Thank you so much for recalling to me that terrible time at Stoke.* The memories of that time are enough to sober and steady e\ en a more sanguine and daring man than myself. ' Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer steward ' were the words that were all but spoken to me then. God give me grace to say them to myself many times more ! — Ever, my dear Bishop, yours sincerely, " W. C. Peteeborough.'''
Northampton, January 14, 1891. Dear Lord Bishop, — We who are Nonconformist ministers in Northampton and various parts of the comity happen to be assembled to-day in a pi'ivate meeting ; and having heard with great satisfaction, as has all England, of your promotion to the Archbishopric of York, desire to give you our heartiest congratulations on the deserved honour * His illness in 1883.
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thus conferred on you. We would also acknowledge the invariable courtesy with which you have treated Nonconformists during your long administration of the diocese of Peterborough. As we know you will esteem the responsibilities of office as greater than the honour, we wish for you long-continued health and strength, and unite in praying that God's richest blessing may rest on the new ministry to which you are called. — We are, dear Lord Bishop, yours faithfully, etc.
To this address the Archbishop sent the following answer:
"Palace, Peterborough,
" Jamiavy 19, 1891.
" My dear Mr. Gasquoine, — I need hardly assure you of the gratification with which I have received the kindly niessa<>:e of congratulation which you have forwarded to me on behalf of your- self and those whose signatures are attached to it. I prize very highly this token of approbation and regard from those who, differing from me strongly and conscientiously on many points, vet feel, as I do, that such differences should never hinder the feeling or the expression of Christian brotherhood between Christian men. I am thankful to know that Nonconformist ministers in this diocese give me credit for having desired to manifest this feeling towards them. I can truly say that, on more than one occasion, they have manifested it to me. You do me justice in believing that I regard the ' responsibilities more than I do the honour' of my new office." These responsibilities are, indeed, weighty and anxious; but it encourages me, in entering upon them, to know that I bear with me what I may venture to call a commendatory letter from Non- conformists in Northampton to Nonconformists in York. I hope and trust that they may receive me in the spirit in which you part from me. Above all, I trust that I may have their prayers, as I am sure I have those of yourself and your brethren, that there may be given me the grace and strength needed for the discharge of all those great duties which, in God's providence, I am now called to undertake. — Believe me, yours faithfully and gratefully,
" W. C. Peteuuokough.'"
To Rev. W. Mllloy.
"Peterborough, January 15, 1891. " My dear, old Friend, — I knew that I should have your kind words and wishes at this great but anxious crisis of my life. Do you remember what old Halpin used to say in the reading-desk at
302 ARCHBISHOP MAGEE chap, xx
St. Thomas''s, when my uncle used to suddenly change the order of service ? ' That is a very sharp turn ! ' This is a very sharp one, and most unexpected by me.
" Pray for me, that I may not stumble or lose my way as I take it. — Yours ever affectionately, " W. C. PKrEBBOROUGii."
To Rev. Caxon Watson.
"Peterborough, Jammy 15, 1891.
" Amongst the numerous letters of congratulation I have received on my appointment to York, few have been as welcome as yom-s.
" I can never forget the loyal help and counsel you have given me in all the past yeai's of my episcopate.
"My only regret when I think of them is that, owing to circum- stances, especially to recent ones, I have not been free to recognise them more publicly and substantially than I have done. I quite longed for some speedy op^iortunity of doing so, and now it has passed away.
" I only hope that you will continue to my successor and to the diocese the invaluable services you have hitherto rendered to me and it.
" The future that lies before me is a laborious and anxious one. I am sm-e that I shall have your prayers that I may be enabled to ' do my duty in that state of life ' to which God is calling me. — Believe me gratefully and sincerely yours,
" W. C. Peterborough."
To the Rev. .
" Peterborough, January 23, 1891. " My dear Sir, — I think it better that I should reply to your letter of the 22nd inst. before I enter upon official relations with yourself — which might to some degree fetter my freedom in expressing myself — on the important subject on which you address me.
"Let me, before replying to your question, express to you my grateful sense of the loyal and filial spii'it in which your letter is written. It is no small help to one who desires to be a father in God to all his clergy to find himself so recognised by one of them in a matter of some difficulty, and which involves evidently strong . and conscientious feelings on the part of the writer.
"You tell me that, before adopting the eucharistic vestments
iS9i APPOINTMENT TO YORK; DEATH 303
which you specify, you wish to obtain iny ' written permission ^ to do so ; and, further, that you would refrain from using them should I forbid them.
" Much as I should personally desire to accept a submission so loyal, I feel that I am not free to give or to withhold the permission for which you ask.
" The position in which I might find myself as your diocesan, were I to do either of these things, might, I apprehend, be this :
"That in a matter as to which I might possibly, though I hope not probably, be called on hereafter to give a judicial decision, I should beforehand have committed myself either to a permission to do what is illegal, or a prohibition of what is legal.
" The Ornaments Rubric being, in my opinion, of doubtful inter- pretation, I have never felt myself free to direct any of my clergy as to the manner of its observance, unless in those cases where either :
" a. The clergyman ' doubts ' his interpretation and asks me to decide for him ; or
" h. In cases where he and any of his parishioners ' diversely take ' it, and agree to refer their differences to my decision.
" Now, of these two cases the first is not yours, inasmuch as you express yom-self as having 'no doubt' that the vestments you describe are prescribed by the Ornaments Rubric. The second case has, of course, not yet arisen, and I could not properly antici- pate its occurence.
" Were I better acquainted than I can now be with the views and feelings of your parishioners I might be able to counsel you on this point. But as regards them you must naturally at the moment be well informed while I am ignorant.
" I can only, therefore, in your case follow the general rule always hitherto observed by me, namely, to leave it to the judg- ment and conscience of each parish priest to decide for himself, in the first instance on his own responsibility, the nature of the ritual in his parish church, subject always to this condition, that if I should be called upon by any of his pai'ishioners to decide upon any com- plaint of theirs, I must decide it according to the best of my own knowledge and judgment.
" May I, therefore, suggest to you that the promise you so kindly offer me to accept my decision now should be exchanged for a pro- mise to accept it hereafter, should the use you adopt be complained of to me by any of your parishioners
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XX
" And may I add that in asking this of you I am only acting on the resolution of the second Lambeth Conference, unanimously adopted by one hundred bishops, ' that no change in the accus- tomed ritual of a parish should be made contrary to the monition of the bishop."
" Once more thanking you for all that is kindly and filial in your letter, I am, reverend and dear Sir, yours faithfully,
" W. C. Peterborough.'"
To J. C. MacDoxxei.l.
" Athenaeum Cldb,
" Friday, Febntary 20, iSgi. " 4.30 P.M.
" I have crossed at last the Rubicon ! and am now cZivested of Peterborough and i^ivested of York ! God grant the change may be for the good of His Church whatever becomes of me ! The ceremony, a quaint and interesting one, lasted nearly an houi* and half, including evensong, of which it made part.
" Foiu- bishops, besides Canterbury, were required to make me into an Ai'chbishop.
" I come down this evening to entertain my successor.
" On Monday I go to Windsor to be sworn in of the Privy Coimcil, and I hope, too, to do homage. I cannot re-enter the House of Loi'ds until this is done.
" Did you see in the papers the death of Lord Beauchamp ? Poor man ! how glad I am that he and I shook hands so lately ! — In haste, ever yours affectionately, " W. C. Ebor."
"Athenaeum Club, February 23, 1S91.
" The last finishing touch to the process of manufacturing an Archbishop was put to-day at Windsor. I did homage, and was sworn in of the Privy Council, and am now Right Honourable and all the rest of it ; and what I care for more, I have rescued my livings from the grasp of W. H. Smith.
"The homage of Winchester and Worcester was to have also taken place to-day ; but for some reason or other it has been put oft" until to-morrow.
" So I have actually done my homage before Perowne who re- ceived the offer of his bishopric fully two months before me !
"I fear I shall get little or no rest at Worthing. The Arch- bishop of Cantuar is bringing on his Clergy Discipline Bill on
APPOINTMENT TO YORK; DEATH
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Thursday week ; and the Tithe Bill conies on in Committee on Thursday next. So away go my poor little holidays. " Truly it is not all gold that glitters.
" To-niorrow I go to Icvcc, and I dread the exposure ; but I must get it over.
" I hope to get home Saturday week, and to preach my farewell sermon on the afternoon of Sunday, IVIarch 8th.
I hate farewell sermons. They can hardly help being, or seeming unreal, in the case of one who is going away of his own free choice and will ; and besides I cannot gush as I shall be expected to do. However it nuist be done.'"
" Marine Hotel, Worthing,
" February 25, i8gi.
" I got vour letter this morning at the Athenaeum just as I was starting for this place. I must not let a day pass without sending vou my best and most affectionate wishes on your completion of voui" seventieth year ! How time flies ! To think of you and me, 'striplings'' of fifty years ago in Trinity College, Dublin, and in Laracor ; and to think of the long devious undreamed of routes by which we have reached our present positions ! AVell ! through them and along them all, we have at anv rate gone nearly hand in hand ; never out of reach of each other''s voices, and always some- thing pleasant to say to each other.
" But somehow I hardly yet realise my last step. If it were not for the incessant ' yom- Grace,'' ' your Grace,' of waiters in clubs and butlers at home and abroad, I should still think myself Bishop of Peterborough.
" Truly I am just now the ' well graced actor,'' leaving the stage of Peterborough.
" I do so wish you could be at mv enthronement. It would be such a pleasure to me and I venture to think a pleasure to you.
" Never mind the Confirmations. Ford will take them for you ; leave those few sheep (not untended though) in the wilderness and come in the pride and nauglitiness of vour heart to the great encamp- ment at York. I had a pleasant little dinner at Lambeth yesterday and most pleasant talk with Cantuar on matters archiepiscopal. He still, evidently, leans on me to do his fighting in the House of Lords. I will help him, but he must fight for his own hand too. I escaped having to be there on Thursday next (to-morrow) by the fact that my writ of summons as Archbishop of York is not yet issued ; and until it is, I cannot apj)ear in the House. I think I
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CHAP. XX
will have this stated in the papers, lest I should be accused of absenting myself from indifference to the interests of the clergy on the tithe question.
" On Thursday week I must appear and make a speech on Clergy Discipline Bill.
" On Sunday week, March 8th, I preach my farewell sermon in cathedral.
" We are enjoying cloudless and sunny skies here. In London this morning the fog was unbearable and unhealthable.'"
" Athex.eum Club, March 5, 1891.
"An archbishop is certainly made in instalments. To-night I became Archbishop of York in the House of Lords, my writ ' as such ' having been made out. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London introduced me to the Lord Chancellor, to whom I kneeling tendered my writ of summons. Thereupon I returned to the table, took the oath of allegiance, and signed the Peers' roll as W. C. Ebor ; then was marched by Canterbury all round the House to the front Bishops' bench, put on my cap there and bowed three times, raising it each time to the Chancellor ; who, not to be outdone in politeness, raised his thi-ee-cornered hat to me thi-ee times ; and then the thing was done.
"Presently, Canterbury moved his Clergy Discipline Bill in a weighty discourse, and thereupon I seconded it in a less weighty one. But the Lords must needs laugh at a very simple observa- tion of mine, not intended in the least for a joke ; and now of course all the pious papers w^ill take me to task for my ' levity ' !
" However, I did what I wanted to do — namely, sat upon the Lower House of Convocation of my own Province, who are prepar- ing a grand demonstration against the Bill, which will come qfier it has got thi-ough Committee !
" Grimthorpe was present and blessed the Bill altogether, adding that Archbishop Thomson approved of it in its final stage ; erg-o, exit the opposition to it in York, at least for any effective purpose.
" Salisbmy gives me a second suffragan, and I have just written to offer the post to Archdeacon Blunt, who, I understand, will take it.
" My two suffragans will cost me ^£"700 a year. But they are well worth it.
" I could not have held out for a year without them.
" Clearly my work must be provincial and Parliamentary. The diocesan routine must be done by subs.
APrOINTMENT TO YORK; DEATH
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" It was a <>iicf to me leaving Worthing to-day in lo\ ely weather.
■■ But it was dearly niy duty to be in the House of Lords to- night, and so ' I corned away.'
" I get home to-morrow, preach on Sunday, attend a great fare- well ' At home ' on Thursday, go to town on Wednesday to dine with Jeune, attend Committee of House of Lords on Thursday on Canterbury''s Bill, go to Bishop of Beverley on Saturday, am en- throned on Tuesday, attend four affairs in Hull Wednesday, two ditto on Thursday, get home on Friday, go to Scarborough Mon- day, Confirmation and meet Mayor and Corporation Tuesday, preach York IMinster Friday, etc. Pretty well for an old cove !
" W. C. EuoR."
The Archbishop's enthronement took place in York Minster on March 17 (St. Patrick's Day), 1891.
He had invited as preacher upon this occasion his greatest living rival in the art of preaching. Dr. Alexander, Bishop of Derry (now Archbishop of Armagh). As the procession moved up the nave, the choir singing the ancient hymn of St. Patrick, his " Lorica " (breast-plate), translated into English by Mrs. Alexander, the sight was most striking. Some 600 clergy in their robes made two lines, extending from the west door to the altar rails, between which the procession passed. The chancel was crowded in every part, and the Duke of Clarence occupied a seat in the stalls. The Ai'chbishop was first conducted by the Dean within the altar rails, and seated in the ancient chair of Paulinus, Archbishop of York in 627, and afterwards duly enthroned with all becoming ceremonial in the more modern throne. At the close of the service the Arch- bishop went to the cathedral library, where he received addresses from the Dean and Chapter, and the Lord Mayor and Corporation of York.
Next day the Archbishop went to Hull, and wrote to me the following account of his visit :
To J. C. MacDonxell.
" Heslewood, Hull,
"March i8, iSgi.
" I greatly wish now tliat we could have been together all to-day. It has been on the whole one of the most remarkable days in my life. ^
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CHAP. XX
" I had no idea of the ahnost regal reception that awaited me here.
" I arrived about 1 o'clock and found McCormick and my host Mr. Pease, a wealthy squire in the neighbourhood, waiting to hand me out of the train with hats off' ; and a large crowd, filling up the platform and its external a]>proaches, all uncovering as I passed along to the carriage. AVe drove to the Town Hall in an open landau, for the admiration of the populace. At the hall, which was decorated with red cloth as if for royalty, and with stands of flowers, we found the Mayor in grand trim waiting to receive me, under a grand gilt " Welcome to Hull,"' and with the Lady Mayoress beside him, who took mv hand and curtseyed.
" We bowed (Be\ erley and I), and drove with the Mayor to the Artillcrv Barracks, which had been fitted up in like manner ; a great drill-hall holding about 1500 souls, and crammed. We entered, if you please, to the strain of ' God Save the Queen,"' the audience all rising and cheering. Then came a flaming speech from the ]Mayor and the presentation of three grand addresses ; that from the Mayor and Corporation in a really beautiful silver casket Avith my arms on it in enamel.
" Then a ' few words ' from me to the audience ; then a drive back to Town Hall, and a luncheon ; next a reception at which I shook hands separately and individually with 800 souls ; then a drive of six miles here to dinner, and six back to the barracks for the working men's meeting at 8 o'clock — a really great success. Two addresses first, from Trade Unions and from Friendly Societies ; then one hour's speaking by me to the working men,* winding up with terrific cheering — three times thi'ee, and raising of hats — and then home to supper.
" Altogether a great field day, and one that I do believe will help nie greatly in the diocese generally.
" The audience were highly intelligent and keenly appreciative — very different from our friends of the Midlands. They impressed me most favourably.
" I go to-morrow to Beverley to be addressed again, and return to Hull to hold an evening confirmation ; and really I am less tired with it all than I have been by a couple of confirmations at Peter- borough. Truly this archbishopric seems to have given me a new lease of my life. " W. C. Ebor.
* " Speeches and Addresses, p. 254.
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To Dr. Salmon.
" Heslewood, Hull,
" March ig, 1891.
"My DEAR PitoA'osT, — I have been immensely/ gratified by the honour that the Board have done me in sending nie their gifts of orchids for the 17th.
" The flowers arrived just in time, and found high and prominent place in the Minster.
" Pray convey to the Board my grateful thanks, not only for this honour, but for its graceful and gracious appropriateness.
" The ceremony was a really grand one, and so was the sermon by the Bishop of Derry. Believe me, yours most truly,
« W. C. Eboe;^
To J. C. MacDoxnell.
" BisHOPTHORPE, York,
" April 9, 1891.
" I have had an interesting experience since I last wrote to you, namely, presidency for two days in Convocation. The proceedings were very stately and quaint, and very lordly so far as I was con- cerned. I doubt if I fully realised my position as Primate and INIetropolitan until I found myself presiding over eight bishops and a host of inferior clergy, with mace before me, and apparitors and registrar and secretary behind, and 'Graced' at every other word.
"The first day's proceedings were of no special importance, mainly consisting in speeches in support of a vote of regret and condolence on the death of Archbishop Thomson. Westcott, as premier bishop, moved it, and the prolocutor of Lower House seconded it in fidl Synod, and I afterwards said a few words for myself. A motion of mine for closer relations Ijetween Canterbury and York passed iicminc contradicente, and so far all seemed smooth sailing.
"In private session in the afternoon, however, the subject of the Clergy Discipline Bill (which I had hoped to avoid) was brought up by Bishop of Chester, who urged, reasonably enough, that the Lower House was about to deal with it, and it would be awkward for the bishops to pass it by in silence. On the other hand half of the bishops were going off yesterday afternoon, and amongst them the strongest supporter of the Bill, Cax-lisle ; so had we debated it.
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it would have been in a House of foui' or five bishops only, of whom two at least were rather hostile to the Bill, and one of them Westcott. This was awkward, especially as the prolocutor and most of the Lower House were up in arms against the Bill.
" After about an hour's conference, during which I nearly con- verted Westcott and Chester, they all entreated me to sunnnon the Lower House next morning and give them the same explanations that I had given the bishops. I did not much like this either. First, because I had a very bad cold, and was afraid to make it seriously worse ; and second, because I was sure to be out-A oted in Lower House, and this would be a bad beginning for my presidency. However, they were all so urgent that I gave in, summoned the Lower House for vesterdav morning, and went home to dose my cold and tremble for the next day.
" I managed to get down a csterday, and spoke in explanation and defence of the Bill in full Synod for fifty minutes.* At the close the Bishop of Chester rose and publicly assured me that I had fully satisfied him and answered all his objections, Westcott implied the same thing privately, and all the bishops thanked me warmly. So far so good. I feel I have greatly strengthened my position with the bishops for the future.
" Some of the Lower House I converted. But there will be a hostile vote there, nevertheless, and furious attacks in Guardian and Church Times.
However, on the whole I feel that I am decidedly a stronger man in the Convocation and province than I was when I took the chair ; and this, after all, is the great matter. Now I have to try and get rid of my nasty spasmodic cough, though happily un- accompanied by any febrile symptoms.
" Nothing will cure this but fine weather, and there seems as yet no prospect of that.
" We are still slowlv settling in to this vast caravansaiy. But it will take at least another month before we can inhabit the principal rooms. Meanwhile w e are picnicking in a small corner of the house under difficulties and discomforts of all kinds.
" On the whole, so far, I do really think I am making way, and have as yet made no mistakes. But it is very slippery walking on the steep house-top of the Church, and I must hold on very cautiously and not lose my head. Alas ! I must be always grave and dignified.
* " Speeches and Addresses," p. 227.
1891 APPOINTMENT TO YORK; DEATH 311
" Like Adrian I may say to my soul, Animula vagula, hlanchila, quo vndes .... Ncc id wles dahisjocos.
" Truly dignity and dulness goes together, Samivol ; as you gets grander you gets duller."
" BisHOPTHORPE, York,
" April 20, 1891.
" Dear MacDonnell, — I am glad to hear your account of the report of my speech in the Guardian and of the treatment I receive from the editor.
" I fully expected a burked report, and a very hostile article.
" But one advantage of being an archbishop is that your speeches are not burked, as the Guardian used to burke mine when I was a bishop. The prolocutor of our Lower House, who is an able man and who has great influence there, hates the Bill, because it prac- tically gets rid of clerical chancellors.
" If it had not been for my address he would have carried nearly the whole Lower House with him in sweeping condemnation of the Bill. The facts in my speech, and the public avowal of conversion to the Bill by his own bisliop (of Chester), were, how- ever, too much for him.
"He really wanted to get back to the old canon law and the salutcm animceP But whatever becomes of the Bill, that pedantic and mischievous absurdity is fairly knocked on the head.
" I expect that some compromise will ultimately be hit upon to save the Bill. The responsibility of defeating it will be too heavy for any save the extreme fanatics to face.
" I have offered Bishopthorpe to Egerton of Brackley, who, I believe, will accept it. He is a model domestic chaplain, though not an examining one. The former, however, is Avhat I really want in the occujDant of a vicarage not a hundred yards from my hall door.
" I think it verv likely that influenza has been the root of your wife's troubles. It is raging all over this county and E., poor dear, is down with it now. She has had a sharp attack, but with no grave complications, and is to-day, I am thankful to say, on the mend; temperature going down and bronchitis, of which she had a touch, subsiding also. I have escaped so far, and feel very well considering the strangely sunless and chilly weather which is very depressing. I go to London on Wednesday for two days' work in mv Insurance Committee, which is a veritable ' millstone ' round niy neck, now that I have been " cast into tliis fiee.''
312
ARCHBISHOP MA GEE
CHAP. XX
" I am, I think, gaining ground in the diocese, though of course there are growls ah'eady. — Youis ever affectionately,
"W. C. Ebor;'
The influenza was indeed a veritable pestilence in York and its neighbourhood. The Archbishop and his family were very anxious to push on the repairs and alterations at Bishopthorpe, as they expected in a month's time to receive there twenty-three candidates for orders and four examining chaplains. But little progress could be made, as most of the workmen employed were disabled with influenza. Things were in this state at Bishopthorpe when, on April 22, the Archbishop started for London to attend a Com- mittee on the Children's Insurance Bill. Almost immediately upon his aiTival he was prostrated by influenza. His two eldest sons and youngest daughter were with him, ]\Irs. Magee being ill ^\•ith influenza at Bisho])thorpe. I happened to be in London, and seeing a notice in the papers that the Archbishop of York was ill at Garlant's Hotel, I went to see him. I felt vei'v much disquieted by his look ; but being informed that Sir A. Clark considered that he was going on well and that there was no danger I put aside my misgivings. The next day, however, Mrs. Magee was so anxious that she left her bed and travelled by night to London. I went on that day, Friday, and again on Saturday ; but he was asleep or unflt to see me when I called. I returned home to Leicestershire, and on Monday had the comforting assm-ance from one of the family that all was going on well. On Tuesday morning I had a telegram from the Archbishop's son, to say that the case had ended fatally and asking me to return at once. The blow fell like a thunderclap upon the family, who, however uneasy they might have been, were quite unprepared for such an event.
The Archbishop had aiTanged to consecrate Archdeacon Blunt as his second suffragan bishop on May 1, but had to sign a com- mission to the Bishop of Durham to take his place. On the day of the consecration, when he knew that the ceremony was over, he telegraphed to the new bishop as follows :
"To the Bishop of Hull, Deanery, York. — Psalm xx. v. 2, Prayer-book version. — Affectionately, "W. Ebor."
He died at 4 a.m. on Tuesday, May 5, and on the following evening his remains were removed to Peterborough and taken to the Cathedral. They were placed in the chapel in the north
1891 APPOINTMENT TO YORK; DEATH 313
transept and there for three nights groups of the Peterborough clergy and other friends kept watch and prayer round the remains of their former bishop. The funeral took place on Saturday, when there was an immense assemblage to pay the last tribute to departed greatness. York, Peterborough, and Ireland were fully repi'esented. The lesson Avas read by the Bishop of Be\ erley and the service at the grave by the Bishop of Lincoln and Lord Normanby, the choir singing the Archbishop's favourite hymn, " Lead, kindly Light." His last resting-place is beside that of his predecessoi', Bishop Jeune, close to the south transept of the Cathedral.
The Archbishop's name, as Bishop of Peterborough, had become a household \\ ord wherever the English language is spoken. To some he was only known as a great orator, or as the author of many witty sayings and telling epigrams ; in his diocese he was known also as an energetic worker and a firm ruler. But till the announcement of his promotion to the primatial See of York, he never received his full measure of appreciation. ]\Ien began then to count up his qualifications for the high office for which he had been selected, and thus at last they fully realised that he was far above all pos- sible competitors ; and that the Church possessed in him not only an able administrator and eloquent speaker, but a really great man ; one in whom there was something far higher than those talents for which all had given him credit. They saw at last that he pos- sessed an originality of thought, a moral courage, and a statesman- like grasp of great questions, both religious and social, which made him to his Church like what the jirophets of old were to Israel. He was so much in touch with his age and with the laitv of his time, that many in their strong perception of points of contact and sympathy failed to perceive how high he stood above the common level. And in proportion to the quickened perception of his great qualities were the sorrow and disappointment at his unexpected death.
As to what he was in the maturity of his powers, every ne\\s- paper in the kingdom and in our colonics has borne testimony. Let us try and bring into prominence what was less known. It is not enough to say of him as all men do, that he was a great speaker both in the pulpit and on the platform. He was not only this, but, on the M'hole, the greatest speaker which this genei*ation has produced. Lord Salisbury, speaking of Bishop Magee's speech in the House of Lords against the disestablishment of the Irish
314
ARCHBISHOP MAGEE
CHAP. XX
Chui'ch, said he had heard it spoken of by many members of both Houses " as the finest speech ever delivered by any living man in the Houses of Parliament.'"
If the pulpit gave the Bishop less scope than the platform or the Senate for his versatile powers of wit, sarcasm, and argument, on the other hand it gave fuller scope to higher and more spiritual powers. He threw aside for a time the weapons of earthly warfare, and rose to the higher level where it seemed natural to him to soar. On such occasions often his delivery became rapid — too rapid for any reporters to follow — and he could not himself reproduce fully his finest passages. His best sermons were the result of intense thought and carefid preparation ; and he could reproduce generally the arrangement of the reasoning and the most striking sayings ; but no report could convey an idea of the almost magical power which he exercised over his hearers.
But to those ^\ho knew him intimately, the Bishop of Peter- borough was even more remarkable for his conversational than for his oratorical powers. As his sermons were far more than mere oratory, his conversation was something superior to the witty say- ings and smart criticisms which gave it zest and brilliancy. Those who ventured to close with him in conversational argument soon found that they were in the grip of a giant.
As a man who could take in all the bearings of a great social or political question, and use knowledge of various kinds to thi'ow light upon it, Dr. Magee was unequalled. He seldom meddled personally in any purely political question which had no bearing on religion and morals. He felt that he was Bishop of men of all parties and politics, and he often lamented that the line between Churchmen and Nonconformists was so nearly coincident with the line between jjolitical parties. But his own political opinions were strongly marked and candidly expressed.
Yet in his dealings with all parties in his own diocese he was strictly impartial, and he always lamented that the religious dissent, represented by such men as Robert Hall in Leicester in the beginning of the century, had given place so largely to the feelings and motives of secular politics.
In his private life the Bishop was remarkable for the depth of his family affections. He lost his two eldest children when he was at Bath ; and it seemed as if his great affliction through these losses deepened his love for those who were born afterwards, and coloured his whole after-life. His efforts to procure legislative
iSgi APP0INTMJ:NT to YORK; DEATH
315
protection for the young, and his anxiety to pass the Children's Insurance Bill, were no passing impulses of philanthropy, but the outcome of deep feeling as well as of strong conviction.
At his o\vn table, and at all social gatherings, he had scarcely a rival. His conversation flowed on without effort ; and the brilliant wit and re}jartee which gave such zest to his discoiu-se were only the sparkling on the siu'face of a deep current of thought and wisdom.
Not only in Great Britain and Ireland, but in our most distant colonies, his name was known and revered. The writer of these pages received soon after his death, a newspaper from Madras with an appreciative article upon the Church's loss in the great Archbishop, and almost at the same time a letter from Canada containing the following sentences : " Lately twice in the Winnipeg law coui'ts, on a question of the schools there, the Ai'chbishop (]\Iagee) was quoted by the barristers on each side. It was merely some opinion of his expressed at a Church Congress, and yet in the very centre of the prairie it is quoted as an authority out here which even a law court ought to recognise."
In bowing to the will of God, which suddenly deprived us of so much promise, let us not forget how much more we should have lost if his own forebodings and those of his friends had been realised. It was as far back as 1848 that it was feared he might never return from Spain to resume active duty. Yet look at the twenty years that followed of mental labour and active work in Bath, London, Enniskillen, and Cork ; and then the twenty-two years of his episcopate in Peterborough. Look again at his restora- tion in 1883 from the grave, from which, it might be said, we " received him in a figure." In his own expressive words, " I had both feet in the grave, and God brought me up out of it again." Shall we, after these mercies, repine because his career at York was only, as Dean Cust called it, the brief shining of " a meteor " ?
No ; he had fulfilled his mission and done his work — the work that God appointed, not that which we would have meted out for him. Like his older friend. Bishop Wilberforce, he was taken in the maturity of his powers and the zenith of his fame. We have not in either case to look back through a period of decay to I'ecover the image of what he once was : the last impression was not only the most vivid, but the most true.
But let me impress upon those who only knew him in his public life that neither his great natural gifts, nor his assiduous cultivation of those gifts, nor the long discipline of his chequered life, in sorrow
'616
ARCHBISHOP MAGEE
CHAP. XX
and sickness, as well as in joy and success; nor his varied experiences of Church life, both in England and Ireland, from curacies in Dublin and Bath to the Sees of Peterborouo-h antl York — that none of these could have made the William Connor, Archbishop of York, whose loss we mourn, any more than the chemist could have made his marvellous brain out of the phosphorus and carbon and other materials into which he could have resolved it by his art. If it needed that God should breathe upon such earthly materials before " man became a living soul," so did all the gifts of heart, and intellect, and genius need a higher inspiration to make the spiritual preacher and wise " Father in God."" Had the Archbishop chosen the bar as his profession, he would assuredly have found his way into the House of Connnons, and risen to the highest oflices in the State. But he was something greater and better as a servant of Him whose " kingdom is not of this world." Let us thank God that he was spared to us so long, and not lament that he was too soon cut off ; and let us pray that others may be raised up to do the work which he might have accomplished if he had been spared longer to the Church.
INDEX
Abercorn, Lord, I., 139, 140, 141,191, 219,
242, 205 AsTiostioism, II., 253, 262-266 Alexander — see Derry Alford, Dean, 1., 65, 135, 167-169 Ai-oles, Canon, II., 82, 97, 117, 193, 197 Ar';yll, Duke of, I., 233 ; II., 139, 155, 159 ArmaKli, Archbishop : Lord J. Beresford,
L, 86
M. G. Beresford, I., ss, 125, 126, 14.3, 146, 176, 177, 184-186, 189, 215- 217, 226, 247, 250, 265 ; II., 05
Athanasiau Creed, I., 274, 276, 277, 281, 283 ; XL, 8, 117
Atlay — see Hereford
Atonement, The, L, 62, 6.3 ; II., 169, 236, 244 Annnicntation of Bent liccs, II., 65 Ayhvard, ilr., II., 206
Bacsiiawe, Mr., II., 75, 76 Ball, Dr., I., 97, 182, 224, 251 Barclay, Dr., II., 279 Barry, Bishop, II., 255
Bath and Wells, Bishop: Lord Auckland, I.,
44, 66, 69, 71, 94 Beacon>field — see Disraeli lieaucliamp. Lord, IL, 18, 89, 154, 173, 288,
289, 290, 304 Bence-.Tones, 5Ir., L, lOr; ; II., 15 Bennett Judgment, I., 276 Benson — .see Truro and Canterbury Bernard, Canon, I., 154 Bowen, .lustice, II., 236, 290 Bradlaugh, Jir., II., 128, 131, 190, 219 Bright, Mr. John, I., 139, 1 76, 244, 245 ; II.,
83-8(1, 140, 193, ■IZi British Association, I., 104, 187 Browne, Harold — see Ely and Winchester Bruce, Mr., I., 212, 215, 2.56 Brunei, Mr., IL, 16, 66, 144 Burson, Dean, I., Ill ; II.. 200 Burials Bill, IL, 35, 66-68, 77, 83-8,5, 90,
117, 129, 130-138, 143, 146 Burke, .Sir B., I., 124, 171 Butcher — see Meath Butt, Mr., I., 121-123, 124
Cairx.s, Lord, L, 139, 173, 219, 221, 224, 226-229, 231-233, 235, 275; IL, 1, 3, 6, 9, 15, 16, 18, 22, 36, 49, 50, 139, 175, 193
Canterbury, Archbishop : Benson, IL, 205, 219, 221-224, 228, 229, 232, 234, 240-242, 248, 260, 283, 284, 291, 304, .lOj, 306 Tait, L, 214-220, 22.1, 220, 228, 231, 233-236, 239, 256, 259, 263, 265, 266, 286, 289 ; II. , 1-<1, 0-8, 10-12, 15, 18, 22, 33, 35, 36, iin, 49-53. 55,
Tait, IL, 56, 58, 59, 62, 64-69, 72, 77, 81, 88,90,93-96, 109, 117, 123, 124, 127, 130-138, 143-147, 150, 153, 155, 168-160, 171, 173-175, 179-181,
183
Carlisle, P.ishop: H. Goodwin, L, 193, 263; IL, 144, 154, 193, 219, 221
Lord, L, 66, 90, 91, 93, 107 Carnarvon, Lord. IL, 2, 182 Carter, Canon, II., 64, 65, 87, 98, 99, 102-108 Cashel, Bishop: Daly, L, 184, 185 Chamberlain, Mr., IL, 229, 239 Charges, I., 277-279, 283 ; IL, 35, 97-99, 172 Chelmsford, Lord, I., 88,230 Chester, Bishop: Jacobson, I., 225
Jayne. IL, 309, 310, 311
Sumner. L, 11 Chichester, Bishop : Durnford, IL, 12, 59 Cliilders, Mr., I., 212, 214, 224 Christian Evidences, IL, 92 Christian Socialism, IL, 247, 261, 276, 281 Church Association, I., 253 ; IL, 165 Church, Dean, IL, 153, 180 Church Extension, IL. 13, 21, 60, 61, 165,
249, 262. 264, 270 Clark, Dr., II. , 19, lOs, 207 Clersy Discipline Bill, II., 304, 306, 309-311 College Historical Society, I., 7, 8, 164, 165, 200
Communion, Use of TJnfermented Wine, IL, 200
Conferences, Diocesan, I., 266 ; IL, 8, 214- 216, 271
Confession, I., 289, 291, 292, 295 ; IL, 72-
75, 77, 94, 95 ( ongress, Brighton, IL, 12 Bristol, I., 105 Dublin, I., 163, 168, 172, 192 Leicester, II., 120, 129, 142 Manchester, IL, 253 South.impton, I., 257 York, I., 145 Connemara, Visits to, I., 46, 56 Convocation, I., 158, 206, 251, 263, 274-276, 286. 289 ; IL, 14, 16, 17, 19, 22, 34, 40, 54, 58, 69, 88, 90. 129, 138, 150, 153, 154, 172, 207, 223, 224, 226, 243, 273, 284, 306, 309-311 Cork, Bishop: Gregg, L, 96, 107, 110, 169, 177-179, 182, 239, 249, 262 ; IL, 183 Covcrley, Mr., IL, 177-179 Cranbrook, Lord, I., 176; IL, 62, 67, 139, 228, 232
Cross, Mr., IL, 18, 62, 66, 67, 87, 97, 98 Cust, Dean, IL, 124, 127, 307
Dale, Mr., IL, 144, 145 Dalgairns, Father, I., 284 Damien, Father, II., 254, 255, 277
318
INDEX
Denison, Archdeacon, II., 127, 128, 273
Speaker, I., 175 Derby, Lord, I., 174, 176, 216, 226, 228, 230,
275; II., 88, 139, 289 Derry, Bishop: Alexander, I., 145, 157, 158,
176, 215, 216, 219, 223, 231, 235,
249; II., 182, 307, 309 Devon, Lord, II., 52, 58 Dilapidations, I., 106 ; II., 39 Disney, Mr., II., 50, 185-187 Disraeli, Mr., I., 162, 180, 182, 197, 199, 200,
204, 208, 211, 214, 215, 219, 224,
293, 294, 296 ; IL, 2, 11, 67, 87,
88, 93, 108, 121, 128, 133, 134, 140,
158, 200
Donnellan Lectures, I., 62, 87, 90, 91, 108, 113, 118, 120, 124, 152 ; II., 63, 92
Dablin, Archbishop — see Plunlcet, Lord
Trench, L, 91, 94, 109, 118, 131, 151, 153, 164, 169, 171, 177-179, 181- 185, 189, 190, 200, 205, 209, 211, 214-219, 225-227, 229, 232, 233, 235, 249, 260, 252, 257, 287, 288 ; IL, 93
Whately, L, 11, 90, 153 ; IL, 278 Durham, Bishop: Baring, 215, 277; IL, 59, 60, 72
Lightfoot, IL, 108, 120, 124, 130, 154,
180, 219, 221 Westcott, I., 207, 259, 269; H., 192,
309, 310, 312
Eastifard Position, IL, 69 Ecclesiastical Courts, IL, 153, 154, 159, 260, 284
Fees Bill, IL, 34, 36 Prosecutions, II., 40, 109, 144, 162, 173, 242
Education, I., 77, 79, 103, 121, 124-130, 159,
170, 180, 243, 251 ; II., 126, 291 Ellison, Canon, IL, 124, 125 Ely, Bishop: H. Browne, 200, 215, 216, 259,
263, 264, 288
Woodford, L, 288 ; IL, 59, 123, 137, 143- 145, 148, 153, 174, 175, 21G English Church Union, IL, 62, 63, 64, 165 Erne, Lord, I., 76, 77-79, 88 " Essays and Reviews," I., 74, 99 Evantjelical Party, 1., 83 ; H., 71 Evening Communion, IL, 206, 211 Exeter, Bishop: Bickersteth, IL, 223
Temple, I., 240, 243, 289 ; IL, 19, 64,
127, 144, 174, 175
Fabrar, Archdeacon, IL, 45, 126
Canon, L, 268, 283 ; IL, 167, 192, 219, 220
Fearon, Archdeacon, L, 200 ; IL, 64, 161, 189 Fenians, L, 118, 121, 128, 180 Fitzgerald, Mr. Penrose, IL, W8 Froude, Mr., I., 67, 284
Gasquoine, Mr., II., 301
Giberne, Major, I., 42, 58
Gladstone, Mr., L, 129, 137, 142, 166, 173- 176, 180, 182, 183, 204, 208, 211- 222, 224, 226, 227, 232-234, 247,
264, 274, 275, 285, 287, 296 ; IL, 10, 33, 72, 87-89, 113, 114, 120,121,
128, 138, 140, 159, 162, 167, 173, 179, 183, 190, 216, 217, 222, 229- |
Gladstone, IL, 231, 234, 239, 256, 259, 261,
284, 290, 291 Gloucester and Bristol, Bisliop: EUicott, I.,
215, 216, 225, 284, 291, 296 ; IL, 6,
88, 108, 143, 160, 223, 224, 227,233 Goodwin, Harvey — see Carlisle Goulbum, Dean, I., 65, 18C, 187, 271 Granville, Lord, I., 231, 233, 275 ; II., 6, 7,
9. 18, 40, 66, 67, 130, 133, 134, 138,
139, 174, 193, 201, 228, 288 Graves — see Limerick
Graveyards, Cousecratioii, IT., 140, 143, 146
Green, Mr., IL, 162, 172, 176
Greg, Mr., L, 284 ; IL, 23
Gregory, Canon, IL, 153
Grey, Lord, L, 228 ; IL, 6, 138 •
Grier, Prebendary, IL, 151-153, 156, 217
Grimthorpe, Lord, IL, 227, 240, 248, 260,
283, 288, 306 Guniey, Mr., I., 65, 71
Halifax, Lord, IL, 7, 64, 154, 165, 167 Halsbury, Lord, IL, 279 Harcourt, Sir \V., II. , 33, 140, 141, 144, 147 Hardy, Gathorne — see Cranbrook Harrowby, Lord, IL, 5-7, 19, 67, 68, 130, 131 Ilartington, Lord, IL, 87, 88, 236, 291 Hassard, Sir J., IL, 62, 201, 249 Hatherley, Lord, I., 233 ; IL, 7 Haughton, Dr., I., 124, 170 Hereford, Bisliop : Atlay, L, 204, 215 Hcrrick, Mrs. Perry, IF.. 249 Hey wood, Mr., I., 42
Mrs., L, 54 Holt, Mr., I., 291, 292
Hope, Mr. Beresford, I., 190, 263 ; II., 7, 154
" Hospitals for Incurables," IL, 23, 24
Houghton, Lord, IL, 33, 43, 173
House of Laymen, IL, 223, 224
Howson, Dean, I., 210
Hull, Visit to, IL, 307
Hutton, Mr., L, 284 ; IL, 154, 23l5, 253
Huxley, Professor, II., 262-267, 282
Infants' Insurance Bill, II., 288, 289, 311 Irish Church, I., 155, 160, 176-190, 209-228, 231-235, 259, 261 ; IL, 181 Convention, I., 246-248 Revisiun, I., 236, 249, 252-256, 268, 200, 261, 263-266, 270, 272, 276 Irwin, Archdeacon, I., 70, 73, 76, 172
.Tellett, De.\N, L, 8, 10, 27, 133, 172, 220, 237,240,248, 253,254, 269,272; IL, 50,93, 97, 130, 192, 196, 220,238, 287 Professor, L, 114, 124, 125, 211, 248, 250, 253, 261 ; IL, Jonnor, Bishop, IL, 162-164, 166 Jcune, Sir F., L, 200 ; IL, 141, 259, 267,
284, 307
KuxALOE, Bishop: Fitzgerald, I., 91, 184 Kimberley, Lord, L, 107, 130, 135, 137, 139.
140, 142 ; IL, 139, 174, 229 Kingsley, Mr., L, 49, 67, 257 Kyle, Archdeacon, I., 97, 106, 182
L ANSDOWNE, Lord, IL, 19, 139, 159 Lawson, Sir W., IL, 33, 152 Lay r. Clerical Association, I., 204, 206, 810, 212-214, 221
INDEX
319
Lee, Arcbdeacoi), T.,107,124,1!19,164JG5,172
Leiiister, Duke of, I., 124, 126
Lichfield, Bishop: Selwyii, I., 182, 215, 225,
226 ; IL, 93 Liddon, Canon, L, 242, 250, 251 ; II., G2, 87,
148
Lightfoot, Archdeacon, II., 284
see Durham Limerick, Bishop: Griffin, I., 106, 129
Graves, I., 107, 125, 131, 134, 135, 138,
141, 177, 181, 184, 215, 216 ; II.,
15, 16, 182, 251, 260 Lincoln, Bishop : Wordsworth, I., 204, 259 ;
11., 35, 88, 90, 95, 96, 123, 124, 131,
143, 146, 153, 154, 15.5, 160 Littledale, Dr. I., 190 : II., 127 Liverpool. Bishop : Hyle, I., 119, 195, 266 ;
II., 154, 240 Llandaff, Jtishop : Ollivant, I., 225, 226,
295 ; II., 99, 175 Lloyd, Mr., II., 243
London, Bishop: Jackson, I., 204, 215, 240, 274 ; II., 4, 59, 88, 90, 182 Tait, I., 1, 94, 128, 176, 200. 201, 204 Temple, IL, 219, 221, 223, 232, 235, 240, 242, 248, 306 Loyd, Mr., II., 163-166 Lowe, Canon, II., 73, 74 Lowell, Mr., II., 236 "Lux Mundi," IL, 286, 287
MabeRLT, Mr., L, 249, 252, 253, 255 Mackonochie, Mr., L, 225 ; IL, 76, 81, 87 Macnamara, Dr., I., 269 McNeile, Dean, L, 45, 6.5, 102, 119, 187 Magee, Archbishop, I., 11, 198, 202 ; IL, 290, 299
Archdeacon, I., 11, 295 ; IL, 302
Mrs., 65, 115, 205, 223, 238, 256, 284, 293 ; II., 172, 176, 232 Mallock, Mr., IL, 263, 266 Manchester, Bishop : Fraser, IL, 167,215,216
Moorhouse, IL, 239, 253, 255 Manners, Lord J., IL, 62, 83, 215 Manning, Cardinal, I., 284 ; II., 235, 293 Mansel, Dean, I., 62, 98, 101, 108 Marriage Laws, II., 170, 175, 292 Maturin, Mr., I., 164, 168, 172 Maurice, Mr., L, 62, 63, 83, 165-169, 171, 178 Meath, Bishop; Butcher, I., 114, 124, 142, 178, 215-218
see Plunk et. Lord
Eeichel, I., 90, 107, 110, 133, 156, 157, 169, 252, 253, 265, 268 ; II., 49, 81, 167, 281, 285, 287 Singer, I., 140, 141 Metaphysical Society, I., 284 ; IL, 22, 89 Meyer, Mr., IL, 197 Miall, Mr., I., 266, 276, 286, 287 Miracles, Views on, I., 98 ; II., 92 Missions, Leicester, II., 171 Navvies', II. , 110 Northampton, IL, 37, 190 Mitchinson, Bishop, U., 176, 189, 190, 197, 209, 210, 211, 249, 263, 267, 278, 292, 297 Monk, Mr., IL, 160, 161 MuUoy, Mr., L, 33 ; IL, 301
Naas, Lord, L, 139, 153
Napier, Sir J., L, 152, 156, 176, 177, 181, 270
Nelson, Lord, I., 1 95; II., 6,98, 99,164, 1 83, 223
Newell, Dr., L, 4, 103, 121, 127, 129-131,
136, 155, 159, 160, 180, 197, 222,
248, 269 ; IL, 220 Newman, Cardinal, II., 14S, 181
F., L, 153 ; II., 80 Northcote, Sir S., II. , 62, 170 Norwich, Bishop: Pelham, I,, 160, 188, 215,
216, 225, 259, 263 J IL, 88, 90, 123,
143, 300
O.A.THS, Article on, II., 219, 220 Ohio, Bishop: Mclhvalne, I., 257, 286 Ordinations, IL, 15, 189, 203, 245, 268 Ossory. Bishop : O'Bri.an, I., 130, 179, 184 0.x:lbrd, Bishop : Mackarness, IL, 109, 132, 143, 304, 223 Sermons, I., 62, 169 ; IL, 147, 148 Visits to, L, 129, 135, 251 ; IL, 290 Wilberforce, L, 62, 75, 149, 159, 172, 182, 186, 195, 2U0, 201, 209, 210, 213-216, 225, 226
Palmer, Sir R. — see Selborne Pan-Anglican Synod, II,, 94, 96, 251, 283 Parliamentary Debates : Burials Bill, IL, 68,
90, 133
Cathedral Statutes, IL, 193 Church Patronage, II., 18, 240, 241 D.W.S., L, 250; IL, 173, 193 Disturbances Bill, II., 138 Ecclesiastical Courts, I., 274 House of Commons, II., 87, 131, 161, 248
Irish Church, L, 175, 224, 228,231-235 Land Bill, IL, 159, 160 University, I., 285
Parish Churches, IL, 227
P.VV.R., IL, 1, 6
Temperance, IL, 43, 44
Tithe Bill, II., 231
Vivisection, II., 113, 117 Pamell, Mr., IL, 167, 217, 231, 284 Patronage, Diocesan, II., 3, 46, 59, 271
Church, II., 1, 3, 4, 14-16, 18-22, 32, 33, 35, 36, 89, 149, 161, 219, 221, 223, 224 Pattison, Mark, IL, 89 Pau, Visit to, I., 44 Peach, Mr., I., 48-50, 53, 278 Penzance, Lord, IL, 36, 62, 66, 144, 145 Pcrowne, Dean, II., 97, 193, 214, 304 Phillimorc, Sir E., IL, 144, 145, 156 Pilkington, Mr., I., 3 I'lunket — see Tuam
Pluuket, Lord, I., 172, 270 ; II., 49, 50, 59, 113. 260
Prayers for the Dead, IL, 187, 188 Preaching, Lectures on, IL, 17 " Priest in Absolution," II., 72-74, 94 Public Worship Kegulation, IL, 1, 2, 4-8, 10, 11, 17, 63, 55, 69, 62, 77, 87, 243 Purchas Judgment, I., 266 ; IL, 69 Pusey, Dr., IL, 4, 126, 183
Queen Anne's Bounty Bill, 11., 158, 159- 161, 232
Reichel — see Meath
Reminiscences, I., 3-5, 41-43, 47-60, 53, 54 Richmond, Duke of, II., 3, 4, 7, 9, 16, 18, 22, 60-68, 182
320
INDEX
Kidsdalo Judgment, II., 63, (M, 82 Kipoii, Bishop : liiokcrstetli, I.. 225, 226 llliodes, Mr., I., 50, 63, 100, 143 Kochester, Bishop : Claiightoii, 1., 215, 225, 226, 259 ; II., 6 Thorold, 11., 144, 208, 292 Home, Visit to, 11., 38, 39 I.'osclale, Mr.. II., 202
Kubiical Eevisiou, II., 14, 16, 22, 54, 58, 72,
152, 153, 243, 273 liuMiin, Mr., I.. 284 Kyle — see Liverpool
Salisburv, Bishop: Mobcrlcy, IT., 131
Lord, I., 22G, 233, 204, 275, 285 ; II.,
7-9, 67, 08, 91, 139, 159, 161, 193,
201, 233, 239-241,29.-,, 296, 306, 313 Salmon, Dr., I., 89, 90, 98, 1 39, 171, 195, 198,
205, 228, 242, 25:1, 254. 256, 270 ;
IL, 23, 220, 208, 278-280, 298, 299,
309
Pecpticism, Lecture on, I., 88
Science luul Faith, I., 145 ; II., 11, 24, 80, 147
Selborne, Lord, I., 183, 188, 189, 190, 224, 226 ; IL, 7, 15, 16, IS, 22, 68,89, 90, 134, 139, 157, 175, 228, 232, 2-11, 242
Sclwyn — see Licli field
Shaftesbury, I>ord, I., 90, 136, 275, 286 ; IL,
fi-9, 14, 113, 117, 132, 175 Shaw-Stewart, Mr., IL, 50-52, 54, 58 Smith, Mr. W. H., IL, 232, 291, 304 Society of the Holy Cross, IL, 70, 73-76, 81,
163-165, 177-179 Somerset, Duke of, I., 221, 222 ; IL, 33, 139 Spain, Letters from, I., 14 ; II., 190 Speeches: Artists' Dinner, IL, 114 Bristol Congress, I., 105 College Historical Society, I., 9 Disestablishment, II., 214 Dublin ConsTess, I., 193 Education, I., 244 ; IL, 12 Exeter Hall, I., 55 Gamblinff, IL, 274, 278, 279 Bouse of Lords, I., 221, 227, 228, 250, 274; IL, 1, 6, 19, 42, 44, 68, 117, 173, 193, 227, 240, 233, 288 Loughborough, IL, 83 Manchester Congress, IL, 254 Medical Benevolent Fund, IL, 235 Kitual, IL, 272 Socialism, IL, 276 Voluntary System, I., 51-53 York Congress, L, 146 Spencer. Lord, L, 212 ; IL, 133, 159, 2S9 St. Albans, liisliop; Claughton, IL, 123, M3 St. Asaph, Bi-ihop : Hughes, II., 59 St. David's, Bishop: Jones, IL, 59
Thirlwall, L, 215, 216, 221, 225, 228 Stanhope, Lord, I., 226, 232 Stanley, Dean, L, 186, 190; IL, 64, 70, 132, 156, 160, 161, 180, 247 Lord— .see Derby Stephens, Mr., L, 97, 150, 183, 184, 185, 187-
190 ; IL, 7, 14 Stopford, Archdeacon, I., 89, 156, 178, 186, 188, 190. 211. 255
Stonghton, Dr., I., 287 ; IL, 143 Suffragan Bi.sbop, IL, 210, 248, 251, 306,312 Suicide, Letter on, IL, 46 Sullivan, Sir E., L, 171, 207, 224
Tait — see London and Canterbury Talbot, Mr. J., IL, 50-52, 54, 58, 97 Temperance, IL, 43-46, 91, 92, 122-124, 217, 233, 275
Theological Colleges, IL, 60, 268 Thicknesse, Bishop, IL, 71, 125, 165, 168,
181, 251, 263 Thornton, Mr., IL, 164, 205 Todd, Dr., L, 171 ; IL, 183 Tooth, Mr., IL, 41, 62, 64, 66, 87 Tottenliara, Mr., I., 34, 42 Tuwnseud,Mr., I., £9, 74, 75, 86, 104, 141,1 43, 159, 198, 227, 282 ; IL, 180, 187, 188 Trench — see Dublin Trevelyan, Sir G., IL, 231, 236 T:uro, Bishop: Benson, IL, 180
Wilkinson, IL, 223, 286 Tuam, Bishop: Bernard, I., 178, 179
riunket, I., 11 Tyndall, Professor, IL, 11, 23, 80, 81
VrsTMENT.s, Use of, IL, 34, 64, 82, 90, 302 Vnicentian Rule of Faith, II., 102-108
Wace, Dr., IL, 253, 266
Wales, Chancellor, L, 205 ; IL, 165, 205, 215
Prince of, I., 294 ; IL, 174, 247 Walker, Dr., IL, 124, 125, 194, 202,207,267, 287
Mrs. J., L, 47 vValpole, Mr., IL, 18, 36 Waterford, Lord, IL, 139, 173 Watson, Canon, IL, 185, 302 Webster, Dr., L, 102, 106, 248 Wellesley, Dean, I., 233, 234; IL, 183 Westbury, Lord, L, 250, 275 Westcott — see Durham Whately — see Dublin
Whiteside, Chief Ju.stlce, L, 89, 124, 130, 137,
139, 152, 169, 194 Wilberforce, Jlr. II., IL, 182, 183 see Oxford and Winchester Willcinson — see Truro
Winchester, Bishop : H. Browne, IL, 64, 122, 144, 154, 175, 180, 181, 222, 226 Thorold, IL, 304
Wilberforce, I., 257, 276, 287-289, 291, 296; IL, 55, 57, 123, 125, 181-184 Wodebouse — see Kimbcrley \\'ood — see Hiilifax
Worcester, Bishop: Philpott, IL, 127, 128
Perowne, II. , 301 Wordsworth — see Lincoln
Mr. C, IL, 69 / Wright, Mr., IL, 261
York, Archbishop : Thomson, I., 145, 201, 215, 216, 219, 225, 226, 228, 231, 250, 265 ; IL, 6, 8, 10, 15, 16, 49, 50-53, 55, 50, 59, 67-69, 88, 95, 96, 117, 132, 144, 155, 219, 221, 253, 232, 300, 309