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COEEESPONDENCD.

I.

The Primate to the Warden.

Armagh,

My dear Mr. Warden, October 25, 1853.

It is with much pain that I sit down to write to
you on the present occasion ; but I feel it my duty to
do so, in consequence of my having seen a circular
to which your name is affixed, in conjunction with
the names of persons krtown for their extreme
opinions in Church matters, requesting signatures to
be procured to a Memorial to the Eastern Patriarchs,
in which a censure is passed on the conduct of the
Bishop of Jerusalem. My attention was called to
this docum.ent a short time ago by the Archbishop of
Dublin ; and on Saturday last I received a note from
the Rev. W. D. Veitch, written by the desire of the
x\rchbishop of Canterbury, enclosing a copy of a
statement prepared by the Committee of the Jeru-
salem Bishopric Fund.

Your name being the only one connected with
Ireland in the list of signatures, must necessarily

B

attract particular observations, and the more so, on
account of the responsible office which you fill. In my
endeavours to establish and to maintain the Collecre
of S. Columba, I have had serious difficulties from
without to contend against ; and in the internal
management of its concerns, untoward circumstances
have arisen which have caused me much trouble and
anxiety. Of these annoyances I have never com-
plained. I have always looked with hopefulness to
the establishment of this College as a means, under
the Divine blessing, of effecting an improvement in
the system of classical education in this country.
But when it now appears before the public that the
Warden takes a lead in a fresh agitation of the
English Church, and prominently unites himself with
those who are well known to be persons of ultra
opinions on ecclesiastical affairs, I am not aware of
any mode but one by which I can free the College
from the imputation of being an institution in which
the views of this section of the Church are incul-
cated,— views which, for my own part, I disapprove
of, and which, therefore, I cannot allow it to be
supposed that I lend any assistance in propagating.
I feel, then, that under these circumstances your
continuing to preside over the College could not
conduce to its interests ; and as you intimated to me,
on your being appointed to the office of Warden, that
you would not hold the situation except with my
full approval of your course of proceeding, I deem it
due to myself, to you, and to the College, to say,

(and it is with deep regret I do so,) that in my judgment
it would be desirable that you should withdraw from
the office which you now fill. The approaching
Christmas vacation would probably be the least in-
convenient time for making such a change ; and
between this and Christmas I shall be able to decide
whether I shall continue to give my aid in main-
taining the College longer in existence, or whether
I shall resign my connexion with it, as its Visitor and
Patron.

I am,

My dear Mr. Warden,

Yours faithfully,

JOHN G. ARMAGH.

II.

The Warden to the Primate.

S. Columba's College,
My Lord, October 2^,l^^2,.

I AM so stunned by the communication which I
have this morning received, that I must beg your
Grace's permission to defer my reply for a few days,

I have the honour to remain,
My Lord,
Your Grace's faithful Servant,

GEORGE WILLIAMS.
B 2

III.

The Warden io the Primate.

S. Columba's College,
My Lord, November 2, 1853.

I AM sorry to be obliged to trespass on your
Grace's patience a few days longer; but it is due
first to your Grace, and then to the College and to
myself, that I should act with the utmost deliberation
in this very grave and momentous business.

I have the honour to remain.
My Lord,
Your Grace's faithful Servant,

GEORGE WILLIAMS.

IV.

The Warden to the Primate.

S. Columba's College,
My Lord November ^, 185 3.

Permit me to assure your Grace that if my own
private feelings and character only were at stake, I
should be satisfied to reply to your letter of the 25th
ult. by simply putting my resignation into your
Grace's hands; but as several questions of great
public interest are involved in the considerations
which it raises, I must crave your indulgence while I
reply at length to your communication.

^'^'^

In the first place, I must beg your Grace to con-
sider that the possible and even probable consequence
of compliance with such a requisition from one in
your exalted station, would be the utter and irre-
trievable ruin of all the earthly prospects of a person
in my position ; and although I well know that nothing
can be further removed from your Grace's wish
than to do me any injury, yet this fact does not
diminish at all the severity of the measure on your
part ; while the circumstance that I am exempt
from its worst consequences, makes it, perhaps,
more incumbent upon me to regard it in its bearings
upon others, who might not be so happily circum-
stanced as myself.

Next, I must submit that I have great reason to
complain that, without a word of previous inquiry
from me as to the circumstances attending that act
which you disapprove, your Grace should have called
upon me to resign the trust which I hold, for causes
quite unconnected with my administration of the
Wardenship of S. Columba*s College.

Had your Grace vouchsafed such inquiry, it would
have been in my power to have stated, that the inser-
tion of my name on the Committee for circulating
the Memorial to the Oriental Patriarchs had no
sanction from me, either directly or indirectly; and
that I have taken no part whatever in circulating
that paper, or in procuring signatures to it. These
assurances I now spontaneously give to your Grace,
although I did not think fit to volunteer any expla-

6

nation in the columns of a newspaper, in reply to an
attack of which I have only heard, and which I did
not care to see.

I must add, however, in all honesty, that although
I gave no authority for the insertion of my name on
the Committee, and very much regretted it, I did not
repudiate or withdraw it, when it was too late to
prevent its publication ; partly, because I knew that
whatever mischief it could do would be past remedy,
and that my motives for withdrawal would be almost
sure to be misconstrued ; but chiefly, because I felt
that it would be cowardly to shrink from the respon-
sibility of a measure in which I was bound to take a
special interest, although in my present position I
had wished to remain entirely passive.

With regard to the Memorial itself, I consider
myself fully pledged to its general contents, and feel
that I, at least, have no option but to make it the
medium of expressing to the Eastern Prelates, that
my individual sentiments on the subject to which
it relates, still continue to be in accordance with
those contained in the Commendatory Letter of
the late Archbishop of Canterbury, of which I
was, in my official capacity, the bearer to many
of them.

My Lord, my opinion on Bishop Gobat's proceed-
ings in Palestine have never been made a secret of
by me ; I published it fully to the world at a time
when they- had attracted no public attention, more
than a year before your Grace honoured me with

this appointmer.t. It was not my fault if my senti-
ments were not clearly understood. The following
language is, I apprehend, very unambiguous.

After fully detailing the proceedings of Bishop
Gobat, in his own words, I thus conclude : —

" As it has been my lot, in the course of Divine
Providence, to declare to three of the Patriarchs,
and other distinguished Prelates of the Orthodox
Churches of the East, the good faith of our own Me-
tropolitan, and the friendly disposition of the Anglican
Church, it is my duty to enter my protest, valeat
quantum, against this aggressive policy, as a direct
violation of the terms on which the Anglican Bishop-
ric at Jerusalem zi)as established." — Holy City, vol. ii.
p. 616 (note on p. 596).

I liad no right to suppose that a fresh avowal of
opinions, which I had expressed so plainly and
decidedly in my published writings in 1849, and which
were not held to disqualify me for an appointment in
1850, would be made the ground of my removal in
1853. It might have been anticipated that I should
avail myself of every opportunity of repeating —
especially to the aggrieved parties — my sense of an
injustice, which I v\'as known to feel so keenly, and
with such good reason.

Your Grace is aware that I was appointed by tlii
late Archbishop of Canterbury to accompany Bishop
Alexander to Jerusalem. I had an opportunity of
learning his Grace's sentiments with reference to this
question of aggression on the Dioceses of the Oriental

8

Bishops, not only from bis Commendatory Letter,
but from conversations at two private interviews with
which he honoured me before I went out. When
I found, on the spot, that the Prelates, both of the
Greek and Armenian Rite, mistrusted the friendly
professions of the Archbishop's letter, dreading —
what has since come to pass — a repetition of the
practices of the emissaries of the Church of Rome,
and of the American Congregationahsts, it was my
duty to repudiate the notion of dishonesty with all
the earnestness of one who had full faith in the
integrity and uprightness of that revered and
lamented Primate. Among the dignified ecclesiastics
to whom I personally guaranteed, with my Bishop's
sanction, the good faith of the English Church, were
the late Greek Patriarch of Antioch, the then Arme-
nian Patriarch of Jerusalem, and the present Greek
Patriarch of Jerusalem : and these protestations I
afterwards repeated to the Greek Patriarch of Con-
stantinople, and to many ecclesiastics of the Church
in Russia.

Well then might I be expected to be foremost to
protest against a course of proceeding which is even
avowed to be opposed to the original instructions of
Bishop Alexander, and to the professions made
through him to the Oriental Churches; and as I
never understood that one condition of my tenure
of this office w^as to ignore my own identity and
antecedents, or to abstain from any further con-
nexion with matters in which I had become so

I

deeply implicated, I must maintain that I was at
liberty to make that protest according to my own
discretion.

Had I not stipulated for such freedom of thought
and action prior to my appointment, I yet should
have hoped that the perfect independence and irre-
sponsibility of one in my position, except in matters
relating to the instruction and well-ordering of the
School, had been so lately vindicated by Dr. Arnold,
that I could have nothing to dread on that ground ;
and I am bound to maintain that principle, as he did,
at any sacrifice of personal feeling, as a duty to every
Schoolmaster in the United Kingdom, and to the
cause of Education generally.

But your Grace reminds me that " I intimated to
you on my being appointed to the office of Warden,
that I would not hold the situation except with your
fall approval of my course of proceeding." I cannot
question the accuracy of your Grace's memory, but I
must be permitted to say that my words are stretched
veryfar beyond any meaning that I could have attached
to them, as I never contemplated the possibility of their
being applied to acts entirely apart from the duties of
my office, and in no way connected with the College.
I should have merited your contempt, if I could so
far have surrendered my independence of mind and
liberty of action. Your Grace could scarcely expect
or desire any person of any education or position in
society to do so.

But I may take the liberty to remind your Grace

10

that, on an occasion when the province of Visitor
was extended beyond its legitimate bounds, as pre-
scribed by the Statutes then in force, I raised no
question of jurisdiction, because the point then
submitted to your Grace did relate to my conduct in
my office ; but the moment I had reason to believe
that you disapproved of my course of proceedings, I
offered to resign, (April 9, 1S51,) and as soon as you
had declared your disapproval, I voluntarily sent in
my resignation, (April 24.)

It should also be remembered, that since my
appointment, a new code of Statutes has received
your Grace's sanction as Visitor, in the Xllth of
which provision is made for proceeding against a
Warden charged with holding opinions contrary to
the teaching of the United Church of England and
Ireland, as at present established.

While I owe it to my own position and character,
not to plead guilty to this grave charge, implied in
your Grace's letter, (of which I protest my entire
innocence,) and while my resignation would justly be
regarded as equivalent to putting forward that plea ;
I owe it equally to the Fellows, not to allow the
invasion of their province and functions by an
exercise of the Visitatorial jurisdiction contrary to
the constitution of the College.

The sum of my offence, as I understand it, is this
— That in a matter of public interest, on which I
had plainly declared my convictions, in my pubhshed
writings, in 1849, — and in which I am personally con-

11

cerned as no one else is, — I have abstained from all
action of any kind, and have been content to remain
entirely passive, even vvlien my silence was liable to
be misconstrued into complicity with acts which I
considered dishonourable ; but that when my name
had been used without my knowledge or authority,
and, as I now learn, " by mistake," I remained
passive still and would not withdraw it, because I
felt that to do so would be an act of extreme moral
cowardice.

Such is my offence ; and for this your Grace calls
upon me to resign, on the ground of an engagement,
of which I have no recollection, and which I certainly
should not have felt at liberty to make in the sense
in which I am now required to perform it.

My Lord, I came here at your Grace's earnest
desire, from a sphere of comparative ease and secu-
rity. You know something, though very little, of
what I have had to contend with, in every way, in my
endeavours to perform the duty here assigned me, and
to make this School a fit place of education for the
sons of Christian gentlemen. How far I Ijave succeeded
it is not for me to judge. If I have to any extent, it
is, I feel, a cause of deep thankfulness, and an ample
recompense for all I have endured; and however
painful it might be to relinquish a post in which I am
now permitted to see some fruit of three years* most
anxious labour, it would ever be a satisfaction to me
to reflect that my removal was occasioned by a pro-
test against what I must ever regard as a plain viola-

12

tion of positive engagements on the part of Bishop
Gobat.

But I cannot believe, unless I learn it from your-
self, that your Grace would wish me to resign for
such an offence, and on the gi'ound of a promise
taken in a sense which I never so much as contem-
^plated, without a further explanation and a clearer
understanding of the circumstances attending that
implied promise than has hitherto taken place.

I trust I may be pardoned one remark on the
extremely embarrassing position in which I am placed
towards the parents of the boys committed to my
charge, as well as towards those gentlemen to whose
zealous cooperation and support I am so largely
indebted for any measure of success that has at-
tended my exertions in this place, by the fact,
that while your Grace calls upon me to resign my
appointment, you intimate a doubt whether, even
in that event, you will continue your connexion with
the College.

In conclusion, I must be permitted to express my
deep regret, t^at my constant uniform endeavours to
conduct an Institution, which was calculated to be-
come a great national blessing, on the principles
on which it was first established, and on which
alone I consented to become connected with it,
so as to secure your Grace's confidence, have been
counteracted, by circumstances which I could not
control.

That God may recompense to you a thousand-fold

13

your past care for His children in this place, and
your great goodness to myself, is, and shall be, the
prayer of.

My Loud,

Your Grace's faithful Servant,

GEORGE WILLIAMS.

ENCLOSURES IN No. IV.

(I.)
The Warden to Mr. Fowler.

S. Columba's College,

Reverend Sir, Odoher 26, 1S53.

Will you be so good as to inform me, at your
early convenience, whether you had any authority
from me, direct or indirect, for inserting my name
on the Committee for procuring signatures to the
Memorial to the Oriental Patriarchs.

I am.

Rev. Sir,

Yours faithfully,

GEORGE WILLIAMS.

The Bev. C. A. Fowler,
Crawley, Sussex,

14

(II.)

Mr. Fowler to the Warden,

TVoRXHixG, Sussex,

Reverend Sir, October 30, 1853.

I BEG to acknowledge the receipt of your letter,
and lose no time in replying to it, to say that you
never did give me any authority for putting your
name on the Committee in question, " neither direct
nor indirect" There must be some mistake. I am
very sorry that it has happened.

I beg to remain.

Truly yours,

C. A. FOWLER.
Rev. G. Williams.

V.

The JFarden to the Primate,

S. CoLiiMBA.'s College,
My Lord November 11, 1853.

In case your Grace should require a further ex-
planation of the long delay of my answer, I beg per-
mission respectfully to inform you, that independently
of the reason mentioned in my note of the 2d instant,
I was daily expecting some further communications
from England, which have not even yet arrived.

15

I did not consider them so material to my case as
to warrant further delay, although they may be of
importance to clear up one point, on which I have at
present no certain information ; on which account it
was that I ventured to trespass on your Grace's
patience longer than I had wished or intended to do.

I have the honour to remain.
My Lord,
Your Grace's faithful Servant,

GEORGE WILLIAMS.

VI.

The Primate to the Warden.

Akmagh,
Dear Sir, November 11, 1853.

I HAVE given to your letter of the 9th inst. the
fullest consideration in my power; and in replying
to it, I beg to recal to your recollection the reason
I assigned, in my letter of the 25th ult., for the
opinion I expressed, that it would be desirable that
you should withdraw from the office you hold in the
College of S. Columba. That reason I stated to be
your having appeared before the pubhc as a leader
in a fresh agitation of the English Church, and your
having prominently united yourself with those who
are well known to be persons of ultra views on eccle-
siastical affairs ; the necessary consequence of which

16

would be, that the College would be regarded as an
institution in which the peculiar views of this section
of the Church are inculcated, — views which I disap-
prove of, and which I cannot allow the public to
suppose that I lend any assistance in propagating.

You have not said anything in your letter which
would remove this imputation from the College ; for
you have not disclaimed in any way your concur-
rence and sympathy with the party alluded to, whose
proceedings of late years have been, in my judg-
ment, most injurious to the peace and welfare of the
Church, You assert that you have great reason to
complain of my not having inquired from you as
to the circumstances attending the appearance of
your name in the hst of the Committee, before I
called on you to resign the trust which you hold, for
causes unconnected with your administration of the
Wardenship. But I must observe, that no explana-
tion of those circumstances, if you could have given
a satisfactory one to myself privately, could possibly
undo the mischief which the College sustained in
the eyes of the public by your standing forth iden-
tified with the leaders of an extreme party in the
Church.

It was because this mischief admitted but of one
remedy, that I pointed out to you the course which
I thought the interest of the College required you
to adopt.

You inform me that it was without your know-
ledge, and without previously obtaining your consent.

17

that your name was placed on the Committee ; yet,
so far from having taken care to let this be known,
a letter of yours to the Rev. R. S. Brooke, (which
at your desire was shown to me, and which bears the
same date as your letter to the Rev. C. A. Fowler,)
assures him that your signature was attached to the
document to which he alluded, by your authority, —
that document (the only document in which your
name appeared before the pubhc) being the list of
the Committee.

Had you immediately on the publication of your
name, written directions to withdraw it, and publicly
stated the reasons which induced you to abstain from
acting on that Committee, namely, that you could
not permit it to be inferred that you were one of
the party whose leaders occupy tlie foremost place in
this movement, your motives would not then have
been liable to be misconstrued, and the ill effects
of the publication of your name would have been
obviated, and the fact that you had, as an indi-
vidual, published your sentiments respecting Bishop
Gobat, would have secured you from a charge of
" cowardice " in declining to take a leading part in
the present instance, should any one have been dis-
posed to prefer such a charge against you.

You seem to think that because you stated your
opinion of Bishop Gobat's conduct in the second
volume of your work published in 1850,1 therefore
ought to have anticipated that you would join in the
Memorial now in circulation. I confess, however.

18

that the perusal of your statement in your first
volume, p. 451, respecting the erroneous doctrines
which have obtained *' the unanimous consent of the
whole Church of the East," did not prepare me to
find your name affixed to a document which inti-
mates that the Eastern Churches are regarded by
the Memorialists as not " corrupting the Apostohc
doctrines." In the part of your work to which I
refer, the " Seven Sacraments," " Transubstantia-
tion," *' Purgatory," the '^ adoration of pictures," the
*' worship of hyperdidia to the blessed Virgin, and
that of dul'ia to the holy Angels and to all Saints,"
are mentioned as being author tatively approved by
the Churches, to the governors of whicii the Me-
morial is addressed ; and that a body of clergymen
who have subscribed our Thirty-nine Articles of
Religion, and who hold their preferments by virtue
of that subscription, should publish a statement
which implies that they do not view the errors above
meiitioned as being " corruptions of the Apostolic
doctrines," is in my opinion a circumstance much to
be deplored.

You intimate to me that, inasmuch as the course
which you have taken did not relate to " the in-
struction and well ordering of the school," it was an
unwarrantable interference with your independence
as a Schoolmaster for me to address to you such
a communication as my letter of the 25th ultimo.
I cannot admit the principle which you thus lay
down, that the course adopted by the Schoolmaster

19

of a school in regard to public affairs beyond the
precincts of his school, is not to be subject to the
cognizance of the Patron and higher authorities of
the Institution. Were a Head Master to embark in a
scheme of political agitation, such an act of indis-
cretion would plainly indicate that the person who
committed it was not possessed of the solid judg-
ment, the forbearance, and the quiet devotion to the
business of his office, which are so requisite in one
to whom the character of youth is entrusted ; and
the injury to the School which would result from it,
would fully justify the interference of its Patron.
And when a Head Master comes before the public
as a leader in a new ecclesiastical agitation, the well-
judging portion of the community will, I am con-
fident, coincide with me in opinion, that such a
person manifests a want of discretion that must mih-
tate against the welfare of the School : and in the
particular case before me, the School thereby be-
comes liable to the suspicion, which I have already
adverted to, of being a place in which the extreme
opinions of those with whom the Master has allied
himself are inculcated.

You are of course aware, that on a former occasion,
previous to your appointment, I found it necessary
to interfere for the purpose of freeing the College of
S. Columba from what was in a similar way injurious
to it ; and both at the time I gave my sanction to
your filling the office of Warden, and on other oppor-
tunities which offered, I have very distinctly informed

c2

20

you that I would give no countenance to the intro-
duction into that College of the peculiar views and
observances of the agitating party in the Church to
which I allude. I can assure you I feel that you are
only doing me justice when you say that nothing could
he furtlier removed from my thoughts than to do you
an injury. But I do not perceive how your resigning
your situation now, at my desire, can have the effect
of involving you '' in utter and irretrievable ruin," any
more than when, on a former occasion, you stated
that "the moment you had reason to believe that I
disapproved of your course of proceeding, you offered
to resign, (April 9, 1851,) and as soon as I had de-
clared my disapproval, you voluntarily sent in your
resignation, (April 24.)"

In addressing my letter to you I have not violated
any of the Statutes of the College. Those Statutes do
not hinder me from forming my own opinion of the
Warden's conduct, and expressing that opinion to him.
In the exercise of the liberty which belongs to me,
I have stated to you that, in my judgment, your con-
tinuing in the office of Warden is not for the interests
of the College. That judgment is unaltered by the
explanation of your conduct which you have laid before
me. But whether it is your intention to act upon the
opinion which I have expressed, or not to do so, I am
not able to collect from your letter ; and I must
request you to let me know your decision without
further delay. I do not touch at present upon some
matters personal to myself, which are adverted to in

21

your letter, as my objecC is to confine my remarks to
the main points which are involved in our correspon-
dence.

I am,

Your faithful Servant,

JOHN G. ARMAGH.
The Rev. the Warden ofS. Culumba's.

VI.

The Warden to the Primate.

S. Columba's College,

My Lord A^o»^raie/'i2, 1853.

Your Grace's reiterated and yet more emphatic
charge against me of holding and inculcating extreme
opinions on ecclesiastical matters, leaves me no choice
but to call upon the Fellows to investigate the truth
of that charge ; and I respectfully decline to decide
upon the question of resignation until my character is
cleared from that imputation, or the charge is substan-
tiated according to the Xllth Statute of the College ;
in which latter case, your Grace, as Visitor, has the
absolute power of dismissal.

I will lose no time in laying the case before the
Fellows.

I beg permission to correct two inaccuracies in your
Grace's letter. 1 . My letter to Mr. Brooke, avowing
the signature to the " Memorial," bears date the 25th
of October, the date of your Grace's letter to me ;

22

and the note to Mr. Fowler, ♦concerning my appear-
ance on the " Committee," bears date the 26th of
October, the date of my acknowledgment of the
receipt of your letter, — in consequence of which it
was written.

2. I beg further to call your Grace's attention to the
fact that, in speaking of the possible consequences of
compliance with your request upon those "not so
happily circumstanced as myself," I expressly stated
that " I was myself exempt from these consequences."

I have the honour to remain,
Mt Lord,

Your Grace's faithful Servant,

GEORGE WILLIAMS, j

VII.

The Warden to the Primate.

S. Coltjmba's College,
My Lord, November 15, 1853.

I BEG to inform your Grace, that immediately on
the receipt of Mr. Fowler's reply to my note of the
26th ult., both which I enclosed on the 9th inst., I
wrote to him a second time, but have as yet received
no answer.

Failing of this, I wrote to Dr. Mill, and received
his reply only last night. I enclose a copy of my
note (I.), and the original of his reply, (II.)

23

I now beg distinctly to state, that Dr. Mill is the
only person with whom I had held any communication
whatever on the subject of the Memorial, prior to the
date of your Grace's letter, and that entirely of a
private nature ; that nothing whatever had passed
between us on the subject of the Committee ; and
that the only communication which I have received
from him on the subject of the Memorial, since I met
him in England early in July, was a request that
I would " write a statement of facts respecting the
Jerusalem Bishopric, in its aspect towards the Ortho-
dox Greek Communion," which I declined to do.

I yesterday wrote to the Fellows, calling upon them
to proceed to an investigation according to the Xllth
Statute of the College.

I have the honour to remain,
My Loud,
Your Grace's faithful Servant,

GEORGE WILLIAMS.

ENCLOSURES IN No. VII.

(I-)
TJie Warden to Dr. Mill.

S. Columba's College,
My dear Dr. Mill, November %l%bZ.

I RECEIVED a letter on the 25th ult. from a clergy-
man at Kingstown, a perfect stranger to me, informing
me that he *' had seen my name in an English news-
paper appended to a * Memorial to the Oriental

24

Patriarchs/ touching certain practices of the Bishop
of Jerusalem," and asking me " whether I had indeed
given my signature for such a purpose as that docu-
ment sets forth ?"

I had not myself seen any list of signatures to the
*' Memorial ;" but since Mr. Brooke mentioned it as
a fact, I assumed it to be so, and concluded that you
had anticipated what you may well have supposed to
be my wishes and intentions, and had affixed my name.

Assuming the fact, I accepted the signature, and
answered that " it was attached by my authority ;"
— as it was, if you had done it.

A subsequent letter from Mr. Brooke led me to
imagine that he was not very accurate, and suggested
doubts as to the fact which he had stated, and I had
assumed on his statement.^

It is not a matter of much importance, per se, but
circumstances have arisen which render it desirable
for me to know exactly how far I was committed to
the "^Memorial " on the 25th of October; and as no
one in England but yourself has any authority from
me, implied or expressed, to affix my name to it, I
shall feel obliged if you will inform me whether you
had done so before that date, or have done so since ?

I remain.
My dear Dr. Mill,

Yours most sincerely,

GEORGE IVILLIAMS.
The Mev.fF.H. Mill, D.D.,

Trinily College, Cambridge,

25

(II.)

Br. Mill to the Warden.

College, Ely,
My dear Williams, November 12, 1853.

I ONLY received this morning your letter of the 9th,
and lose no time in replying to it. It may seem
strange, but I really cannot tell whether your name
is on the list of those who subscribe the Address to
the Eastern Prelates, or not. Most certainly, if it is
there, it has been so placed, not by your desire
expressed by word or letter, but in consequence of
what the Secretary has heard from me, as sure of
your acquiescence in being so placed. You will
believe me when I say, that I would by no means
have expressed such security, unless I did at the time
really entertain it in my own mind. But I shall not
the less regret, if it be so, that it did not occur to me
to think there might be reasons for your withholding
your name, and to ask your express consent first.

I write by this post to Mr. Neale, who has all the
names, to write to you at once, whether yours is
among them ; and if so, whether (if he knows) it was
inserted before, or after the date you mention. This
will save the delay of its coming through me here, or
at Cambridge.

I came back but yesterday from London, where

2e

there has been a Committee for considering the
Declaration of the four Archbishops. I hope the Mi-
nute agreed on is not wanting in deference or respect
to their Graces' exalted station in the Church, while
disclaiming any intention of speaking authoritatively
ourselves; and hoping that the fault that may be
found with our proceeding will not prevent the Arch-
bishops, in conjunction with their Right Reverend
brethren, from noticing officially and removing the
scandal of which we think we have reason to
complain.

Believe me.

My dear Williams,

Yours very truly,

W. H. MILL.

27

VIII.

The Warden to the Fellows.

S. Columba's College,
Dear Sir, November \^,\%^z.

It is with extreme pain that I write to inform you,
that I have lately received from his Grace the Visitor
an intimation that, in his judgment, " my continuing
to preside over this College would not conduce to its
interests," and calling upon me '* to withdraw from
the office which 1 now fill," as the only mode " by
which he can free the College from the imputation of
being an Institution in which views which he dis-
approves of are inculcated."

It has appeared to me, on the most mature con-
sideration, that while compliance with his Grace's
suggestion, previous to inquiry, might seem to indi-
cate, on my part, a guilty consciousness, from which,
I thank God, I am entirely free ; and might be
regarded as equivalent to a plea of guilty to the grave
charge implied in his Grace's communications, — which
could not but be most injurious to my own character;
— it would be so far from clearing the College from
the imputation of being a place where erroneous
opinions are held and taught, that it would rather
serve to prove that there is no sufficient safeguard
against the introduction of such opinions, and no

28

constitutional check to their propagation in the
College ; for the tenor of my religious belief and
practice and teaching, is precisely now what it was
when I first came to the College, three years ago.

If, then, after my resignation, the Primate were to
withdraw his countenance from the College — (a con-
tingency which he contemplates, even in the event of
my resigning) — leaving the College under this stigma,
I should be justly chargeable with betraying, not only
its interests, but also the principles on which it was
instituted and has been conducted, and with which
you and all connected with it are identified.

This I have no right to do without your sanction ;
and I am therefore compelled, by a sense both of
public and private duty, to call upon the Fellows to
proceed, with as little delay as possible, to the in-
vestigation of the charge, according to the provisions
of the Xllth Statute of the College, a copy of which
I inclose.

The correspondence which has passed between his
Grace and myself shall be laid before you as soon as
possible.

I beg further to inform you, that the XXVth Statute
requires that meetings for the determination of all
such matters shall be held in the College ; but by the
XXIXth Statute it is provided, that a meeting for this
purpose may be held without my previous consent.

I must decline to suggest any course of proceeding
in a matter affecting my own conduct and character;
but I shall be happy to offer every facility in my

29

power for the investigation of the charge, and to
reply to any inquiries that you may think fit to
institute.

I remain.

Dear Sir,
Yours very faithfully,

GEOEGE WILLIAMS.

ENCLOSUHE IN No. VIIL
Statute XII. of 8. Columbas College.

" If the Warden shall be charged with immoral
conduct, or with holding opinions contrary to the
teaching of the United Church of England and Ire-
land, as at present established, or w'ith the commis-
sion of any criminal act, it shall be competent for the
Majority of the Fellows to call upon the Visitor to
inquire into the truth of such charges, and in the
event of such charges, or any of them, being proved
to the satisfaction of the Visitor, it shall be competent
for such Visitor to declare the said office of Warden
to be vacant, and it shall be so accordingly from the
date of such declaration."

APPENDIX.

CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. BROOKE, ALLUDED TO BY THE
PRIMATE, PAGE 17, AND BY THE WARDEN, PAGE 21.

I.

Mr. Brooke to the Warden.

Kingstown, Mariners' Episcopal Church,
Rev. Sir, October 24, 1853.

Having seen your name in an English newspaper appended to a
" Memorial to the Oriental Patriarchs," touching certain practices
of the Bishop of Jerusalem, will you permit me to ask if you have
indeed given your signature for such a purpose as that document
sets forth.

As I have been frequently asked for my opinion of the merits of

your College by parents in my congregation, I am naturally anxious

to have all the information I can collect, which I trust may account,

as well as apologise, for the intrusion.

I am. Rev. Sir, Your faithful Servant in Christ,

Eev. O. Williams, RICHARD S. BROOKE.

St. Columbd's College.

II.

The Warden to Mr. Brooke.

[Shown privately to the Primate by the Warden's desire, October 27th.]

S. Columba's College,
Reverend Sir, October 25, 1853.

In reply to your note of yesterday's date, I beg to say that my
signature was attached to the document to which you allude, by
my authority ; in explanation of which, — as I gather from your
note, that it seems to you to require an explanation, — permit me
to state the principal motives that induced me to sign the Memorial
to the Oriental Patriarchs. First, because I know that the pro-
ceedings of Bishop Gobat are in direct violation of the letter and
spirit of the instructions given to the late Bishop Alexander, as
embodied in the Metropolitan's Encyclical Letter to the Oriental
Prelates.

31

You are perhaps aware that I was appointed by the late Arch-
bishop of Canterbury to accompany Bishop Alexander to Jerusalem
as his Chaplain, in which capacity it was my duty, not only to com-
municate the letter to the Patriarchs and Bishops of the Eastern
Churches, but to assure them of tlie good faith of the English
Church, in the friendly professions contained in that letter ; and to
do my utmost to allay the apprehensions and remove the suspicions
of hostile intentions which they not unnaturally entertained, with
the sad experience of Papal aggression before their eyes. Inde-
pendently, therefore, of the conviction that our character for probity
and truthfulness has grievously suffered by this direct violation of
a solemn engagement, I have cause to feel personally aggrieved,
that pledges which I gave in the name of the English Church, and
with the knowledge and sanction of my Bishop, have been violated
by his successor.

Secondly, I am persuaded that the aggressive measures of Bishop
Gobat must prove a formidable hindrance to the reformation of the
Eastern Churches. I have no kind of sympathy with their mani-
fold errors, doctrinal and practical; and it is because I so heartily
desire to see these grievous blemishes removed, that I deeply regret
those ill-advised attempts to disturb the peace and unity of those
communities, the result of which must be to shake the confidence of
the people in their ecclesiastical superiors, from whom the reforma-
tion must proceed, if it is to be solid and permanent; nor was the
expectation of such a liappy change hopeless — however it may be
now. I knew many intelligent members of the Eastern Church,
who deplored its errors sincerely, and earnestly desired their
removal, and would have used all their influence to this end. The
effect of these anarchical proceedings can only be to disgust them,
and to counteract their endeavours.

Thirdly, I am convinced that any further divisions among the
Eastern Christians must expose them to still more fatal injury from
the attacks of the Church of Rome, which has already made terrible
havoc in those parts through the insidious assaults of the Jesuit
missionaries; and believing, as I do, that the united protest of
Eastern Christendom against the Papal claims, which it has main-
tained consistently and uniformly for so many centuries prior to
our reformation, is an important subsidiary argument against those
claims, I cannot regard but as exceedingly mischievous anything

32

that serves to weaken the front of tlu-ir battle in our common
cause. With these convictions, and in consideration of the part
which I was called to take in the first institution of the Bishopric,
I feel bound to avail myself of every opportunity of deprecating the
aggressive policy of Bishop Gobat ; and as I cannot choose my
company, I must act in concert with those who take the same view
of this particular case as myself.

I beg to offer you many apologies for having replied to your
note at so great length ; but I wished both to signify how heartily I
approve of the honest and straightforward course which you have
taken in addressing me directly on the subject, and also to show
that antecedent circumstances have imposed on me a special obli-
gation to adopt a course I knew would expose me to some obloquy,
and to be liable to be misinterpreted.

I remain, Kev. Sir, Yours f\iithfully,

GEORGE WILLIAMS.

III.

The Warden to Mr. Brooke.
[Also shown to the Primate by the Warden's desire]

S. Colcmba's College,
Rev. Sir October 27, 1853.

It may be important to guard against a possible misunderstand-
ing of my letter of the 2oth instant.

There have been, I believe, two documents circulated, " The
Memorial to the Oriental Patriarchs," and a Circular inviting signa-
tures to that Memorial.

I understood your question to relat^'to the Memorial itself; and
I answered it in that sense, because although I had not formally
sanctioned any one to affix my signature to that document, my
sentiments on the subject were so well known that I could not
object to its being done.

With regard to the other document, — which I understand has
been made the subject of an attack upon me in a Dublin paper —
I beg to say, that I never gave any authority to any one, directly
or indirectly, to place my name on the Committee for circulating
the Memorial, and very much regretted that it was done.
I am, Rev. Sir, Yours faithfully,

GEORGE WILLIAMS.

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