LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE BISHOP OF MANCHESTER AND MR. GREEN.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR." j
Sia,—In a metaphor, borrowed from the Book of the Revela- tion, the Bishop of Manchester charges me with having "poured the last vial of my wrath "upon his head. But, surely, he can hardly thiuk that this is the case. I have never failed to express a sincere respect for much of his conduct as a Bishop ; and while complaining that he has unhappily furthered a pro- secution which he had himself stigmatised, I have charged him with nothing worse than that absolute conviction that he can- not commit an error which seems to be an article of Faith with some of our Bishops, as being (I presume) the nearest approach which, as good Protestants, they can venture upon, to the doc- trine of Infallibility.
I cannot, however, think that the Bishop, in his long letter of last Saturday, has shown himself either a clear-sighted or a very ingenuous opponent. My whole charge against him had been that it was unwise and uncharitable to use officially con- temptuous expressions, such as "posing as a martyr," but being really "an anarchist and a bad citizen," in such a man- ner that (whether he intended it or not) his audience were sure
to apply them to the case of one of his own clergy. Playing on the word " case,".with a double entendre so obvious that one can scarcely avoid a smile, the Bishop answers that he "could not" have alluded to "a case" which was not yet before the Courts. I never dreamed of saying that it was; or, rather, I distinctly implied that it was not. But it was on the point of being so, and the whole subject was at that moment one of notoriety. And when the Bishop goes on to say that no one at that time dreamed of "applying the passage to. Mr. Green," I may, perhaps, be allowed to quote the words of one out of several letters which I have received from his own clergy, that "such an astonishing assertion "fairly " takes one's- breath away."
It is hardly necessary to say more on this subject, on which I hope not to trouble you again. But I may add one further remark. The Bishop of Manchester has, I think, both need- lessly and daringly gone out of his way to charge the most venerable and distinguished writer of the English Church, Dr.. Pusey, with inciting the clergy to disobey the law. Dr. Pasey, indeed, needs no defence from me. But before making this. charge, the Bishop of Manchester would have done well to remember that no persons have shown so entire an indiffer- ence to the law which they themselves laid down in the Pnrchas case, through their representative, the Archbishop of York, as- the majority of the Bench of Bishops.—I am, Sir, itc., Deanery, Durham., March 22nd. W. C. I.JMLE.
Previous page
