Untitled - Electric Scotland

i 3 o LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. v.
matter seemed intended audi tores makvolos facere. Every state
ment and every inference that could offend their prejudices,
irritate their vanity, or wound their self-respect, was urged with
the zeal of a candidate for martyrdom. . . . The speech over,
the Vice-Chancellor put the question.
counter roar of placets and non-placets.
There was a roar and
A scrutiny was ordered,
and the first resolution the censure of the passages from the
Ideal was carried by 777 to 391. The second the degrada
tion by a much smaller majority, 569 to 511. When the third
resolution was put, every eye was fixed on the two Proctors, who,
in virtue of their office, had a, constitutional veto upon every act
of the University. They rose, Mr. Guillemard and Mr. Church,
afterwards Dean of St. Paul s, and uttered the words which,
except on one memorable occasion [the Hampden case], no one
then living had ever heard pronounced in Convocation : Nobis
procuratoribus non placet?
In accordance with University rule a motion thus
negatived by the Proctors fell at once to the ground. To
the satisfaction with which this result was generally
received Dr. Tait s pamphlet had materially contributed.
Ward walked back from the theatre in company with Tait,
who had voted against him on the first count.
"
In the
course of this walk," we are told,
"
Tait warmly praised
the peroration of Ward s speech. Ward s reply was
characteristically
candid :
*
I am glad you liked it. These
rhetorical efforts are out of my line, but Stanley said there
should be something of the kind. He wrote it for me.
The virulence of the party spirit exhibited on each side
in this contest was to Archibald Tait a source of keen
distress. Writing to Arthur Stanley a few days after
the Convocation, he says :
"
I saw you at a distance on the
black Thursday a dreadful day, full of the most painful
thoughts of any day I have known for long, and making
me melancholy ever since."
1 For an account of the whole scene and its consequences, see W. G.
Ward and the Oxford Movement, chap. xiii.