Untitled - Electric Scotland

i 94 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. ix.
headmaster had lain outside the groove of ecclesiastical
organisation, and even at Carlisle he had had little oppor
tunity of taking part in the solution of the wider Church
problems, or the general ordering of Church affairs.
Of duties strictly pastoral he had had ample experience
in his voluntary work, first at Baldon and then at Car
lisle, and as a preacher, thoughtful and earnest rather
than brilliant, he had already some reputation. But he
was unknown upon religious platforms, either in London
or elsewhere ; he had scarcely ever attended a clerical
meeting ; he had never sat in Convocation ; and he found
himself regarded with a certain suspicion by many of his
clerical friends, who looked askance upon his association
with the *
sacrilegious Whigs/ About strictly Episcopal
work he knew absolutely nothing, and it was startling
therefore to others besides himself to see him placed quite
suddenly at the head of the largest diocese in the world,
as the successor of one of the most remarkable Bishops
of our time. To succeed Bishop Blomfield would have
been a formidable task for any man. His indomitable
energy, his penetrating intelligence, and his ready elo
quence and wit, added to his keen business habits and
his organising genius, had gone far to change men s view
of the English Episcopate, and Churchmen were now
wondering who could be found to take up his mantle,
and to occupy his commanding place.
Public attention had been directed to the subject by
the important debates in both Houses of Parliament upon
the question of Bishop Blomfield s resignation. No
arrangement had up
to that time been in existence
whereby an aged or infirm Bishop could suitably
resign his See ; and a special Act of Parliament was
passed in 1856 to authorise the retirement, on a
suitable pension, of the Bishops of London and