Untitled - Electric Scotland

1856] PROJECT FOR DIVIDING THE SEE 201
In reply to a letter from Mr. Golightly, the Bishop-
designate wrote :-
"
HALLSTEADS, 29^ September 1856.
" MY DEAR GOLIGHTLY, Yours is the sort of letter which it
is well for a man in my circumstances to receive. Your advice
as to the first hour of the day is, I truly believe, the only rule
for passing safely through the very many temptations which are
before me, and I shall strive to follow it. God s dealings with me
and mine during the last six months have been deeply mysterious,
and, suffering deeply as we do in our hearts from the grievous
loss of children who promised to be everything to us, we cannot
but feel ourselves distinctly in God s hands. If I could tell you
the story of our grief you would see what a call we have to look
upon this world as the merest pilgrimage. But all these soften
ing and holy impressions may in time wear away through the
pressure of business and the deep interest of the continued cycle
of great employments that seems to be before me. I therefore,
my dear friend, greatly need your prayers, and you will
fail to offer them. I know very well that I am exposed to
not
the
dangers you point out. In these difficult days it is certainly my
desire not to drive parties to extremes, but this I trust I may be
able to do without any compromise of truth. . . . Still I do love
a comprehensive toleration. The Bishop of Gloucester I do not
know the Bishop of Oxford I do. Our own Bishop of Carlisle
I highly regard as a heartily and truly religious man. To the
Archbishop I look with the deepest veneration, and he kindly
welcomes me as a friend. Yours very sincerely,
"A. C. TAIT.
" We
have still one boy and a little baby a great comfort
to our hearts."
Lord Palmerston s letter, it will be remembered, had
alluded to the possible division of the See of London into
two. In June 1855 a Royal Commission on Cathedrals
had reported in favour of the formation of nine new Sees
in England, one of them being Westminster, to be
separated from the See of London. The project had been
at first received with considerable favour, and the Arch-