Untitled - Electric Scotland

264 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. xi.
an experiment, not perhaps consonant with the general feeling
of the Church, but yet one which they thought might result
in great good. No doubt Episcopal disapproval might have
induced the clergy of London to cease to take part in these
services, but he felt that the responsibility would have been grave
indeed of expressing such disapproval in the face of a mass of
human beings whom either they or their forefathers had hitherto
sorely neglected. Could they dare they call upon the clergy,
either by inhibitions or by other means, to refrain from minister
ing to these persons ? He was not prepared to say that he went
entirely with the movement. There were some things in it
which he did not like, but as regards the objection which was
entertained to using places of theatrical entertainment, he did
not know whether one result of this movement might not be that
theatres would themselves become something better than they
had ever been before. He begged their Lordships not to go
away with the impression that, because this great experiment was
being tried, no other efforts were being made in the same direc
tion. True, they must wait long
before sufficient churches
could be built, but they need not despair on that account ; and
meanwhile, it would be well if those who felt strongly against this
movement would see that the churches we already had were
thrown open to the poor as freely as possible. It might be very
difficult to lure them in, but at present they were not lured in,
but locked out. No idea seemed to be more deeply ingrained
in the minds of many officials of our parishes than that the
abject poor had no right to accommodation in our churches. In
this and other ways perhaps important results might
this movement. They were not to accept
flow from
it as the best which
could be imagined ; but that it had been productive of good few
could doubt, and he hoped that many other efforts of a kindred
nature might be made." 1
One subject with which the Bishop set himself to grapple
in 1858 was the question of Sunday labour. The time
had come, he thought, for a distinct and outspoken protest
on the part of the clergy and laity of the Church against
the increase of Sunday work in the Metropolis. He
1 See Hansard, Feb. 24, 1860, p. 1692, etc.