Untitled - Electric Scotland

306 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. ML
upon the Book entitled Essays and Reviews." 1 But a
prosecution had in the meantime been set on foot in the
Court of Arches against two of the essayists, Dr. Williams
and Mr. Wilson. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the
Bishop of London would have to be judges
in the case
if an appeal should be made to the Privy Council, and
any further discussion by the Bishops was therefore out
of the question until the Courts of Law should have
pronounced
their decision.
The following scattered extracts from the Bishop s
Diary, which at that time dealt mainly with other matters,
give occasional glimpses of what he felt upon the subjects
in dispute.
Diary.
"BRIGHTON, \%thNov. 1860. I have been reading the Bishop
of St. David s pamphlet on Rowland Williams. 2
Very clever,
but not, I think, what a Bishop ought to write. It is a captious
answer to the eccentric professor, when what the Church desires
is a bold and clear positive statement. But the invaluable part
of it is the virtual declaration I have for many years studied
these difficulties attentively, I have felt their full force. I know
all that has been written about them in Germany. I believe
they are vanity and folly.
u LONDON HOUSE, 6th Jan. 1861. I have taken in hand to
publish a newr and revised edition of my Suggestions, with
reference to the Essays and Rtviews. This takes a good deal
of time.
" O Lord, grant me for this new year a more earnest faith,
a greater spirit of prayer, a heart and imagination more pure,
through Jesus
Christ. Amen."
1 The Resolution was carried by thirty-one votes against eight. Chronicle
of Convocation, June 20, 1861, pp. 743-814.
- A volume of sermons published by Dr. Rowland Williams had been
criticised and censured by Bishop Thirlwall in his Charge of 1857. Dr.
Williams had replied in a vehement pamphlet, and the Bishop thereupon in
a further pamphlet reviewed the whole case and dealt with Dr. Williams
theories in detail. It is this last pamphlet which Is here alluded to.