Untitled - Electric Scotland

1860-64] A MEMORABLE PASSAGE-AT-ARMS 323
few days later. Lord Houghton in a carefully prepared
speech, bristling with precedents, asked the Lord Chan
cellor (Westbury) whether Convocation had not exceeded
its rights and exposed itself to penalties by this Act of
Condemnation. The Lord Chancellor in his reply referred
contemptuously to the condemnation as illegal, but not
worth noticing, and took the opportunity to make a per
sonal attack upon Bishop Wilberforce as its principal
author :
"The judgment," he said, "is simply a series of well-lubri
cated terms, a sentence so oily and saponaceous that no one
could grasp it like an eel it slips through your fingers, and
is simply nothing."
Bishop Wilberforce retorted in a scathing speech, de
livered at white heat, and while opinions differed as to its
Episcopal character, he was universally felt to have come
off victor in the combat. Bishop Tait, strongly as he had
in Convocation opposed the action of his colleagues, now
firmly supported the privileges of the sacred synod, and
his frank and helpful speech in defence of the rights of the
majority which had outvoted him drew the warmest
thanks from the gentle Archbishop Longley, whose pro
verbial courtesy and kindliness were never more severely
tested than during the progress of this tempestuous con
troversy.
Very little additional light is thrown by the Bishop s
diaries upon the closing episodes of these long discussions.
The following are among the occasional allusions to the
subject :
Diary.
February, 1864.- -To-morrow comes the final judgment
on the Essays and Reviews. The two Archbishops will dissent
from the judgment as to the first charge against Williams and
t