Untitled - Electric Scotland

i86i-66] LKTTKR TO ARCHBISHOP LONG LEY 341
it necessary for me to state publicly to your Grace the reasons
on which I have felt it incumbent on me to dissent from a large
majority of my brethren.
"
Individual Bishops may, I conceive, properly enough prevent
the Bishop of Natal from officiating in their dioceses if they think
he is likely to do so, and that evil will arise ; but such an inhibi
tion publicly announced as proceeding from the united body of
so many Bishops, whatever distinctions may be attempted to be
drawn, cannot, in my view, be regarded otherwise than as a
sentence, and that of a very severe character. The Bishop of
Oxford s motion has therefore appeared to me unwise, and, to say
the least, nearly approaching injustice. Unwise, because by in
flicting a highly penal sentence on the Bishop of Natal s person
as the very first step in dealing with his book, it must in all pro
bability enlist a large amount of sympathy on his side. Unwise
indeed, because it has so much the appearance of being unjust.
It must, I fear, degrade the sacred office of a judge, supposed to
be held in this case by your Grace and the Metropolitan of Cape
town, if not by others of our body. For it will appear as if the
judges either desire to close the case prematurely by inflicting a
very severe punishment without any bonafide intention of having
their decision revised through further legal proceedings, or arc
preparing to enter on their further judicial functions pledged to
a sentence of condemnation, not only against the book, but the
person of its author.
"
My opinion is that at present the wisest course would have
been for each Bishop to deal with the existing scandal according
to his own discretion, having regard to the circumstances of his
own diocese, though I should have been ready also, had it
appeared well to my brethren, to adopt and publish such a united
resolution as that proposed by the Bishop of Winchester, to the
purport that, having regard to the judicial character of several of
their body, the Bishops, while deeply deploring the Bishop of
Natal s conduct, felt precluded, under the peculiar circumstances
ot the case, from pronouncing at this stage of the proceedings an
opinion which could be construed into a sentence.
Looking then with as much disfavour as any of my -brethren
nn what I am fain to call the rash and arrogant speculations of
the Bishop of Natal, and being ready to take any legitimate
opportunity of refuting his arguments to the best of my ability,
and of warning the people committed to my care against his