Untitled - Electric Scotland

1866-68] REPLIES TO BISHOP TAIT 373
A few weeks later Bishop Gray wrote sending further
information, and added :
"
I must again express my regret that your Lordship should
have forced upon the consideration of parties not very well able to
understand the questions at issue, matters of very great moment
to the future welfare of the Church."
Bishop Tait replied :
"
I am sorry that you should feel aggrieved by anything which
I have thought it my duty to say or do in reference to the very
grave and anxious questions which, arising at the Cape and in
Natal, have threatened seriously to affect the Church at home,
and alter its whole position as we have received it from past
times. I feel sure that if I saw you I could remove from your
mind any unpleasant impressions which late events have made
upon you in reference to the line adopted by myself and a very
large and influential portion of the Church at home. It is im
portant that we should each remember how very grave are the
points at issue, and give each other full credit for conscientious
adherence to principle. I am in full hopes that I may see you
at Fulham in September, and I believe the discussions at Lam
beth will, by God s blessing, lead to good results."
It was only from South Africa that the Bishop received
other than friendly replies, and even from the Diocese of
Capetown some of the clergy wrote to him a joint letter
in opposition to the views of their Diocesan :-
" We are fully persuaded," they said,
"
that it is most desir
able, as a means of keeping up the unity of the Church, that all
her Bishops in the Colonies, without exception, should receive
mission from, and take the oath of Canonical obedience to, the
See of Canterbury. If the claim put forward by the Bishop of
Capetown, to have his decisions as Metropolitan regarded as
final, be allowed, if, in other words, as he affirms, there is no
appeal to any court on earth from a judgment which he may pro
nounce as Metropolitan, it is evident that the Suffragan Bishops
of the Province are in a far worse position than the humblest
Priest in pre-Reformation times : he at least had an appeal to