Untitled - Electric Scotland

i86o-68] BISHOP TAIT AND THE RITUALISTS 413
ambiguity to exist which betrays the unwary. Men are very
willing to obey laws when they understand what they are, but
when you make them such that no human being can say what
they mean, those who have the power of making the laws plain
are much to blame in permitting that ambiguity to remain." 1
After a long and memorable debate Bishop Tait s
resolution in a modified form was adopted by the Bishops,
with only one dissentient, and was sent to the Lower
House for its concurrence. The debate which there arose
upon it was not concluded when the prorogation took
place. When Convocation reassembled on June 3Oth.
the Ritual Commissioners had issued their second Report,
and the debate- -by request of the Archbishop was
accordingly allowed to drop. 2
It will be observed that in the foregoing speech the
Bishop claimed that he had always
"
acted in a large
"
towards the Ritualistic clergy in his
and kindly spirit
diocese. It may be right to see how far his statement is
borne out by facts. The events and arguments which
this chapter has hitherto chronicled were of a general and
public sort, and it has sometimes been maintained that
while the Bishop spoke smooth things and claimed a tole
rant spirit in his utterances to the world at large, he was
all the while worrying and even persecuting those of his
own clergy who adopted an elaborate ritual in their
churches.
Correspondents of the Church newspapers in those
years were constantly reiterating such a charge. The
Bishop is described, for example, as "a tyrant
weak and a sycophant to the strong
"
;
or again, as
to the
"
that
ecclesiastical bully, the Presbyterian -minded Bishop of
London, who with all his professions of large-heartedness
and toleration, has shown himself to be as narrow-minded
1 Chronicle of Convocation, i8th February 1868, pp. 1056, etc.
2 Ibid. 30th June 1868, p. 1374.