Untitled - Electric Scotland

1863-67] THE REV. F. I). MAURICE 511
"
The Rev. F. D. Maurice to the Bishop of London.
Private.
U 5 RUSSELL SQUARE, Oct. 13, 1862.
"Mv DKAK LORD, A fortnight ago I had determined to
\vrite to your Lordship on the subject of this letter: fearing that
the diocese was about to be deprived of your services, 1 and
wishing, even at the risk of troubling you at such a time, to com
municate my intentions to one who has treated me with so much
kindness rather than to any successor. As that calamity has,
by your Lordship s decision, been averted from London, I venture,
though not without regret and hesitation, to disturb you in your
retreat with business chiefly, though not altogether, personal.
"
I will not exhaust your Lordship s eyesight and patience
with pages of manuscript describing processes and conflicts of
mind. You will suppose I must have passed through these if
you are kind enough to read the proof which I enclose of a letter
shortly to go forth to my congregation. The first part of it
relates to circumstances which your Lordship will understand
better than most of its readers. I did not wish to dwell upon
them more than I could help. The duty of acting as I have
acted, when I must have been identified with statements which
I utterly dislike and repudiate, seemed to me imperative. The
other reason I have assigned for my act may commend itself less
to your Lordship s approval. At least I trust you will see that I
have parted with no conviction which I expressed, and violated
no pledge which I gave, when you kindly granted me institution.
"
I have to thank your Lordship for many undeserved acts of
kindness during the time that I
as my spiritual
have been allowed to claim you
father. I hope you will not consider me un
worthy, hereafter, to do any ministerial work in your diocese to
which my brother clergymen may invite me. At all events I
shall not forget the benefits I have received from you in these
last years. I could not, of course, send forth my letter without
communicating it first to your Lordship and to Mr. Cowper. I
wish that it should appear not much after the appearance of the
book, already advertised, of the Bishop of Natal, and somewhat
before the next hearing of the causes of Williams and Wilson in
the Court of Arches. Believe me, my dear Lord, very gratefully
and respectfully yours,
1 See page 270.
I 1
. D. MAURICE."