Untitled - Electric Scotland

512 LIFK OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. xvm.
"
" MY
The Bis/top of London to Hie Rev. F. D. Maurice.
Private and confidential.
CROMER, \<\th
Oct. 1862.
DEAR MR. M.\r RICE, I have read with great sorrow
your letter received this morning, and should be glad indeed if
the decision were one in which you were likely to be shaken.
" Two points I ought to press upon you
"
\st. That I think many men of ardent spirit who look up
to you and share your opinions will, rightly or wrongly, find it
difficult to avoid following your example. They will certainly be
liable to be pressed as to
why they do not adopt the same course
as you, and to have unworthy motives attributed to them.
"
2d. That you seem to me somewhat hasty in regarding Dr.
Lushington s judgment, which will probably be appealed against
to a higher Court, as a decision of authority in the Church of
England,
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before it has been confirmed.
I am sure that in reference to a step so important to others
far more than to yourself, you have earnestly sought, and will
still further seek, the Divine guidance, and to that guidance I can
only commend you.
" Be assured that nothing is abated of that deep respect
with which I regard your Christian character, and that (as indeed
the whole of this letter implies) much as I should myself differ
from you in many statements, I am not aware of anything in
your opinions, so far as I know them, which should disqualify
you from officiating whether you resign or retain your charge. -
Ever yours sincerely,
A. C. LONDON.
The Bishop wrote by the same post to Arthur Stanley,
begging him to call upon Mr. Maurice without delay and
to endeavour to dissuade him from the proposed step.
The answer was as follows :
Canon A. P. Stanley to the Bishop of London.
"
6 GROSVENOR CRESCENT, Oct. 17, 1862.
" MY DEAR . . . BISHOP,- Maurice s affair is very lament
able : the more so as it is so certain to be misunderstood. I