Untitled - Electric Scotland

5 i4 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. xvm.
anything in your opinions, so far as I know them, which should
disqualify you from officiating, whether you resign or retain your
charge. I expressed also my conviction that the step you medi
tate might he very injurious to others. I feel indeed that it is
fraught with very momentous consequences to the whole Church,
which may greatly suffer thereby.
"
Under these circumstances it is only due to you that I
should at once state to you that, in the event of your adhering to
your present intention, I may be obliged to consider very care
fully whether I shall be justified in accepting your resignation out
of deference to your private feeling, or whether I ought on public-
grounds to refuse to accept it.
"
It is of course possible that further explanation on your part
may make me view the matter differently ; but as it at present
stands, 1 feel that, if you continue in your resolve, I shall be
called by you to consent to what I think a very undesirable step.
My former letter was private and confidential, but I do not knowwhy
this need be so, if in consulting your friends or otherwise
you wish to make use of it. I earnestly pray that we may both
be guided aright from above in this matter. Believe me to be,
my dear Mr. Maurice, yours most truly,
"
A. C. LONDON."
The l\cr. h\ D. Maurice to the Bishop of London.
5 RUSSELL SQUARE, W.C..
Oct. 25, 1862.
**Mv DEAR LORD, I thank your Lordship most gratefully for
your very kind letter, and for the generous permission which you
give me to make it known as a reason for changing the resolution
which I have formed, certainly not without the most serious and
painful deliberation.
"
I do not wonder that the paper which I first sent to your
Lordship should have left you in doubt whether I sufficiently
understood my own purpose, or, at all events, could make it in
telligible to others. The one which I enclose, and which is al
ready printed with a view to circulation among my flock, will, I
trust, be more satisfactory to you. It will remove, I am almost
sure, the impression that my act is meant to be, or is likely to be,