Untitled - Electric Scotland

536 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. xvm.
Diary.
"On Saturday, Catharine and I went up to London, that I
might be ready for the consecration of the Bishop of Peterborough
in Whitehall Chapel on Sunday. I thought it necessary to send
a line to the Archbishop of York and the Bishops of Oxford and
Ripon, who were to assist at the consecration.
"That [Sunday] was a solemn day. The circumstances were
peculiar indeed. The public did not know of my appointment.
There was a great solemnity in going through that remarkable
service, just as I was closing the Episcopate which began
same chapel exactly twelve ye,ars before. . . .
"
in the
Next morning the Times announced the appointment, and I
had an interview with Disraeli, the details of which were curious.
. . . The servant announced me as Archbishop of Canterbury,
on which I said that was not my mode of announcing myself.
the matter secret
This led him to say that he had hoped to keep
till all his appointments were ready. Then he harangued me on
the state of the Church ; spoke of rationalists, explained that those
now so called did not follow Paulus. He spoke at large of his
desire to rally a Church party, which, omitting the extremes of
rationalism and ritualism, should unite all other sections of the
Church ;
alluded to his Church appointments as aiming at this-
Champneys, Merivale, Wordsworth, Gregory, Leighton, myself,
Jackson. He promised to support a Church Discipline Bill, but
deprecated its being brought in by Lord Shaftesbury. Remarked
that, whether in office or out, he had a large Church party. . . .
I stated my views shortly, and we separated. I have only seen
him once since. Within a very short time he had resigned
office."
A few extracts may perhaps be given
of congratulation which he received.
Bishop Thirlwall, of St. David s, wrote :
from the letters
"
Rejoicing as I do in your elevation to the Primacy, when I
consider how enormously the ordinary cares and anxieties of the
office are increased by the present circumstances of the Church,
I could hardly have treated your appointment as matter for
personal congratulation, if it were not that to be generally recog-