very fierce.

I could not examine a Jew in a history of which he would not admit a single important fact, nor could I bear to abstain systematically from calling our Lord by any other name than Jesus, because I must not shock the Jew by implying that He was the Christ. The prevailing evils in the University of Oxford are, to be sure, rather of a different character from those of the University of London. But you have done much good with the statutes, and I delight to hear about the prospect of the six scholarships.

I have been engaged in tiresome disputes about my History with the booksellers, and they are only just settled. The first volume will now, I suppose, go to press speedily, and I have begun the second. It is delightful work, when I can get on with it without interruption, as is the case here. Besides this, I have done little except reading Newman's book about Romanism and Protestantism, and Bishop Sanderson's work on the Origin of Government, which Pusey refers to in the Preface to his Sermons. The latter work does not raise my opinion of its author; it contains divers startling assertions, admirably suited to the purposes of tex quoters, which appear to advocate pure despotism; but then they are so qualified, that at last one finds nothing surprising in them, except the foolishness or the unfairness of putting them out at first in so paradoxical a form.'. . . . . . . . . . I think, by what I hear, the cold in Oxford must have been more severe than with us. I have not seen our thermometer lower than 14, at which it stood at 9 A. M. last Saturday, in a northern aspect. But we have had no snow in the valleys till Sunday, and the water in the house has never frozen. The hills have been very hard to walk on, all the streams being hard frozen, and the water which generally is steeping all the surface of the slopes being now sheets of ice. But the waterfalls and the snowy mountain summits, backed by the clear blue sky, have been most beautiful.

CLXX.

TO THE CHEVALIER BUNSEN. (On the affair of the Archbishop of Cologne.)

Fox How, January 27, 1838.

When I consider the question I am more and more at a loss to guess how it can be satisfactorily solved. How can truth and error be brought into harmony? This Marriage question is admirably fitted for showing the absurdity of the favourite distinction between spiritual things and secular. Every voluntary moral action is to a Christian both the one and the other. 66 Spiritual" and "ritual" differ utterly. Mere ritual observances may be separated from secular actions, but ritual observances are not a Christian's religion. A Christian's religion is co-extensive with his life, and how can he in the general tenor of his life obey two masters, the King and the Pope; how can he at once obey the rightful authorities of the Christian Church and the usurped authority of Priestcraft? I lament the very expressions in which the actual dispute is described. It is represented as a contest between the Church and the Government, or between the Church and the State; in which case I think that all Christians would be bound to obey the Church, and, if the State's

1) Of Mr. Newman's book he says, in another letter, "Parts of it I think very good, parts as bad as bad can be."

But

commands are incompatible with such obedience, to submit to martyrdom. But in truth, you are the Church, and the Archbishop of Cologne represents the Church's worst enemy, the spirit of priesthood. It is Korah the Levite, falsely pretending to be a priest, and in that false pretension rebelling against Moses. But this mingled usurpation and rebellion,this root of anarchy, fraud, and idolatry,—is the very main principle of all popery, whether Romish or Oxonian, whether of the Archbishop of Cologne, or of Pusey and Newman. How either you or we can preserve the Church from it, I do not see; but from the bottom of my heart do I "wish you good luck in the name of the Lord," in this most holy cause. Connected with this is Rothe's book, which I have read with great interest. His first position,-that the State and not the Church, (in the common and corrup sense of the term,) is the perfect form under which Christianity is to be developed,-entirely agrees with my notions. his second position,-that the Church in the corrupt sense, that is, a priestly government, transmitted by a mystical succession from one priest to another, is of apostolical origin,-seems to me utterly groundless. It may be, that the Apostles, after the Destruction of Jerusalem, if any of them survived it, made the government of the Church more monarchical, and less popular; and that they were very anxious to commit it to persons of their own choice, or chosen by those who had been so. But this does not touch the point. Different states of society require governments more or less despotic, and that the Church should be governed according to the principles of Christianity as set forth by the Apostles, is most certain. The mischief of the false Church notion consists in its substitution of the idea of priesthood for that of government, and as a consequence, deriving the notion of a mystical succession throughout all time, which does not and cannot preserve the spirit of the Apostles' principles, but paralyzes the free action of the Church, and introducing a principle incompatible with all sound notions of law and government, at one time crushes the Church with its tyranny, and at another distracts it with its anarchy. I am convinced that the whole mischief of the great Antichristian apostacy has for its root the tenet of "a priestly government transmitted by a mystical succession from the Apostles."

CLXXI. * TO A. H. CLOUGH, ESQ.

Fox How, January 29.

I hope to see you before another week is over; still as in my short visits to Oxford I see every body in some hurry, I wished to send these few lines by Hill to thank you for a very kind letter which I received from you in November, and which you might perhaps think I had altogether forgotten. I was very much obliged to you for it, and pray believe that, whenever you can write to me, your letters will give me the greatest interest and pleasure. I delight in your enjoyment of Oxford, and in what you say of the union amongst our Rugby men there. But I cannot think that you are yet thoroughly acquainted with the country about Oxford, as you prefer the Rugby fields to it. Not to mention Bagley Wood, do you know the little valleys that debouche on the Valley of the Thames behind the Hinkseys; do you know Horspath, nestling under Shotover; or Elsfield, on its green slope, or all the variety of Cumnor Hill; or the

wider skirmishing ground by Beckley, Stanton St. John's, and Foresthill, which we used to expatiate over on whole holidays?

As for the school, Tickell's success was most welcome and most beneficial; the railway and the multitude of coaches will I suppose bring with them their anxieties; but it is of no use to anticipate them beforehand. I trust with God's blessing we shall continue to go on doing some good, restraining some evil, but we shall ever do too little of the former, and leave too much of the latter in vigour, to allow of any feeling of self-satisfaction. But I have an unmixed pleasure in thinking of many of those who have been, and who are still with us: and this pleasure more than makes up for many cares. I was very glad to have Burbidge here, and delighted to see how he enjoyed the country. You may be sure that we shall be very glad to have you and him in our neighbourhood in the summer, if his castle is ever built. I have been at work steadily, and have begun the second volume of my History: the first will I suppose now go to press without any farther delays. We are all well, and unite in kindest regards to you.

CLXXII. TO SIR T. S. PASLEY, Bart.

Rugby, February 16, 1838.

You may perhaps have seen in the papers an account of our meeting at the London University; but at any rate I will keep my promise, and give you my own report of it. Every single member of the Senate except myself was convinced of the necessity, according to the Charter, of giving the Jews Degrees; all were therefore inclined to make an exemption in their favour as to the New Testament Examination, and thus to make that Examination not in all cases indispensable. Most were disposed to make it altogether voluntary, and that was the course which was at last adopted. The Examination is not to be now restricted to any one part of the New Testament, and it is to be followed by a certificate of a man's having simply passed it, and a class paper for those who are distinguished in it. I think that it will be passed so generally, as to mark very much those who do not pass it; and in this way it will do good. It also saves the University from the reproach of neglecting Christianity altogether. But it does not maintain the principle which I wished; and as on the one hand I think it neither fair nor of any use to go on agitating the question with every one against me, so, on the other, I have no satisfaction in belonging to a body whose views are so different from mine; and I should leave them at once, were I not anxious to see something of the working of our Scriptural Examination, and, if possible, to try to settle it on a good footing. After we left you at Bowness, we had no farther adventures. When we came to Lyth, the snow was all gone, and between Lancaster and Preston the roads were quite dirty. We slept at Yarrow Bridge, embarked on the railway the next day at Warrington, and got safe home by about ten o'clock. Our visit to Oxford was very delightful; we saw great numbers of my old pupils, and met with a very kind reception from every one. Have you yet got Pusey's Sermon, or seen the review of it in the Edinburgh Review? That article was written, I am told, by Merivale, the Political Economy Professor; I have looked at it, and like its tone and ability, though I do not think that it takes the question on the highest ground. From Oxford we went to London, where

my two days were passed, one at the University, and the other at Mr. Phillips's room, where I sat for my portrait. Then we went down to Laleham, from whence I paid a visit to Eton, a place which has always a peculiar interest for me. And now we are as regularly settled at our work as if we had never stirred from Rugby, and looking forward to the speedy opening of the Railway to Birmingham, to effect which, we have six hundred men working night and day, as hard as the frost will let them. I rejoice in the prospect of a peaceful settlement of the affair of the Caroline; it is not easy to make out the facts exactly, nor, if I knew the truth, am I quite sure as to the law. But one is glad to find the American Government disposed to act justly and in a friendly spirit; and the Buffalo and the Canada Orangemen will not, if this be the case, be able to involve the two countries in war. Alas, for all our evergreens, if these biting east winds last much longer. Poor Murphy's reputation must be pretty well at an end now.

CLXXIII. TO THE BISHOP OF NORWICH.

Rugby, February 17, 1838.

The result of the meeting of the London University, on the 7th, has placed me personally in a situation of great embarrassment; and I venture to apply to you, to learn whether you, on your own part, also feel the same difficulty. On the one hand, the Senate were so unanimous in their opinion, that the admission of unbelievers of all sorts to Degrees in Arts could not be resisted under the terms of the Charter, that I should not think it becoming to agitate the question again. And I think that the voluntary examination which we have gained is really a great point, and I am strongly tempted to assist, so far as I can, towards carrying it into effect. But, on the other hand, the University has solemnly avowed a principle to which I am totally opposed, namely, that Education need not be connected with Christianity; and I do not see how I can join in conferring a degree on those who, in my judgment, cannot be entitled to it; or in pronouncing that to be a complete education, which I believe to be no more so than a man without his soul or spirit is a complete man. Besides, my continuing to belong to the University, may be ascribed to an unwillingness to offend the Government from interested motives: all compliances with the powers that be being apt to be ascribed to unworthy considerations. Yet, again, you will believe me, though - probably would not, when I say, that I feel exceedingly unwilling to retire on such grounds as mine, while three Bishops of our Church do not feel it inconsistent with their duty to remain in the University it seems very like presumption on my part, and a coming forward without authority, when those, who have authority, judge that there is no occasion for any protest. My defence must be, that the principle to which I so object, and which appears to me to be involved by a continuance in the University, may not appear to others to be at stake on the present occasion: that I am not professing, therefore, or pretending to be more zealous for Christianity than other members of the Senate, but that what appears to me to be dangerous, appears to them to be perfectly innocent; and that they naturally, therefore, think most of the good which the University will do, while I fear that all that good will be purchased by a greater evil, and cannot, therefore, take any part in the good, as I should wish to do, because, to

my apprehension, it will be bought too dearly. On the whole, my leaning is towards resigning; and then I think that I ought to do it speedily, as my own act, and not one into which I may seem to have been shamed by the remonstrances or example of others—of King's College, for instance; if, as seems possible, they may renounce all connexion with us after our late decision.

CLXXIV.

TO REV. J. E. TYLER.

February 17, 1838.

You will feel, I think, the exceedingly difficult situation in which I am placed. I am personally very anxious to resign; but the engine is so powerful, that hardly dare to abandon all share in the guidance of it, while there is any chance of turning it to good. I feel, also, that the decision of King's College would greatly assist in determining me how to act. If they break off all connexion with us, and thus leave us wholly in the condition of an University for men of one party only, I should be in haste to be gone: but if they stay on, and are willing to avail themselves of our religious Examination, I should like to stay on too, to make that Examination as good as I could. If you know what Hugh Rose's sentiments are on this point, will you have the goodness to write me a few lines about it? Your Consecration Sermon for the Bishop of Salisbury never reached me, or otherwise I hope that I should have had the grace to thank you for it long ere now. I used to think that we agreed well, but I heard that you had been shocked by my Church Reform Pamphlet ; and many men with whom I once agreed have been scared in these later days, and have, as I think, allowed their fears to drive them to the wrong quarter for relief. I could tell you readily enough with what parties I disagreed-namely, with all. My own reλcióratov Téλos I shall never see fulfilled, and what is the least bad, devrépos λous I hardly know. . I heard of your bad illness, and was glad to find that you were recovered again. I, too, have felt lately that I am not so young as when we skirmished in the common room at Oriel, or speared on Shotover; but God gives me still so much health and strength, that I have no excuse for not serving Him more actively.

CLXXV. TO AN OLD PUPIL. (D.)

Rugby, February 28, 1838. Some passages of your letter have, I confess, alarmed me, as seeming to show that you do not enough allow for the effect of the local influences around you; that questions assume an unreal importance in your eyes, because of their accidental magnitude within the immediate range of your own view; that you are disposed to dispute great truths, because in the society into which you happen to be thrown, it has become the fashion to assail them. Now, I remember that in Henry Martyn's Journal, written when he was in Persia, there is a passage to this effect:-"I reviewed the evidence in proof of the falsehood of Mahommedanism, and found it clear and convincing." It was natural that to him, living in Persia, Mahommedanism should have acquired an importance of which we in Europe can form no idea; it was natural that he should endeavour to satisfy himself of the falsehood of that which we