PREFACE.

THE lamented death of Canon Ashwell at the time. when the concluding pages of the first volume of this work were passing through the printer's hands, has made it necessary to find a new Editor for the subsequent volumes. Having in the event been obliged to undertake the task which he left unfinished, I feel that I ought to state the reasons which induced me to incur so heavy a responsibility. Doubtless, as a general rule, a son is the person least capable of writing his father's life. Accordingly, in conjunction with Mr. Murray, I endeavoured to discover a writer in whom the various conditions necessary for carrying on the work were approximately satisfied; but to every practical suggestion that was made some objection occurred which in the end proved fatal. My next step was to consult a few of my Father's trusted friends, and particularly some of those who had originally suggested Canon Ashwell's name in connection with the work. They insisted that I must do what I could myself, and they generously offered me their counsel and assistance. Without such substantial encouragement it would have been impossible to have entered upon, and still more impossible to have persevered in, such an enterprise.

It is hoped that in this volume the lines traced by Canon Ashwell will not have been departed from, and that the effort to present the reader with a true picture of the Bishop's inward and outward life will not altogether have failed of success.

In such a connection it is natural to recall the classical language of a great writer of Church history:

Mais le fondement de l'histoire est la vérité; et ce n'est pas la rapporter fidèlement que d'en supprimer une partie : un portrait flatté n'est point ressemblant. Tels sont d'ordinaire les panégyriques, où l'on fait paroître un homme louable en ne relevant que ses bonnes qualitez. Artifice grossier qui révolte les gens sensez et leur fait faire plus d'attention sur les défauts qu'on leur cache avec tant de soin: c'est une espèce de mensonge que de ne dire ainsi la vérité qu'à demi. Personne n'est obligé d'écrire l'histoire, mais quiconque l'entreprend s'engage à dire la vérité tout entière.'

Canon Ashwell's notes respecting the letters and entries in the Bishop's Diary which he thought it desirable to insert have been scrupulously adhered to wherever it was possible to do so; the writer not thinking himself at liberty to endanger the unity of the work by neglecting hints which since their author's death had become almost directions.

Extracts from the Bishop's Diary have been inserted without any change: no words have been inserted with a view to making the meaning clearer; and if the sentences are somewhat abrupt and elliptical, it will be felt that they are not on that account less characteristic.

Fleury, Hist. Eccles. vol. xvi. p. xviii.