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FOUR LETTERS,

REPRINTED, BY REQUEST,

FROM ARIS'S BIRMINGHAM GAZETTE,
Of April 4 and 18, and May 2 and 9, 1853.

BIRMINGHAM :
WILLIAM HODGETTS, 22, CANNON STREET.
185 3.

LETTERS.

i.
To the Editor of " Aris's Birmingham Gazette."
Sir, — I perceive from the statement made by the Rector of St.
Martin's, at the Vestry Meeting on Tuesday last, that the tower and
spire of St. Martin's Church are at once to be repaired, the Rector at
the same time pithily remarking that " He supposed they would have to
leave the renovation of the unsightly body of the edifice to their children."
The meaning of this, Sir, is, that the great town of Birmingham,
the " Midland Metropolis " of this wealthy country, cannot be induced
to contribute the sum of £10,000 for the purpose of restoring the Parish
Church of Birmingham, and that one of the oldest and most interesting
Churches in the kingdom.
And yet £10,000 is almost a trifle compared with the large sums
given during the last ten years, for a similar purpose in places which
cannot be compared with Birmingham for wealth and influence. In
these days you can scarcely pass through a county town, or even towns
of still less importance, without meeting with a Church restored at a far
greater cost than the sum asked for by the Rector of St. Martin's.
Stafford and Ellesmere, to take instances from the two next counties, are
only two out of innumerable examples of Churches lately restored with a
magnificence which may almost vie with our old Cathedrals. I forget
the exact expense, but I do not think the cost of the two was covered
by £50,000. Yet is only after considerable delay, and repeated solicitations, and
with the prospect of a frightful catastrophe, the sum of £3000 or £4000
are forthcoming to render St. Martin's, I do not say a fit place, in some
degree, for the worship of the Most High, but safe for its congregation
to enter. We were led, indeed, to believe that the £10,000 would be
given as soon as asked for ; and that the system of fraternising with
Dissenters, and sinking the distinctive character and claims of the
Church of England, would be seen to bear worthy fruits in the united
ardour of Dissenters and Churchmen to carry out the good work. Yet
the whole scheme has broken down ! In fact, it is scarcely possible to
conceive a more inglorious failure.
The next question is, how is it to be accounted for 1 Are the good
people of Birmingham inferior to the rest of their countrymen in libe-

rality ? There are numerous proofs to the, contrary. Have their means
been crippled by commercial losses and a stagnant trade ? Far from it :
their prosperity, during some years past, has been almost beyond prece
dent. How then is this apparent niggardliness to be explained f
I think it will be found, as a general rule, that anything like a
munificent liberality for Church purposes is only found in a Church,
atmosphere, and under sound Church teaching. I fear there is not much of
this in Birmingham ; but take the town of Leeds, a town very similar to
Birmingham in its trade and general circumstances, but inferior in
population and importance. In ten years Dr. Hook has been enabled to
restore the Parish Church at an expense of 28.000Z., and to erect ten
new Churches, some at a cost of not less than 15,O0OZ. or 20,000Z., and
almost all of them distinguished for their symmetry and beauty. The
parish of Leeds, one and undivided ten years ago, is now formed into
seventeen parishes, all of them endowed, while the Clergy have been in
creased from twenty-five to sixty. During the same space of time,
accommodation has been provided for 7,500 children, of whose profici
ency the Government Inspector reports highly. To this may be added
that two fresh Churches are now in course of erection.
Nor, so far as can be judged, has the inward work of men's souls
been otherwise than of equal extent with these outward acts. " We
" know''' (are Dr. Hook's words, addressing his congregation) " that
" some, who ten years ago were among the careless are now among the
" most energetic among the brethren : and that many minds once in
" doubt are now devoted to the truth as it is in Jesus. There have been
" confirmed in this Church 4500 young persons, and of these the greater
" number have continued to be communicants. Nor can I refrain from
" alluding to another proof of the growth of a Christian spirit among
" us. There never was a time when, excepting a few in the extremes
" on either side, so much of brotherly love and of good understanding
" prevailed among Churchmen, both of the Clergy and of the laity, as
" there exists at present."
Such are some fruits of the spirit of Christian liberality and of
the kindred ardours of English Churchmen under the teaching of Dr.
Hook. But in Birmingham, in spite of boasts, and entreaties, and
threats — in spite of the prospect of a closed Church, and a monition
from the Archdeacon, and a renewal of Church-rates, and I know not
what— the sum subscribed for the Restoration of the Old Parish Church
amounts to a sum too pitiful to mention, though it includes a donation
of £5. from the Rev. J. A. James, and Mr. Joseph Allday's fourth or
fifth " Collection for St. Martin's Church."
The fact is, Mr. Editor, whatever you or others may think about

it, the system of fraternising with Dissenters, so largely practised in
Birmingham, is fast alienating the affections of English. Churchmen
from the Church, and paving the way for her ultimate jttownfall. It
must be evident to any one who thinks about the matter, that if the
Church of England is not something very different in essentials from
the sects which surround her, her present condition as favoured and pro
tected by the State is utterly indefensible. Much as I love her, if I
could think of her as the Clergy of Birmingham for the most part seem
to do, I would hold up my hand with the " Anti-State Church League"
to-morrow. I, for one, feel no surprise that the zeal of the Birmingham Church
men waxes cold under such teaching as they for the most part receive ;
and that, when the Restoration of their Parish Church is proposed, they
look on with indifference, or button up their pockets,
A system which brings down the Church to the level of the sects
will never make devoted and self-denying Churchmen ; any more than
a system which makes men mere hearers of sermons instead of wor
shippers of God, will ever train any but most superficial Christians.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
A CHURCHMAN.
P.S. — The parishioners of Leeds maintain a daily Choral Service
in their Church at an expense of £500. a year.
Birmingham, April 2, 1853. ¦

II.
To the Editor of " Aris's Birmingham Gazette."
Sir, — We were informed a short time back by the Morning
Advertiser, tliat no less than seven influential members of the present
Government, to take the lowest calculation, are " Tractarians" of the
worst description. Now, if Tractarianism is the vile thing it is repre
sented to be in Birmingham pulpits and on Birmingham platforms, this
fact (which I believe to be true) is of very serious consequence. For
who are the Statesmen thus declared to be " tainted with the leprosy of
Puseyism." ? They are those who stand at the very head of the stream
of public thought ; they are chiefly the members of the Peel party, the
inheritors of the sagacious policy of the most practical of English
Statesmen, and certain to exercise a very powerful influence on the
future destinies of the country.

Among them you will find that liberal and promising politician,
the Duke of Newcastle, to whom, it is said, Sir R. Peel confidently
looked to develop and perfect the system his master-mind had sketched.
Among them you will find Mr. Gladstone, the best debater of the day,
and the able denouncer of Jesuit intrigues and Neapolitan tyranny.
Among them, too, is numbered that accomplished speaker, Mr. Sidney
Herbert, the most popular of English landlords, and the earnest pro
moter of the welfare of the labouring classes. And it seems impossible
to doubt that these, and others of like views, whom the nation is pre
pared to accept as its guides in all matters of domestic and foreign
policy, to whom it gladly entrusts its purse and its patronage, will
eventually give a tone to the religious faith of the nation. And this is
the more likely, because to be a " Tractarian" (I use the word in its
popular sense) indicates no small amount of religious earnestness, espe
cially in a Statesman, for Tractarianism hitherto has not been popular ;
and it is not probable that the fising politicians who are about to step
into the shoes of the worn-out Russells and Palmerstons, will abandon,
as the recognised leaders of the English people, those views which they
did not shrink from advocating in their struggles for popularity and
power. But, Sir, this is only one symptom of the huge advance of Trac
tarianism, (i.e., of the doctrines of the English Church as laid down
in the Prayer Book) during the last ten years. Its opponents have
often declared that a considerable majority of the aristocracy are infected
with this " deadly heresy," and certainly (putting other proofs aside) this
accusation is supported by the persevering advocacy of these views by
the fashionable organ, the Morning Post.
Indeed, a prominent leader of the Evangelical party, Mr. Daniel
Wilson, in his " Our Protestant Faith in danger" (1850) laments, in the
most pathetic manner, the marvellous progress of the Tractarians, and
says, " large numbers in the upper ranks of society, both among the
Clergy and Laity, support them." And another writer of the same
school (Rule Pref. to Martyrs of Ref.) asks this question — " The Ro*
manizers (i.e., High Churchmen) in pulpits, schools, the press, the Par
liament, in all circles of society, who shall count V There is also no
doubt that what are called Tractarian opinions prevail extensively
among the members of the bar : so much so as to influence (strangely
enough) not only our most respected judges, such as Patteson or Cole
ridge, and liberal Conservatives like Mr. Roundell Palmer, but even men
of Radical politics, such as Sir W. Page Wood.
But it is, perhaps, among the young, especially the most earnest

7
and intellectual of them; that the progress of these views can be most
clearly traced. Hear Mr. Daniel Wilson again. " Li, may be discerned
in a marked tendency towards these views, among the junior branches
of our religious families, who have been, trained from childhood in the
fear of God, and the pure doctrines of Christ's Gospel" p. 16. Now
observe, Sir, the nature of this remarkable confession. It admits that
so-called Evangelical doctrines have so weak a hold over the minds of
the young, that they give way before the first assault of an opposite
system. May not this explain the curious phenomenon that almost all
the perverts to Rome, with Dr. Newman at their head, were carefully
trained in Evangelical views? There is not, as far as I know, an
instance of a person educated as a consistent Churchman going over to
Rome. Our losses in this respect, it would seem, are due not to Trac-
arian teaching, but to Evangelical training.
But be this as it may, there can be no doubt on which side the
young are mostly ranging themselves, whether Clergy or Laity. Who
cannot recall to mind instances daily occurring, of the decease of some
country squire, or rich banker, or of some retired merchant, who was
himself a flaming Puritan, but who leaves his wealth and influence to a
son who backs up the High Church Vicar, and likes to hear the Service
intoned. And so as regards the Clergy — " What (asks Mr. Wilson) is
the state of the large body of young men who are preparing to become
the authorised teachers of religion in our Church 1 They are, I fear,
extensively tainted with these errors," p. 16. If Mr. Wilson would
consult the Examining Chaplains of the different Bishops, he would find
not only that this is the case, even to a greater extent than he' imagines,
but that where men are not Tractarians, they are mostly very broad
Latitudinarians, or even smack of German Scepticism. Evangelicalism
is utterly at a discount.
But again, to look at this matter in another point of view. Let us
ask into which scale the cultivated intellect of the nation is throwing its
weight 1 It is pretty well known which side has found allies in the
powerful influences of music, painting, architecture, and above all,
poetry. I will therefore let this pass for the present, and will content
myself with giving one slight but not unimportant symptom of the
direction in which the tide is setting. Take the case of the last Oxford
Election. Mr. Gladstone has the reputation of being extreme in his
religious views. His political conduct in overthrowing Lord Derby's
Government alienated from him the support of Arehdeacon Denison and
many others of the same school. His enemies consequently made a violent
effort, and the election was a close-run affair. After a long struggle,
Mr. Gladstone only escaped losing his seat by the majority of 127. So

much for the numbers ; but then, only analyze the poll-book, and what
a tale is mnfolded ! It would seem as if the whole intellect of the Uni
versity had conspired to support the " Tractarian," leaving its mediocrity
and its ignorance (for Oxford has its share even of that) to vote for
Mr. Dudley Perceval. Here is an analysis of the votes of the resident
members of the University who have taken honours, and of those in
authority : —
FOR GLADSTONE. FOR PERCEVAL.

Regius Professor of Divinity.
Regius Professor of Law.
Regius Professor of Medicine.
Regius Professor of Hebrew.
Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical
History.
Regius Professor of Modern History.
Camden Professor of Ancient History.
Professor of Natural Philosophy.
Sedleian Reader in Geometry.
Sedleian Reader in Astronomy.
Laudian Professor of Arabic.
Professor of Anglo- Saxon.
Professor of Sanscrit.
Professor of Political Economy.
Vinerian Professor of Common Law.
Lee's Reader in Anatomy.
Reader in Logic.
Dean Ireland's Professor of Exegesis
of Holy Scripture.
Radcliffe Observer,
Senior Proctor.
Junior Proctor.
Senior Censor of Christ Church.
Junior Censor of Christ Church.
And SO other Tutors and Lecturers.

Vice-Chancellor. Regius Professor of' Pastoral The
ology.
Margaret Professor of Divinity.
Lord Almoner's Reader in Arabia.
Reader in Experimental Philosophy.
And 9 other Tutors and Lecturers.

Those who have taken Honours .

FOR GLADSTONE.
Classics  52
 33
 14
....  7
Mathematics  16
 12
 2
 3
University Scholarships.
Latin  6
Ireland   7
Mathematical  8
Craven  2
Hebrew  2
Eldon  1
Essays, Poems, &o.
Latin Verse  5
English Essays  ,  7
Latin Essays  7
Newdegate  ,  7
Theological Esaays  6

FOR PERCEVAL.
1 Classics  6
2  9
3  4
4  1
I Mathematics  4
2  2
3  1
4  0
Not any.

English Essays .

This, Sir, may serve as some explanation of what seems to many so
inexplicable, viz., that Tractarianism thrives mightily in spite of plat
form mis-statements, and fanatical appeals to the mob, and systematic
persecution in innumerable shapes. It can convince powerful minds
which look into its claims, that it is the true voice of the Reformed
English Church, and that is the only barrier against Popery on the one
hand, and unlimited scepticism on the other.
But I have not done yet. It not only draws to its side cool-headed
Statesmen and a refined Aristocracy, learned Divines and ripe scholars,
hoary age and ingenuous youth ; it is fast gaining on the affections of
the masses. Somehow, the poor are beginning to suspect that the
Puseyites are their best friends ; that they are the men who have battled
bravely for the rights of the poor, and their equality in God's house
with the rich ; who have knocked down the tall pews and curtains which
shield the rich from vulgar gaze, and have dragged the poor out of dark
holes and corners, and placed them in the nave and aisle, and have
opened to them beautiful Churches to pray in, on week days as well as
Sundays. The masses have also gained a glimmering perception that
Puseyite Parsons are oftener found praying by sick beds, and teaching
in their Schools, than attending fussy Committees, and speechifying at
public dinners, and haranguing on platforms ; and that, somehow, they
find so much to do at home that they do not rush off to London, one
week, to denounce the Pope, and the next to Liverpool to lecture on the
millennium, leaving their parishes, the while, to take their chance pretty
much, as the saying is.
But I think it may also be said, that the Tractarian mode of wor
ship (i.e., in other words, the Order prescribed in the Prayer Book) is
more suited to the wants of the poor. In a recent number of the
London Journal, the poor man's organ, it was claimed, on behalf of the
poor, that sermons should be shortened, and the services made more
attractive, i.e., more choral. And I was much struck by the speech of
a Chartist Lecturer, lately reported in a weekly newspaper, in which he
contrasted the rich man's Church with the poor man's Church. In
illustration of the former, he took a fashionable West-end Church, with
its fenced pews, and highly decorated beadle : the latter he exemplified
(do not be shocked, Mr. Editor) by that notorious place, St. Barnabas,
with its free seats and choral services ! !
But I am free to confess that there is one bulwark behind which
the (so-called) Evangelicals are somewhat strongly entrenched, though it
is one that is being daily weakened — I mean the middle classes. And
their strength here may be chiefly traced to the lamentable ignorance of
the middle classes about the plainest doctrines and laws of their own

10
Church. This is not altogether their own fault. They are immersed
in business, and have little time for reading. And the teaching they
get in large towns, from popular preachers and lecturers, is only calcu
lated to deepen their ignorance. Still, the want of acquaintance they
display with these subjects, whenever they speak about them, is scarcely
creditable to them, and to well-informed minds seems truly pitiable ;
yet here, too, there are many signs of a better state of things. A few
weeks ago, a public meeting met at Stone, to denounce Tractarianism in
some shape or other, when to the great astonishment of the Puritan
Chairman, he had to announce to the meeting that he had received let
ters from four laymen, who had been invited, denouncing the object of
the Meeting, and broadly declaring that " 'Tractarianism' was a very
good thing, and must come sooner or later," Two of the writers were
Bankers in the county of Stafford, and one of them an influential Iron
master. I would beg, with all respect, to suggest to the Laity, especially of
Birmingham, not to take for granted all that they hear against Trac
tarianism, not to trust too much to ignorant lecturers in the Town Hall,
but to enquire for themselves, and to search a little into the written
laws and doctrines of the Church to which they profess to belong. Is
it likely, I ask them, that so many of the most patriotic minds and
loftiest intellects of this country are engaged in an unnatural conspiracy
to bring themselves and others under Priestly bondage and Popish dark
ness, as they are told to believe ? Let not the middle classes be led
hoodwinked and blindfolded any longer. Let them search and enquire
for themselves. Let them go to the Law and to the Testimony, the Law
of the Bible, and the Testimony of the Church. If they come to the
conclusion that what the Church teaches is not true, they can then leave
her ; but they are bound to inform themselves as to what she does
teach. And this they will never learn at the Town Hall.
And now a word of advice to the so-called Evangelicals, not to
those who are labouring quietly and peaceably in their parishes, and
whom, however we may differ from them in some things, we cannot' but
respect and love; but to those turbulent persons who rave upon plat
forms and excite the angry passions of the multitude against men wiser
and better than themselves. To such I speak ; and I ask, is it for
them who fraternise with the avowed enemies of the Church, and put a
non-natural interpretation on the Prayer Book, and clamour for its
alteration, is it for them to revile as " Traitors,'' " Hypocrites,'' and
" Jesuits," thousands of English gentlemen whose honour is without a
stain 1 Is it for them to denounce on every platform, not only the re
ligious opinions, but the motives of our most advanced and enlightened

11
Statesmen, of a great body of our Aristocracy, of the most accomplished
Scholars of our Universities, of many of our most venerable Judges
and profoundest Lawyers, and of thousands of our holiest and most
self-denying Clergy, and all this with an amount of ignorant abuse
which would be simply ridiculous, if it were not offensive in its vulgar
insolence 1
As for " repressing" Tractarianism, as the phrase goes, they may as
well attempt to repress the rising tide. I tell them, they may as well
stand on the sea shore and scream at the advancing waves, in the idle
hope of beating them back, as expect, by their shallow platform oratory
to crush the awakening religious instincts of a great people.
Let them remember that, by their own showing, they are the legi
timate descendants and representatives of those, who, when in power,
uprooted the Church and murdered the Sovereign, and that, at the best,
they are only tolerated in the Church whose distinctive doctrines they
first solemnly assent to, and then endeavour to preach down. Let them
mind their parishes, and cease to vilify their more consistent brethren,
and they will find there is no disposition to deal hardly with them ; but
if they persist in their present course, I warn them that the hour is not
far distant, when their opponents will " devour them as the ox licketh
up the grass.'' I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
A CHURCHMAN.

III.
To the Editor of " Aris's Birmingham Gazette."
SIKj — I do not know whether your Correspondent, " A Ghurch-
man," is one of the talented majority at the last Oxford election ; but I
strongly suspect that the entire ignorance of the first principles of Logic
which his letter exhibits, would have curtailed his honours to the briefest
dimensions, if his ambition ever induced him to contemplate a class.
Your Correspondent seems to imagine that true Church principles
are only to be found in a party ; and this from a Catholic Churchman !
Are none to be found, does he imagine, who obey their Church, who love
and venerate her Ordinances, who hold her sacramental teaching pure
and unmutilated, who rejoice in making her Services and Ministrations
the acceptable channel, as they ought to be, of pastoral intercourse with
their people — save those who choose a designation from a series of publi-

12
cations, some of whose authors have abjured their faith, and who take
for their guides the dishonest theology of a D.C.L., or the shifty politics
of such Churchmen as Messrs. Gladstone and Herbert.
If your Correspondent be really a Churchman, he must know that
the Church Catholic can recognise no "Isms,'' be they Gorhamism,
Puseyism, Stanleyism, or Gladstoneism. She cannqt bend herself to the
interpretation of a party ; but tries all her children by the unerring
standard of her Divine rule : and woe to those who go beyond, or fall short
of, her safe and orthodox teaching ! I quite agree with him that there
are unfortunately those within her pale who, undeterred by the example
of the sufferings of the Church under Puritanic sway, have banded
themselves together, and even leagued themselves with both open and
secret enemies of the Faith delivered to the Saints, with a view of alter
ing our ancient and holy structure into something more congenial to their
debased fantasies : but these are not to be met with a party cry, or by
relying on the broken reed of the Chronicle and its followers. " By
their fruits ye shall know them," is the rule given us by Unerring
Wisdom on which to act before we give our confidence, and it is for your
Correspondent to show what fruits the Church has reaped from those
Statesmen in whom he calls upon her to trust. As yet, the only measure
in which the Church is immediately interested is one of sacrilege ; and
I cannot but imagine that had " A Churchman " seen the remonstrance
of the Bishop of Toronto, the name of the Duke of Newcastle would
scarcely have appeared in the manner it does in his letter.
Mr. Gladstone, says your Correspondent, was opposed by the igno
rance and mediocrity of the University. I have not the Poll-book before
me, nor can I undertake to follow him through the comparative lists of
honours which he gives ; but two facts I can vouch for : first, that many
a man leaves Oxford with an ordinary degree, who is far more fitted to
judge questions of general politics than a shoal of first-class pedants ;
and, secondly, that it was not by votes of High Churchmen that Mr.
Gladstone was returned at the last election, but by the votes of the
extremely Liberal party in the University and in London, by Sceptics,
Latitudinarians, and downright Unbelievers. No one can appreciate
Mr. Gladstone's great talents more than I do, and I hail his Budget as
a general boon to the country ; but I never can consider the champion of
Jews, Infidels, and Papists, the proper person to represent the Church-
manship of Oxford. I am, Sir, yours, &c.
NO SECTARIAN.
April 22, 1853.

13

IV.
To the Editor of " Aris's Birmingham Gazette."
Sir — I do not wish to be hard upon your Correspondent who sub
scribes himself " No Sectarian" though he has given me some provoca
tion. I should judge from his letter that there is no great difference,
after all, in our religious views, and these are not times when politics
should be allowed to separate Churchmen.
However, he must allow me to correct his misrepresentations, which
I now proceed to do, first assuring him that I was not " one of the
talented majority at the last Oxford election." I was only a looker-on,
but none the less qualified on that account, as he must admit, to form a
correct estimate of the contending forces.
The charge which your Correspondent brings against me is a no
less grievous one than that of "entire, ignorance of the first principles of
logic.'' At the same time he does not attempt to point out any " illicit
process " in reasoning of which I have been guilty, and only supports his
accusation by the somewhat vague assertion that I " seem to imagine
that true Church principles are only to be found in a party."
Now I certainly have not said this, and if I am acquainted with the
secrets of my own thoughts, I am very far from " imagining " it ; but
supposing I had both imagined and said it, I humbly submit that this
would not have evinced "an entire ignorance of the first principles
of logic." 'There is a sense in which the above proposition has been true ere
now, as, e. g., when Arianism, for a while, reduced the defenders of the
true faith to a section, or as when there were but seven thousand
in Israel who had not bowed the knee unto Baal. It might, therefore,
be true again.
But supposing the proposition altogether false, I submit, with all
deference to your Correspondent, that it is not therefore illogical.
In logic any proposition may be conceived to be true which is not
self- contradictory. If your Correspondent has ever thought it worth his
while to prosecute his logical studies beyond the treatise of Aldrich, he
must know that logic is the formal science of the laws of reasoning, and
does not concern itself with material considerations. It does not deal
with facts in themselves, but in their relations to each other in an argu
ment. It does not ascertain the truth or falsehood of propositions (in
which case it would pre-suppose its possession of universal knowledge),
but, granted their truth, it lays down the laws which regulate the con
clusions to be deduced from them. As for the " imaginings " of the

14
human mind, it has about as much to do with controlling them, as it has .
with regulating the metre of a Greek chorus.
I think, therefore, that the " entire ignorance of the first principles
of logic " does not rest with me.
However, your Correspondent proceeds, " Are none to be found,
does he imagine [the imagination again !] who obey the Church, who
love and venerate her ordinances, who hold her Sacramental teaching
pure and unmutilated  save those who choose a designation from a
series of publications [sc, Tracts for the Times], some of whose authors
have abjured their faith ! "
To this I answer that, I know of none who do " choose their
designation " from this source ; nay, I know of none to whom such
designation is applied, who have not protested against it till they are
well nigh weary. The misfortune is, their remonstrances have been all
in vain, and things have now come to that pass that, to reject the appella
tion, is construed into a desire to hide their real principles. There is
nothing left for it but to accept the designation for the purposes of
argument, only taking care, as I think I did, to explain that by Tracta
rian principles are meant the principles of the Church of England as laid
down in the Prayer Book.
A remark of Mr. Newland, the other day, to the inhabitants
of Brighton, will illustrate my meaning. He said, " We are not Trac-
tarians, but we are what you call Tractarians."
I can assure your Correspondent that some seven-tenths of those
who are called Tractarians (though they do not " choose " it) have never
even read the Tracts for the Times, and that of those who have read them
not one in twenty, probably, would consent to be bound by all that they
contain. He must know, I think, that this name of reproach is given
to all who attempt, in any consistent manner, to preach the doctrines
and carry out the Rubrics of the Reformed Church of England. His
own profession of faith, as given above, is very strong " Tractarianism,"
and if he " obeys the Church," as he talks of doing, or even approxi
mates to such obedience, he too is called a Tractarian by that ignorant
multitude who use the term without any clear conception of what
it means. When he goes on to say that " the Church Catholic can recognise no
' isms,' be they Gorhamism, Puseyism, Stanleyism, or Gladstoneism," I
can only say he is himself guilty of another " ism," namely a truism, and
that a very trite one indeed. But though the Church recognises no
" ism," the world does, and for it I was writing.
If, indeed, I had laid down that Tractarianism, or any other "ism,"
was the depository of Church principles and the authority for them, he

15
might have written what he has,, but if he will look through my letter
again, he will see that I expressly stated that " I used the 'word in its
popular sense," in which sense it is not, in strict truth, applied to a
party, but to all who seek to obey their Church, no matter how widely
they differ in every other respect, or how studiously they disclaim any
party connection.
I explained that I meant by Tractarianism " the doctrines of the
English Church as laid down in the Prayer Book." I called it " The
Voice of the Reformed English Church," and I referred those who
wished to examine its claims, not to the " Tracts for the Times" but " to
the Law and to the Testimony, the Law of the Bible and the Testimony
of the Church"
But, Sir, I need not defend myself further. The gentleman who
has found fault with me must well know that I said all this and more
to the same purpose. It stared him in the face as he read my letter.
But he has written hastily. I almost suspect he had a fruitless journey
to Oxford a few months back to vote for Mr. Dudley Perceval, and has
been displeased by my assertion that Mr. Perceval was supported by the
mediocrity and ignorance of the University, and indeed, perhaps, I had
better have omitted the remark, and left the startling statistics I pro
duced to tell their own tale. Still, he should have grappled with my
facts and arguments, and not have had recourse to the easy expedient of
mis-stating me, in order that he might refute me.
Into the politics of his letter I cannot enter. My only object in
alluding to them was simply to show that Tractarianism is not allied,
as some say, with Popery and the Dark Ages ; no ! nor yet with Tory
ism and Protection, but with the progressive tendencies of the day, with
Free Trade and Education, and an extended Franchise, and above all,
with a greater regard for the welfare and' comfort of the masses : and
that, though Tractarianism has hitherto been proscribed and trampled
upon, it is now about to claim as its adherents the trusted political guides
of the nation, and, among them, that master mind which last Monday
night became the virtual head of the Cabinet, and whose presence in any
Cabinet this great commercial country will henceforth be very reluctant
to dispense with. It may suffice, therefore, to say on this head, that Mr.
Gladstone and his friends, in the opinion of many good judges, are doing
what they honestly deem the best, under all circumstances, for the inte
rests of the English Church, and that, even as Statesmen, they possess
the confidence of a large number of those who yield to none in devotion
to the Church, and who are not the least qualified among her sons to
discern her true policy in our already altered constitution, and in those
approaching political changes which are clearly inevitable.

16 '
Mr. Gladstone needs no defence of mine, but when your Corre'spon-'
dent styles him "the Champion of Jews, Infidels, and Papists," I ask
him how such a person can reasonably be supposed to be the chosen of
Oxford ? And when he declares that Mr. Gladstone " was not returned
by the votes of High Churchmen at the last election," I ask him if, he
has ever seen that long array of honoured names which composed his
Committee ? and how he explains the fact that among his supporters at
the poll is found almost every eminent leader in the different grades of
High Churchmanship, from Dr. Pusey down to plain, old-fashioned Dr.
Molesworth ? How is it that we meet not only with the names of
Marriot, Wilberforce, and Keble; not only again with judicious Dr.
Hook, with Churton, Sewell, Claughton, Jelf, Gresley, Creswell, &c, but
even with those more moderate still, such as Archdeacons- Sandford,
Harrison, and Grant, Professor Hussey, and even Sir T. D. Acland.
If your Correspondent will examine the poll-book, which in this
case would have taught him to deal more in facts and less in assertions,
he will find that " at the last election " only 49 of Mr. Gladstone's sup-
' porters turned round and voted for Mr. Perceval, having in 1 852 voted
for Mr. Gladstone against Dr. Marsham; while about 100 more, for
different reasons, took no part in the election. On the other hand only
70 voted for Mr. Gladstone in 1 853 who had not voted for him in 1852, and
of these many were High Churchmen. As nearly as can be calculated, not
more than 25 Whigs voted for him in 1853 who had not supported him in
1852. So that, substantially, Mr. Gladstone was returned "at the last elec
tion" by the same men who supported him in 1852 as a Conservative. The
difference is that his majority on this last occasion was diminished by
the secession of three, and only three, men of note, namely, Dr. Spry,
Mr. Bennett, and Archdeacon Denison, together with a certain number
of the country Clergy, whose scruples were naturally excited by Mr.
Gladstone's joining the Coalition Ministry, and who, perhaps, do not, as
yet, quite understand one who foresees with the eye of a Statesman the
coming emergencies of the Church, before they are actually present, and
shapes his course accordingly. I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,
A CHURCHMAN.
P.S. — Of the University Tutors 74 voted for Mr. Gladstone and 14
against him ! Is Oxford fallen so very low, or are Mr. Gladstone's
principles less dangerous in reality than they are in the eyes of your
Correspondent !

William Hoclgetts, Printer, Cannon Street, Birmingham.

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