Mr. Newman and some of his immediate adherents have abandoned
the Church of England for that of Rome. The step, no doubt, constitutes an important event in religious politics. It substantiates all that has been said as to the Romanizing tendency of the Tractarian doctrines. On the other band, it attests the sincerity and disinterestedness of those who abandon a determined station to begin life anew. And it gives a substan- tive existence to that strange schism which has for so many many years been growing up. Whatever the present numerical strength of the Tractarians, they have constituted a formidable portion of the Oxford Convocation. Mr. Newman has been accounted the leading spirit of the party, although the name popularly given to them was borrowed from that of Dr. Pusey. Whatever their proportion to the entire mass, they have formed a remarkable section of the English Church ; and that remarkable
section has now, on its own part, set aside the Reformation of the sixteenth century, and reverted to the jurisdiction of the Holy See.
