The Archbishop of York died on Christmas Day, in the
coma which frequently follows diabetes, from which he had long been suffering. He was certainly an able Archbishop, though he did not succeed in conciliating the Lower House of the York Convocation, and was, indeed, sometimes at daggers- drawn with it. Indeed, his whole policy was rather inade- quately comprehensive. He was not willing to concede enough to the High Church extremists, and concurred in the great mistake which led to the passing of the Public Worship Act. It was no doubt his advice that led Bishop Fraser into the unfortunate mistake of which Mr. Green's imprisonment was the result ; and much earlier in his career, when he was the Preacher at Lincoln's Inn and Frederick Maurice was Chaplain there, he did not lend his name to the protest against the foolish action of the King's College Council in depriving Mr. Maurice of his Professorship. But Dr. Thomson was a man of considerable ability, great generosity, and a certain magna- nimity in his attitude to his opponents. He was, on the whole, popular in his own diocese, and as a thinker be was considerable. His book on the necessary laws of thought was almost as good as it could be of its kind, and many of his sermons showed a masculine power of their own. Amongst the pre- lates of the present day, he was undoubtedly one of the ablest, though he could not compare with Archbishop Tait, and could not have delivered sack a judgment as Archbishop Benson.
