MEMOIR OF BISHOP STANLEY. * ALTHOUGH the late Edward Stanley of
Alderley was indebted to his ancient family and his Whig politics for the bishopric of Norwich, his character was such as to entitle him, without those adventitious aids, to a seat on the Episcopal Bench, where men of different natures should find a place, as representing various interests of the Church. He was not a profound scholar or a deep divine ; he was not the sort of man to sink Christianity in theology, even had his genius disposed him to hair-splitting metaphysics ; and he had not the unction, so prone to degenerate into cant or blarney, which is sometimes a trait both of Evangelicals and Romanists. Edward Stanley was a sound and sensible English Protestant, as Protestants were before the late religious movements had stirred their bile. He preached justification by faith, but dwelt largely upon works as an indispensable proof of faith; he upheld residence as a matter of duty ; he opposed pluralities unless where two small livings -were in proximity ; he encouraged renovation and even decoration of churches ; he wished a revision of the Articles and the Prayerbook, especially objecting to the Creed of St. Athanasius and the words of the Absolution,—thouqh when he became a Bishop he saw the difficulties of the undertaking ; he was altogether opposed to the Apostolical Succession and Tractarianism, while acknowledging the learning and piety of many Tractarians, and rather leaning to their taste in architecture and painting. Largely tolerant himself both of Romanists and Dissenters, and looking to essentials in all things, he did not attach much weight to the use of the surplice in the pulpit, or other forms of spurious Romanism,—failing, as it strikes us, to see that a mode perfectly indifferent in itself may become important as "the sign of a thing signified."
There was not much of incident or variety in the life of Edward Stanley. He was born in 1779, and was the second son of Sir Tohn Thomas Stanley, of the Stanleys of Alderley in Cheshire; whose historic origin runs back to the time of Edward the Fourth. A vigorous constitution, a love of enterprise, and a visit to the sea in childhood, turned the wishes of the future Bishop to the Navy ; but the family living of Alderley was too valuable to be lost, and Edward was by his father destined to the Church. His early education was neglected or marred by frequent removals from one private school or tutor to another. When he went to Cambridge University, in 1798, he found he had to begin his studies. "Of Greek he was entirely, of Latin almost entirely ignorant ; and of mathematics he knew only what he had acquired at one of the private schools where he had been placed when quite a child. This deficiency, now that he was for the first time become his own master, he remedied to a great extent by unremitting exertions. Ile acquainted himself with the classical languages sufficiently for common purposes, and in mathematics he made such proficiency as to appear as a Wrangler in the Mathematical Tripes of 1802." On leaving College, he made a tour through Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. After ordination, he officiated
• for three years as curate of Windlesham in Surrey ; in 1805 he was presented to the family living; in 1810 he married; and at Alderley he remained till 1837, when he was appointed to the bishopric of Norwich, having previously declined that of Manchester, and accepting that of Norwich with unwillingness and hesitation—unwillingness to part with his people, and hesitation as to his fitness for the office. The stir occasionally made through his kindly incautiousness, such as subscribing to the work of a Unitarian minister, or by liberal advocacy of opinions unmusical to high ears, on Education, Subscription, or Church Reform, must be fresh in the memory of those who attend to theological occurrences: for it is remarkable how much stir is made in the clerical world about a man's being supposed to entertain earnest though peculiar opinions on discipline, or probably on doctrine. -Whether he has a real sense of vital religion, or whether he has any religious opinions at all, is a question never mooted.
And when we look at the innate bias and the early education of Edward Stanley, with the circumstance that his father "put " him in the Church of England, it would seem that in his case at the outset of his career the last ground of danger was the greatest. At that time of life, he probably did not feel any inspiring call to the ministry ; but the same sense of duty that would have made him a thorough seaman made him an exemplary and useful divine, to the great scandal of the sporting parsons who abounded half a century ago.
"The state of a country cure at the time of his entrance into holy orders offered a field for pastoral exertion of more difficulty than would be the case at present in any similar post, and Alderley was no exception to the general rule. The parish, which consisted of an agricultural population of about thirteen hundred souls, had from the long apathy or non-residence of the
previous incumbent been greatly neglected. The clerk used to go to the churchyard-stile to see whether there were any more coming to church, for there were seldom enough to make a congregation." The rector used to boast that he had never set foot in a sick person's cottage.' And although this was probably a more than usually unfavourable specimen of ministerial neglect, the average standard of the neighbouring clergy was not likely to present a high model of excellence to a new comer. All who could afford it bunted ; few, if any, rose above the ordinary routine of the stated services of the Church."
He not only reformed the grosser instances of professional neglect, and dui his clerical duty with a zeal which brought upon him the charge of Methodism, but encouraged schools and adopted the syatem of parochial visitation.
• Addresses and Charges of Edward Stanley, D.D., late Bishop of Norwich. With a Memoir by his Son, Arthur Peorhyn Stanley, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of University College, Oxford. Published by Murray.
"His visits to the poor wore made in weekly rounds, according to a regular distribution of the parish, by which every liOuse was included in systematic order, without waiting, as was probably at that time the usual practice is the vicinity, for the calls of the sick or dying. But it was not so much by the frequency as by the manner of those visits that he made himself not only the minister but the friend of his parishioners. Without losing for a moment the advantage which birth and station always give to an English gentleman in his dealings with the poor, he yet descended to the level of their tastes and pursuits; he entered into their humour, and tried to make them enter into his; he caressed their children, and through them won the hearts of the parents; he accommodated his addresses in the pulpit and his conversation in the cottages to their simple apprehensions ; he spoke to them of their common pursuits and cares as if he were one of themselvrs; and the result was, that they were cheered and animated by his presence and his aefive interest in their welfare, as well as warned and consoled by his instructions. When he looked into the schools, it was not merely to glance round the classes, or to ask a few formal questions to see that all was in order, but he had something to say to each individual scholar, of encouragement or rebuke. In his rides round the parish the children used to run out of the houses to catch the wonted smile, or gesture, or call, of the rector as he passed, or to claim the cakes and gingerbread that he brought with him for those whose hands and faces were clean; and the poor cottagers long afterwards described how their hearts beat with delight as they heard the short quick trampling of his horse's feet as he went galloping up their lanes, and the sound of his voice as he called out to them before he reached the house, to come out and speak to him, or hold his pony as he went in. 'When he entered a sick chamber, he never failed to express the joy which neatness and order gave him, or to reprove where he found it otherwise.' Whatever was to be done in the parish for their good, they were sure to find in him an active supporter. 'He took so much trouble,' they said, 'in whatever he did—never sparing himself for whatever he took in hand.' The rectory became the 'home' of the parish. Ho sold daily at his house, to the honest and industrious poor, blanketing, clothing, &c., at a cheaper rate than the cost price (a practice then much less frequent in country parishes than at present). In the winter evenings he lent out books to read ; and generally for anything that was wanted, whether in the way of advice or relief, his house was the constant resort of all who were in difficulty. He established weekly cottagelectures at different points in the parish for the old and infirm who were unable to walk to church.
"In the hope of producing an effect upon those who were less likely to be impressed by the usual ministrations of the Church, he used from time to time to issue printed or lithographed addresses to his parishioners on observance of the Sabbath, on prayer, on sickness, on confirmation. In the public-houses, with the same view, he caused large placards to be framed containing a few short and simple exhortations to a sober and religious life, such as might arrest the attention of the passer-by ; and on the walls and public places of the parish he had similar papers posted up, denouncing in strong language (what was a crying sin of the country population o.f Cheshire) the vice of drunkenness. To repress this great evil he spared no personal sacrifice. Whenever,' such was the homely expression of the people, whenever there was a drunken fight down at the village, and he knew of it, he would always come out to stop it—there was such a spirit in him.'
On one of these occasions, ,were brought to him of a riotous crowd which had assembled to witness adesperate prize-fight, adjourned to the outskirts of his parish, and which the respectable inhabitants were unable to disperse. 'The whole field' (so one of the humbler neighbours represented it) was filled, and all the trees round about, when in about a quarter of an hour I saw the rector coming up the road on his little black horse as quick as lightning, and I trembled for fear they should harm him. He rode into the field and yust looked quick round (as if he thought the same) to see who there was that would be on his side. But it was not needed ; he rode into the midst of the crowd, and in one moment it was all over ; there was a great calm : the blows stopped ; it was as if they would all have wished to cover themselves up in the earth—all from the trees they dropped down directly—no one said a word, and all went away humbled.' The next day he sent for the two men, not to scold them, but to speak to them, and sent them each away with a Bible. The effect on the neighbourhood was very great, and put a stop to the practice, which had been for sonic time past prevalent in the adjacent districts."
The active occupations of a parish clergyman prevented Mr. Stanley from giving that systematic attention to study which alone can form a scholar ; but his natural taste for observation, and the time he passed in the open air, made him familiar with nature, and gave rise to his popular History of Birds. When he became a Bishop, the same sense of duty that impelled him to throw himself into the labours of a country minister, led him to conimence at fifty-eight a course of reading to qualify himself for the episcopacy; and though he did not reach to original investigation he was competently read in the English Fathers, and was ready with their authority on points of doctrine or the discipline of the English Church. It was in action rather than speculation that Bishop Stanley was conspicuous,—in assisting charities, in promoting education, in inculcating residence with punctual performance of regular duties, and in bearing his part as a Spiritual Peer in reforming the Church according to the requirements of the times. The same qualities that made him such an admirable country clergyman accompanied him to his larger sphere of action, and enabled him to do the same kind of good=—such good as Christ continually urged upon his followera—in the bishopric as in the parish. He di in 1849, aged seventy; having outlived all personal opposition, though perhaps those who admired the energy, activity, and charity of the man, could hardly bear with the opinions of the theologian. His funeral was a sight and something more. "'It was,' says Professor Sedgwick, 'the most touching and striking ceremonial I ever witnessed. The Mayor and Corporation, in their civic dresses covered with crape, led the way. Then followed the coffin and pall-bearers; then the family and mourners, among whom went Mr. Wodehouse and myself. About four hundred clergymen, in full robes, followed ; and lastly, a great multitude of the respectable inhabitants in the city and neighbourhood. The procession was so very long that I could only see a very small part of it. On reaching the Western door of the Cathedral there was a short halt. The doors were then thrown open, and on each side of the central aisle of the nave eleven hundred children from the different schools of the city were arranged in triple rows. The members of the Corporation descended through the nave to the choir, followed by the choristers in surplices and scarfs, chanting a psalm ; then the coffin and _pall-bearers, followed. immediately by the family and the rest in turn and in the order above described. I was told that the clerical body, walking four abreast, extended from the West door to the organ-screen. As soon as the choir was filled the door was closed, and the funeral service was read by Dr. Philpott and the Dean. After which we returned to the grave in the centre of the nave, keeping the same order as before ; the organ pealing the solemn Dead March in Saul. At the grave-side the choristers sang a solemn dirge, and then the concluding service was read by the Dean. There were thousands in the Cathedral; all parts of the triforium were filled. The organ-gallery was covered with spectators ; all were in mourning ; many were deeply affected. Many thousand eyes were dim with tears, and you could hear the modest and half-concealed sobs of the little children as you passed down the nave ; for the Bishop had visited all the schools again and again, and was loved by the children; and it was at his request, expressed in a written paper found in his study after his death, that they were all invited. The day was beautiful; and between the palace-gate and the Erpingham gate we marched through, I should think, not less than twenty thousand spectators, who were all respectful and silent, and many of whom were sorrowful. Nothing happened to break in upon or mar the moral sublimity of the solemn procession and service.'"
The present volume is a judicious and graceful tribute by a son to the memory of a father. It contains such of his charges, parochial addresses, and sermons, as distinctly exhibit the cha racter of the man and his mind, or contain such facts as throw a light upon his clerical career. These, which occupy about two thirds of • the volume, are introduced by a " Memoir " that goes somewhat sparingly into mere chronological events, dwelling chiefly and judiciously on characteristic traits and circumstances.
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