LETTERS TO THE EDITOR,
THE BISHOP OF MANCHESTER AND HIS PUBLIC TALKS.
[TO THE EDITOR. OF THE "SPECTATOR.")
accept your criticism in the friendly spirit in which, I am sure, it is intended. I only wish that you had told me how to escape from a necessity which seems to be imposed upon me like a doom. If I were to act upon your advice of " reticence," I should have to strike out all but a minimum of the engagements which crowd the pages of my pocket-book. Thrown by Providence, and by no choice, or desire, or seeking of my own, into the midst of an active and energetic population, with probably a dozen towns of more than 50,000 inhabitants within easy reach of Man- chester, and at least three times as many so-called " villages," larger than most South-of-England towns, each with its various institutions, religious and secular, denominational and uncle- nominational, in full activity, I am continually pressed with invitations to attend public meetings or to preach sermons, for some object or other, in almost all of these. As usual, three courses are open to me. I must either accept as many of these invitations as I can find time for ; or I must make selections, which would certainly be deemed invidious, • "Atlantic Essays," p. 30. and give offence ; or I must refuse all. Rightly or wrongly, wisely or unwisely, and claiming so far the right of selection as to give a preference to those which seem to fall most properly within a bishop's province, 1 have taken the first course, and with a result which is as unwelcome to me as it can be to any one else. If I go where I am invited, I must speak ; for I am in- vited for that, and no other purpose ; and if I speak, unfortu- nately for me, I am reported ; and though I am perfectly aware that much of what falls from me on such occasions does not deserve the publicity it seems to attain, and which certainly I do not court. I cannot prevent reporters from reporting, or editors from inserting, what they please. If any one supposes that I have an unhealthy appetite, which cannot be satisfied but with this kind of notoriety, such a person was never more mistaken in his life. So I trust, in charity, that those who cry—as you say people do cry—" the Bishop of Man- chester again," will at least remember the difficulties of the Bishop of Manchester's position. I. would give much to be permitted, without sinking into uselessness, to hold my tongue, except on the rare occasions when I may wish to explain the motives that govern my conduct ; and when I do speak, to feel sure that my words would not travel beyond the audience to which-they are addressed. But situated as I am, and (as it seems to me) no other bishop in England similarly is, will you or any other kind and candid friend tell me what I am to do ? I am afraid, after all, that I shall be obliged to continue to act upon my own judg- ment, and at the risk of offending, perhaps justly, the nicer taste of " cultivated people," try, according to my lights, to do the best I can for " the masses " by whom I am surrounded. I must sub- mit, with the best grace I can, to the criticism of the Clubs and of the literary world at large.—I am, Sir, &c., J. MANCHESTER.
[Nay ; we expressed frankly a certain impatience of the Bishop's many "talks," but our advice was distinctly to act as Dr. Fraser in this letter announces his intention of acting.—En. Spectator.]
Previous page
