MR. ALLIES' "A LIFE'S DECISION."• Mu. ALLIES wrote, in 1853,
an account of the questionings, the studies, and the struggles, mental and moral, which had ended three years before in his abandoning his position as an Angli- can clergyman. He now prints his manuscript. It is, in fact, his "Apologia pro Vita Sua," and though it cannot be com- pared, either as regards literary ability or nobility of tone, with its famous prototype, it is an interesting record. A man of considerable intellectual activity, who lived in the midst of a great religions movement, and had his share, not prominent, perhaps, yet not unimportant, in it ; who was brought into con- tact with greater men than himself, with some who, like Keble and Pusey, remained where they were, and others, like Man- ning and Newman, who made the same choice as himself,—such a man, writing a candid and intelligent account of the pro- cesses of thought, reading, and observation which led him to his conclusion, cannot fail to interest his readers.
Doubtless the book has, in one point of view, a considerable con- troversial value. Granted the premisses with which Mr. Allies starts, it is difficult to avoid arriving at his conclusion. Of course, these premisses are a very large postulate indeed. He does not attempt, it seems, to form any conception of the Christianity of Christ and his Apostles—to realise, for in- stance, the Pauline idea of the Church, and see whether it is embodied in the system of Rome—but he tries to discover whether Anglicanism ,possesses certain " notes," which he de- termines, certainly not from any study of the New Testament, to be essential to the Church. He makes the fiercest efforts to stay where he is. He is like a man who, slipping down some dangerous declivity, clings frantically to every projection. At one time, he did get hold of some theory of a " Patriarchal System," which seemed to give him standing-ground, and held to it for a while ; but it gave way, like the rest, and he had to make the plunge. Now, there are not a few Anglicans in the same position ; and we can very well imagine that the account of this process of reluctant progress may exercise a very powerful
A We's Decision. By T. W. Allies, M.A. Loudon : C. Kagan Paul and Co.
and even deciding influence upon them. Well, we cannot pre- tend to regret it. Vile damnum si exierint. And if they find peace where they have had anxious questioning, so much the better for them. We cannot conceive how any man who holds with every Roman dogma and practice, but stumbles at the supremacy of Peter, can hesitate long. He can lose so little ; he may gain so much.
To those, of course, who occupy our position, all this goes as nothing. Nor do we put much value on Mr. Allies' discovery that a parish cannot be worked without Confession. It depends so entirely on what the ideal of a well-worked parish is. We could name parishes which are worked thoroughly well, according to our judgment, on the Anglican system. But then they would not satisfy the ideal of the Roman priest. To many readers, the chief interest of A Life's Decision will be in the sometimes very nail revelations of personal feeling which it contains. We cannot say that they always give us a very high idea of Mr. Allies' modesty,. but they are always interesting. There is one curious instance early in the book. Bishop Blomfield makes Mr. 'Allies, then a clergyman of two or three years' standing, his chaplain. But he was not of the stuff to cat a good chaplain from. He would argue with his Bishop, and criticise him and his opinions pretty freely. A friend of the Bishop called him, we are told, "a little bantam-cock." His criticisms on his Bishop could hardly be borne. We wonder what a French bishop would have done. It is impossible to conceive his chaplain doing such a thing ; and he would be a bold curd who should dare to criticise his superior, not at the Bishop's table, which would be quite out of the question, but at his own. Bishop Blomfield, however, gave his young critic a living, Launton, in Oxfordshire. Mr. Allies has the strongest sense of the cruelty of this conduct,— "Being sent to Launton was a disgrace which I had incurred for following bond fide my principles, and not being Lambethised.. It seemed to destroy my prospects, remove me out of the way of distinctions, from friends and connections, and the power of influencing others, especially the young." " Where and what is Launton ?" the reader will ask. A miserable " starving," as near Siberia as the Bishop could find P Not so. Launton is about fifty miles from London, and worth 2600 per annum,— good enough, the Bishop afterwards thought, for one of his own sons. Here were disgrace and ruin to a young clergyman of thirty, or so ! But why did he take it P Anyhow, it gave him the power of buying " a hundred pounds' worth of the Fathers," —and, we presume, of marrying. If Mr. Allies wants our candid opinion, we should say that the Bishop was even overkind to him.
We could wish that Mr. Allies had thought fit to blot out some unkind expressions, which it was quite excusable for him to write in 1853, but which should not have been printed now. There is a peculiarly unhappy reference to Archbishop Howley. It reminds us of the editor of the Eatansu:ill Independent, with hie, " What if we were to print ? &c.," when we find Mr. Allies Baying, " I was disgusted with old Howley, especially with his
moderation and venerableness.' In these words I was think- ing, without applying it, of Ward's remark,—` f a man be called " moderate " or " venerable," beware of him ; but if both, you may be sure he is a scoundrel.' " There are some not very charitable things said of the Bishop of Oxford ; and some reflections on Anglicans of certain opinions who, nevertheless, retain their positions, which strike us as a trifle hard, as coming from one who kept his own living six years after he had ceased to have any confidence in Anglicanism.
The book, it will have been seen, has blemishes. We could wish that some passages in it had not been published. Being published, it is, from any point of view, well worth reading.
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