The Record was so anxious, about a year ago, to
prove that in publishing Dr. Colenso's unpublished, and, so to say, suspensive, opinions, it was acting with strict delicacy, propriety, and honour, that it appears to have written to Natal for what it calls " cor- roborative evidence" that the Bishop had virtually published a book which we have his own word for asserting that he had care- fully withheld from publication for the revision of friends. The "corroborative evidence" received appears to have been that no copies were published in Natal, but that a large stock was printed, and subsequently burnt by the Bishop's order. But even this " corroborative evidence," which, if true, would corroborate the case against that honourable religious print, is imaginary. The Bishop denies to-day, in another column, that he ever had any large stock of copies, or ever sent out any order for committing a single copy to the flames. The'Record plunges deeper into the unhistorical at every step, and " corroborates " its opponents. We are glad to note, however, the evident uneasiness of its conscience as to a dis- creditable act now a year old. The next best thing to confession and expiation is a haunting memory and disordered dreams. We begin to hope for Lady Macbeth, when she murmurs in her delirium, " Thou can'st not say I did it."
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