CORRESPONDENCE 209 



As a matter of course all this mass of corre- 

 spondence involved him very often in lengthened 

 paper warfares. These he carried on with the 

 greatest animation and determination ; indeed, he 

 was truly in his element when engaged in them. 

 He attacked abuses and evils of many kinds regard- 

 less of the consequences, and simply because they 

 were evils in his eyes. His capacity for carrying 

 on these pen-and-ink battles was practically inex- 

 haustible. No amount of abuse, or ridicule, or 

 argument made any difference when he felt he 

 had a cause at heart that was worth fighting for, 

 whereby some good might be done. It is probable 

 that few, if any, among the clergy have ever written 

 so much in this way, and therefore have had heaped 

 upon them so much invective as he. It was, as I 

 have before said, useless to attempt to silence him. 

 He might at times be worsted in argument, but that 

 only added fuel to the flames ; for if he failed in 

 making good his case by one method, two others 

 were at once brought to bear upon the point at 

 issue, so that his resources seemed endless. 



At times, no doubt, he was hardly dealt with, and 

 had to confront misrepresentation. The following 

 is an example of the kind of treatment he some- 

 times received, and of his way of meeting it. He 

 had sent petitions to Parliament many times on 

 the subject of vivisection. When a petition for its 

 total abolition was refused, he asked that, as a con- 

 cession towards it, all experiments should be made 

 in public. And yet, forsooth, because he took this 



O 



