51 



THE 605th ordinary MEETING, 



HELD IN COMMITTEE ROOM B, THE CENTRAL HALL, 

 WESTMINSTER, ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3rd, 1919, 



AT 4.30 P.M. 



Professor H. Langhorne Orchard, M.A., B.Sc, 

 IN THE Chair. 



The Minutes of the previous Meeting were read, confirmed, and signed . 



Mr. A. W. Oke (in the absence of the Hon. Secretary, Mr. Sewell, on 

 account of illness) announced the election of two Associates, Miss A. C. 

 Knox and Mrs. Harry Barker. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF BISHOP BUTLER. By the Rev, 

 Herbert J. R. MArston, M.A., Rector of Lydford-on- 

 Fosse, Somerset, and sometime Fellow of the Universit}' 

 of Durham. 



ENGLISH life during the first thirty years of the eighteenth 

 century was in its moral and intellectual aspects dreary 

 and sterile in the extreme. Faith had dwindled ; Morahty 

 was low ; Zeal was no more, except for a few fanaticisms in 

 pohtics and church manship. 



The nation, weary of strife, glad of security under a firm and 

 tolerant government, addressed itself to the task of becoming 

 opulent and comfortable. The Church, administered by a bench 

 of bishops most of whom were mere placemen tinctured with 

 the irrehgion of the Whigs, and some of whom were frankly 

 heterodox, dozed dully among the ruins of her creed and the 

 neglect of her people, heedless of the past and of the responsibih- 

 ties of the future. 



Throughout this period the influence of Sir Robert Walpole 

 was dommant in our pubhc life. By the unscrupulous use ol 

 corruption he abohshed Parliamentary opposition, and almost 

 abohshed Parhament itself. Profane and jovial in private hfe, 

 and without any sense of pohtical virtue, he nevertheless guided 

 the destinies of the country with extraordinary skill and success ; 



