1846.] 



THE CURATE. 



81 



with the rich Dissenters, and hook them in, and he knows that 

 Mr. C.'s ways will prevent it; so he has resolved to turn him 

 off, and has written to the Bishop, making an especial charge 

 against him for his violence against Dissenters, though he was 

 engaged for the express purpose of opposing our influence. . . . 

 He also tried to prevent his getting another curacy in the 

 neighbourhood. So, at Mr. C.'s request (for he has become 

 excessively friendly with me of late, now we are brothers in 

 misfortune, though he tells me I shall be damned), I wrote a 

 letter to Mr. Crompton, who wished to engage him. In this I 

 said that Mr. C. had certainly been very violent against us ; 

 but I thought him far more consistent with the doctrines of the 

 Prayer-book than those who professed greater liberality. I 

 praised him for his plain-speaking, zeal among the poor, etc., 

 and said that though opposed in doctrine, he had always treated 

 me in the kindest manner. Mr. Crompton went to the Bishop 

 armed with this letter and another; but the Bishop would 

 not read either. So the congregation signed a memorial in his 

 favour, with about six hundred names; and some arbitrators 

 between the two parties decided that it should be sent to the 

 Bishop. And they got me to write another letter, in which I 

 spoke in the same way as before; and also said that as I 

 mixed very much with the working classes, and knew their 

 feelings, I could state from experience that, before Mr. C. 

 came, almost all looked on the church as an engine of the 

 State for the benefit of the rich ; but that Mr. C. had shown 

 them that there was at least one clergyman determined to do 

 his duty ; and said that though we were opposed on one point, 

 yet we were each desirous of teaching men to live soberly, etc. 

 (Titus ii. 12-14). This gave great delight to the leading church- 

 folks, who before were very bitter against me ; so if it does no 

 more good, it has at any rate removed prejudice. It's a new 

 thing for a no-creedian parson to be recommending a Puseyite 

 clergyman to the Bishop, is it not ? Well, dear Charles, I meet 

 you daily at the throne of grace, and if we could daguerreotype 

 thoughts with the sunshine of love, you would be inundated 

 with letters from me." 



G 



