Annals of My Life, 1847-1856
by Charles Wordsworth (9781459033641)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III OXFORD ELECTION?1847 Mr. Gladstone and his policy in Church and State We are still in our first year (1847), and hitherto I have thought it best not to interrupt the narrative of events more or less directly connected with Glenalmond: so now I have to relate that earlier in that year, some three weeks before my visit to Fasque, the General Election had come off. It is to me an incident of melancholy retrospect. Gladstone, who had sat as member for Newark, through the influence of the Tory Duke of Newcastle, was invited to become a candidate for the University of Oxford, and I was urged to allow my name to be placed on the list of his Committee. What was I to do ? Could I canvass for him ? Could I vote for him ? There were many who tried to persuade me that I could, and ought to, do so; but his speech in support of Sir Robert Peel's measure in favour of an increased grant to the Roman Catholic College at May- nooth, taken in connection with what I had gathered from him in conversations at Winchester, seemed to me to involve principles which, sooner or later, must lead him to advocate the disestablishment of the Irish Church. John (now Lord Chief Justice) Coleridge, his father, the Judge, James Hope, Moberly, and others, having heard that I felt a difficulty in supporting Gladstone, all wrote letters endeavouring to overcome my scruples. To the first, who, as secretary to Gladstone's Oxford Committee, wrote requesting me to become a member, I replied as follows: Trinity College, Glenalmond: May 31, 1847. Dear Sir, ?I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, in which you ask me to vote for Mr. Gladstone, and further express a wish that I would allow my name to be placed upon his committee. I assure you it is quite painful to me even to hint the possi...

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