n certain "scriptural characters"--that was their phrase--who had
hitherto always been regarded as sacred, comparatively sacred, the
bishop had brought the tips of the fingers of one hand in immediate,
or almost immediate, contact with the tips of the fingers of his
other hand, and had shaken his head--mournfully, sadly. These signs of
acquiescence, trifling though they were, had encouraged the deputation
that once waited on his lordship--two military men (retired on the
age clause), an officer of engineers (on the active list), a solicitor
(retired), and a member of the London County Council (by occupation an
ironmonger), to express the direct opinion that the scandal which had
been created by the dissemination--the unrebuked dissemination--of the
doctrines held by the rector of St. Chad's was affording the friends
of Disestablishment an additional argument in favor of their policy of
spoliation. At this statement his lordship had nodded his head three
times with a gravity that deeply impressed the spokesman of the
deputation. He wondered if his lordship had ever before heard that
phrase about the furnishing of an additional argument to the friends
of Disestablishment. (As a matter of fact his lordship had heard it
before.)

After an expression of the deputation's opinion that immediate steps
should be taken to make the rector of St. Chad's amenable to the laws of
the Church,

His lordship replied.

(It was his facility in making conciliatory replies that had brought
about his elevation in the Church):

He referred to (1) his deep appreciation of the sincerity of the
deputation; (2) his own sense of responsibility in regard to the
feelings of the weaker brethren; (3) his appreciation of the value of
the counsel of practical men in many affairs of the Church; (4) the
existing position of the Church in regard to the laity; (5) the friendly
relations that had always existed between himself personally and the
clergy of his extensive diocese; (6) his earnest and prayerful desire
that these relations might be strengthened; (7) the insecurity of a
house divided against itself; (8) the progress of socialism; (9) the
impossibility of socialism commending itself to Englishmen; (10) the
recent anarchist outrages; (11) the purity of the Court of her
Majesty the Queen; (12) the union of all Christian Churches; (13) the
impossibility of such union ever becoming permanent; (14) the value of
Holy Scripture in daily life; (15) his