which God has given me amongst the
cares of the Episcopal office. What my feelings of respect, of
confidence, and of affection have been towards you, you know well,
nor should I think of expressing them in words. But there is one
thing that has struck me in this day of explanations, which you could
not, and would not, be disposed to do, and which no one could do so
properly or so authentically as I could, and which it seems to me is
not altogether uncalled for, if every kind of erroneous impression
that some persons have entertained with no better evidence than
conjecture is to be removed.

"It is difficult to comprehend how, in the face of facts, the notion
should ever have arisen that, during your Catholic life, you have
been more occupied with your own thoughts than with the service of
religion and the work of the Church. If we take no other work into
consideration beyond the written productions which your Catholic pen
has given to the world, they are enough for the life's labour of
another. There are the Lectures on Anglican Difficulties, the
Lectures on Catholicism in England, the great work on the Scope
and End of University Education, that on the Office and Work of
Universities, the Lectures and Essays on University Subjects, and the
two Volumes of Sermons; not to speak of your contributions to the
Atlantis, which you founded, and to other periodicals; then there are
those beautiful offerings to Catholic literature, the Lectures on the
Turks, Loss and Gain, and Callista, and though last, not least, the
Apologia, which is destined to put many idle rumours to rest, and
many unprofitable surmises; and yet all these productions represent
but a portion of your labour, and that in the second half of your
period of public life.

"These works have been written in the midst of labour and cares of
another kind, and of which the world knows very little. I will
specify four of these undertakings, each of a distinct character, and
any one of which would have made a reputation for untiring energy in
the practical order.

"The first of these undertakings was the establishment of the
congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri--that great ornament
and accession to the force of English Catholicity. Both the London
and the Birmingham Oratory must look to you as their founder and as
the originator of their characteristic excellences; whilst that of
Birmingham has never known any other presidency.

"No sooner was this work