said, that his friends might be able in the meantime to arrange
some _formula concordiae_ which might avert the scandal and mischief
of the dismissal. Sir J. Patteson, Sir B. Brodie, and Mr. Green
supported the amendment, but the majority went the other way, and
much was I grieved at it. I am not inclined to abate the dogmatic
profession of the church--on the contrary, nothing would induce me
to surrender the smallest fraction of it; but while jealous of its
infraction in any particular, I am not less jealous of the
obtrusion of any private or local opinion into the region of dogma;
and above all I hold that there should be as much rigour in a trial
of this kind, irrespective of the high character and distinguished
powers of the person charged in this particular case, as if he were
indicted for murder.[283]

DEFENCE OF MAURICE

Long afterwards, when the alleged heretic was dead, Mr. Gladstone wrote
of him to Mr. Macmillan (April 11, 1884): 'Maurice is indeed a spiritual
splendour, to borrow the phrase of Dante about St. Dominic. His
intellectual constitution had long been, and still is, to me a good
deal of an enigma. When I remember what is said and thought of him, and
by whom, I feel that this must be greatly my own fault.' Some years
after the affair at King's College, Maurice was appointed to Vere
Street, and the attack upon him was renewed. Mr. Gladstone was one of
those who signed an address of recognition and congratulation.

FOOTNOTES:

[278] Memo, by Mr. Gladstone of a conversation with Aberdeen.

[279] The practical impossibility of retaining this learned man, the
Derbyite chancellor, upon the coalition woolsack, is an illustration of
the tenacity of the modern party system.

[280] It was not until the rise of Mr. Gladstone that a chancellor of
the exchequer, not being prime minister, stood at this high level.

[281] From the Baring papers, for which I am indebted to the kindness of
Lord Northbrook.

[282] _Times_, December 23, 1852.

[283] See _Life of Maurice_, ii. p. 195; _Life of Wilberforce_, ii. pp.
208-218. See also Mr. Gladstone's letter to Bishop Hampden, 1856, above
p. 168.

CHAPTER II

THE TRIUMPH OF 1853

(_1853_)

We have not sought to evade the difficulties of our position.... We
have not atte