dignities as to have
become almost a model to his own and the next generation of what an
Archbishop of Canterbury ought to be? In the statesmanlike quality of
his mind. He had not merely moderation, but what, though often
confounded with moderation, is something rarer and better, a steady
balance of mind. He was carried about by no winds of doctrine. He
seldom yielded to impulses, and was never so seduced by any one theory
as to lose sight of other views and conditions which had to be
regarded. He was, I think, the first man of Scottish birth who ever
rose to be Primate of England, and he had the cautious self-restraint
which is deemed characteristic of his nation. He knew how to be
dignified without assumption, firm without vehemence, prudent without
timidity, judicious without coldness. He was, above all things, a
singularly just man, who recognised every one's rights, and did not
seek to overbear them by an exercise of authority. He was as ready to
listen to his opponents as to his friends. Indeed, he so held himself
as to appear to have no opponents, but to be rather a judge before
whom different advocates were stating their respective cases, than a
leader seeking to make his own views or his own party prevail. Genial
he could hardly be called, for there was little warmth, little display
of emotion, in his manner; and the clergy noted, at least in his
earlier episcopal days, a touch of the headmaster in his way of
receiving them. But he was simple and kindly, capable of seeing the
humorous side of things, desiring to believe the good rather than the
evil, and to lead people instead of driving them. With all his caution
he was direct and straightforward, saying no more than was necessary,
but saying nothing he had occasion to be ashamed of. He sometimes made
mistakes, but they were not mistakes of the heart, and, being free
from vanity or self-conceit, he was willing in his quiet way to admit
them and to alter his course accordingly. So his character by degrees
gained upon the nation, and so even ecclesiastical partisanship,
proverbially more bitter than political, because it springs from
deeper wells of feeling, grew to respect and spare him. The influence
he obtained went far to strengthen the position of the Established
Church, and to keep its several parties from breaking out into more
open hostility with one another. He himself inclined to what might be
called a moderate Broad Church attitude, leaning more to Eva