ngelical
than to Tractarian or Romanising views in matters of doctrine. At one
time the extreme High Churchmen regarded him as an enemy. But this
unfriendliness had almost died away when the death of his wife and his
only son (a young man of singularly winning character), followed by
his own long illness, stilled the voices of criticism.

He exerted great influence in the House of Lords by his tact, by his
firmness of character, and by the consistency of his public course, as
well as by powers of speech, which, matured by long practice, had
risen to a high level. Without eloquence, without either imagination
or passion, which are the chief elements in eloquence, he had a grave,
weighty, thoughtful style which impressed that fastidious audience.
His voice was strong and sonorous, his diction plain yet pure and
dignified, his matter well considered. His thought moved on a high
plane; he spoke as one who fully believed every word he said. The late
Bishop of Winchester, the famous Dr. Samuel Wilberforce, was
incomparably his superior not only as a talker but as an orator, but
no less inferior in his power over the House of Lords, for so little
does rhetorical brilliance count in a critical and practical assembly.
Next to courage, the quality which gains trust and regard in a
deliberative body is that which is familiarly described when it is
said of a man, "You always know where to find him." Tait belonged to
no party. But his principles, though not rigid, were fixed and
settled; his words and votes were the expression of his principles.

The presence of bishops in the House of Lords is disapproved by some
sections of English opinion, and there are those among the temporal
peers who, quite apart from any political feeling, are said to regard
them with little favour. But every one must admit that they have
raised and adorned the debates in that chamber. Besides Tait and
Wilberforce, two other prelates of the same generation stood in the
front rank of speakers, Dr. Magee, whose wit and fire would have found
a more fitting theatre in the House of Commons, and Dr. Thirlwall, a
scholar and historian whose massive intellect and stately diction were
too rarely used to raise great political issues above the dust-storms
of party controversy.

Perhaps no Archbishop since the Revolution of 1688 has exercised so
much influence as Dr. Tait, and certainly none within living memory is
so well entitled to be credited with a definite eccl