al.

I have one anecdote from Mr. Greenwood which will sufficiently
illustrate this statement. Lord Palmerston died on October 18, 1865. On
October 27 he was buried in Westminster Abbey. Fitzjames came to the
'Pall Mall Gazette' office and proposed to write an article upon the
occasion. He went for the purpose into a room divided by a thin
partition from that in which Mr. Greenwood sat. Mr. Greenwood
unintentionally became aware, in consequence, that the article was
composed literally with prayer and with tears. No one who turns to it
will be surprised at the statement. He begins by saying that we are
paying honour to a man for a patriotic high spirit which enabled him to
take a conspicuous part in building up the great fabric of the British
Empire. But he was also--as all who were taking part in the ceremony
believed in their hearts--a 'man of the world' and 'a man of pleasure.'
Do we, then, disbelieve in our own creed, or are we engaged in a solemn
mockery? Palmerston had not obeyed the conditions under which alone, as
every preacher will tell us, heaven can be hoped for. Patriotism, good
nature, and so forth are, as we are told, mere 'filthy rags' of no avail
in the sight of heaven. If this belief be genuine, the service must be a
mockery. But he fully believes that it is not genuine. The preachers are
inconsistent, but it is an honourable inconsistency. If good and evil be
not empty labels of insincere flattery, it is 'right, meet, and our
bounden duty' to do what is being done even now--to kneel beside the
'great, good, and simple man whom we all deplore,' and to thank God that
it has pleased Him to remove our brother 'out of the miseries of this
sinful world.'

'Our miserable technical rules reach but a little way into the mystery'
which 'dimly foreshadows that whatever we with our small capacities have
been able to love and honour, God, who is infinitely wiser, juster, and
more powerful, will love and honour too, and that whatever we have been
compelled to blame, God, who is too pure to endure unrighteousness, will
deal with, not revengefully or capriciously, but justly and with a
righteous purpose. Whatever else we believe, it is the cardinal
doctrine of all belief worth having that the Judge of all the earth will
do right; that His justice is confined to no rules; that His mercy is
over all the earth; and that revenge, caprice, and cruelty can have no
place in His punishments.'

Few leading articles, I take