The Press.
London, England, 1853-06-25 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

80

IMAGINARY CONVERSATIONS OF EMINENT MEN.
THE BISHOP OF OXFORD AND MR. COBDEN.

"On Wards Sir William and Lady llolesworth entertained at dinner the VIM&
Ambassador and Walewski, the Duka and Duchess of Argyll, the Berl of Aber.
deem, Mr. Delano, Sir James and Lady Graham, Mr. Cobden, and the Bishop of Wed."
Mersin/ Pest June W.

Bishop of OXFORD: I should be honoured, and deeply gratified, by
taking wine with Mr. Cobden.
Mr. COBDILN: I am not a teetotaller, though I signed a declaration
against the use of spirituous and fermented liquids by the
working classes.
Bishop of OXFORD: The working classes will naturally listen with
the utmost deference to their most distinguished benefactor.
Mr. COBDRN : I cannot pretend to be that; I did my best, like many
others. The Bishop of Oxford, if I mistake not, was not
wanting in his efforts.
Bishop of OXFORD: I hope I did not shrink from the fray. I con-
fess to you I was, if not converted, at least confirmed and
encouraged, by your appeals. After all, as you well observed,
there is nothing like a great principle. The principle of
freedom is the principle of the age. The " genius of the
epoch" is hostile to all restrictions. Intercourse can endure
no limits, and the energies of man must have full play.
Monopoly is essentially the privilege of individual exertions
in a state of very imperfect civilisation. This country has
clearly outgrown its swaddling clothes. Besides, the principle
of freedom had hereditary claims on my devotion.
Mr. Colinas : Yes ; you bear an honoured name, and a West Riding
name too.
Bishop of OXFORD: Ah! what a magnificent community is the West
Riding, and what a proud privilege to be its representative !
I will not say, were I not Alexander, I would be Parmenio ;
but, were I not Bishop of Oxford, I should be, by no means,
disinclined to be Member for Yorkshire.
Mr. COBDEN : Well, I was standing at the bar of the House of Lords
the other day when your Lordship was addressing it, and I
said to Bright that I thought our House would suit your style
better.

Bishop of OXFORD: A very interesting man your friend Mr. Bright.
I have not yet the pleasure of his acquaintance, but I look
forward to making it with very sincere gratification.
Mr. Comas : Yes ; he is a man of great ability, and of very deter-
mined views.
Bishop of OXFORD: Determined views are the
strong mind.
Mr. COBDEN : I hardly know which is most remarkable in Bright,
his energy, or his desire to apply it. I often say of Bright
that if "he were not a Quaker he would be a pugilist."
Bishop of OXFORD : The Quakers are a very interesting sect; I have
no sort of prejudice against them. They are not near so bad
as the Jews, and certainly preferable to the Socinians.
Mr. COBDEN : Well, my Lord, I tun myself a Churchman—
Bishop of OXFORD : Oh ! I know it ;—I know it well, Mr. Cobden.
Well am I aware that you are a true son of the Church ; and
really, to be sure, looking around us, with so many Pres-
byterians, and a Hobbist for a host, though the best man in
the world, I can assure you, Mr. Cobden, that, though I have
not many prejudices, there is a satisfaction in sitting next to
a sound Churchman.

of a

Mr. Cosmoi : But I was going to say, my Lord, that, though a
Churchman, and I suppose a sound Churchman, for I believe
what my mother believed, who first took me to church—
Bishop of OXFORD : The spirit of woman has been, under Divine
Providence, a blessed instrument for the propagation of the
faith, and the endowment of the Church.
Mr. COBDEN : Well, that was what I was just going to touch upon.
As your Lordship just said, there is nothing like a great prin.
eiple, and, though a true Churchman, I want to know why the
great principle of freedom should not be applied to the Church
as well as to everything else ? Why should there be bounties
and restrictions in theology any more than in commerce ?
And what is endowment (for example) but a bounty?
Bishop of OXFORD: An offering to Him from whom all bounties flow.
This is an extremely pretty house.
Mr. COBDEN : Why should there be thirty-nine articles, any_ more
than forty? Why any restrictions on discussion ?
Bishop of OXFORD : The Church never fears discussion properly con-
ducted. Have you yet heard the Cologne singers?
Mr. COBDEN : In my opinion, the same conditions should apply to
ministers of the gospel as to members of all other professions.
We should he permitted to employ whom we like, and pay
whom we like. We should be very much surprised, if we
bought an estate, that a particular lawyer in the parish should
claim as his right to make the conveyance ; or, if we wanted a
portrait painted of a member of our family, a particular artist,
who might be a very bad one, should insist upon our hanging
up his works in our dining-room.
EW S litjilishop of OXFORD: Do you like pictures in dining-rooms? It is a
moot point. Some great judges have gone so far even as to
- r - • maintain that they distract the process of digestion.
Mt. COBDEN : If, as your Lordship very properly observed, monopoly
l•er is the creature of barbarism, on what principle, in the present
day, can the monopoly of the Church be defended ?
Bishop of OXFORD: I see the ladies are rising ; I hope we shall soon
join them;
• • . I think we have a prospect of some delighttlil
rS 3 1-i d music.