The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1883-05-11
Cardinal Manning.

The frontispiece of the May Century
is an effective portrait of Cardinal
Manning, which illustrates sketch of
his life and character, by G. Keegan
Paul, the author of the recent Century
article on Cardinal Newman. OF Car
dinal Manning he says in part
Cardinal Manning is in his seventy
fourth year He is the son of the late
William Manning, NJ Z. and Govern
or of the Bank of England, and was
educated at Harrow and Baliol, migra-
ting thence, after taking the highest
honors, to become Fellow of Merton.
He is a typical public school man, and
could scarcely have been at any but a
fashionable public school, Men
who have not had such training may
have courtly manners, may be thorough
men of the world those educated at
home may have equal, sometimes more,
erudition but the combination of
learning worn lightly like flower,
great frankness of manner with power
Of reticence when needed, aptness for
being at home in any society, from the
rough to the courtier, and simply un-
conscious ease, are generally to be
found among Englishmen only in those
educated at our frst-class public schools
These were the qualities which, joined
with his birth and his fathers position,
gave him, even as very young man, a
commanding influence in Oxford soci-
ETY., which raised him to Archdeacon
of Chichester at the early age of thir-
ty-two, and which have made him SC
great power in his own communion
since he joined it. They have also
given him influence among various
classes of society especially among the
great, so that his brother-in-law, the
late Bishop of Winchester, smarting
under the desertion of his friend and
unable to deny himself the use of epi
gram, called him the "apostle of the
teels." He became Rector of Laving
ton and Graffham in Sussex in 1894
and married the youngest Miss Ser.
ieant, one of the co-helresses of the
Lavington property, two other sisters
having married Samuel Wilberforce,
afterward Bishop and Henry Wilber-
force, his brother. Mrs. Manning sur.
vived her marriage but few months
When the spiritual grace of baptism
was denied by Mr.. Gorham, and his
view pronounced to be tenable with
the Church of England. Archdeacon
Manning, with many others, felt the
very ground on which they stood cut
from under them. If the Church OF
England denied sacramental grace,
which to them involved the very es.
sence of religion, there was indeed no.
where to turn but to the Church of
Rome; however impossible it had once
seemed that they should do so. Imme
diately after the Gorham judgment was
pronunced Archdeacon Manning
shook from his feet the dust of an her
etical Church, to join that toward
which his steps had so long unconscious
ly been advancing when no doubt he
found that the boundaries were by no
means so difficult to overstep as they
had seemed to him on that November
day. After the short retirement, inev.
liable on his change, preparatory to
taking orders in the church of his
adoption, his rise was rapid and signal.
He, too, like his brother cardinal, found.
ed congregation, that of the Oblates
of st. Charles Borromeo, filing in the
interim the dignified Office of Provost
of Westminster. In 1865, Monsignor
Manning was consecrated Archbishop
of Westminster. In 1875, he was Gre
ated a cardinal with the title of Saints
Andrew and Gregory, Since his ap-
pointmeut as archbishop few men have
ever been more before the world. Not
only is he constant-preacher in and a
frequent preacher out of his diocese ;
not only has he been combatant in
intellectual contests, especially in the
Metaphysical Society, club which
met monthly, where he held his own
with such disputants as DR.. Martineau,
Mr.. Frederick Harrison, and Professor
Huxley,-he has also taken part in the
social life of London to such an extent
that there is hardly philanthropic work
in which he could consistently cooper
ate wherein he has not been sharer.
Conspicuous above all has been the aid
that he has given to total abstinence
societies both in and out of his church.
In politics he is understood to take a
strongly democratic view and has been
heard to say that, were he not what he
is, his choice would be to be dema
gogue. On the Irish question, and tc
some extent on the Irish side, he is very
outspoken and should it hereafter
prove to be possible that the Catholic
Church, at least in the West, should
ally herself with the cause of the peo
pie, of distinguished from the cause o.
the oligarchs, Cardinal Manning's name
will be found on the roll of those who
have helped the fusion.
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