PREFACE

THE present volume deals with so long a period and so wide a range of subjects, that a writer who undertakes to treat of it lays himself open to the charge of omitting matters of importance or giving undue prominence to what is comparatively unimportant, of bias in politics or religion, and of imperfect acquaintance with what is matter of common knowledge. The standard authorities are few, and most of the facts must be collected from biographies, accounts of transactions in Parliament and Convocation, and the reports and comments of the Press during the greater part of a century. I cannot, therefore, hope to have escaped serious faults of omission and commission.

I have tried to give a truthful picture of the times, and not to write in the spirit of a partisan; but I am well aware that to exclude every expression of opinion or personal preference is to take away all life from a narrative.

I owe especial obligation to the Life of Archibald Campbell Tait by Archbishop Davidson and Canon Benham, and to Canon Perry's Student's History of the Church of England, vol. iii., without the help of which books this history could not have been written. Other sources of information are indicated in the lists of Authorities appended to each chapter. It would be too long a task to record the bountiful assistance I have enjoyed, both from the kindness of the Editor, who has spared neither time nor labour, and whose wide knowledge of church

history has always been freely opened to me, and from a large number of friends known or unknown to me personally, who have taken much trouble in giving me the result of their own experience, or pointing out sources of information; but I desire here to express my gratitude to all who have helped me to carry out, however imperfectly, a lengthy and difficult task. FRANCIS WARRE CORNISH.

ETON COLLEGE,

December 1909.

N.B. For all opinions expressed or implied in these volumes the Author alone is responsible.