Free The Fall of Doctor Onslow by Frances Vernon Page A

with affection made him give Lord Shaftesbury his head.’
    ‘So long as he chose men not likely to vote against the Government in the House of Lords,’ said Onslow.
    ‘I think, my dear Primrose,’ said Dr Tait, smiling, ‘that you are forgetting I was one of Lord Palmerston’s and Lord Shaftesbury’s choices.’
    ‘Tait! My dear fellow, you know perfectly well that I did not mean you. Yours was his one truly admirable appointment – no one in his senses would call you a narrow Evangelical.’
    ‘But I am not so good a scholar as I ought to be.’
    Looking at Dr Tait now, Onslow remembered how sixteen years ago, immediately after Dr Arnold’s death, they had been rivals competing for the Headmastership of Rugby. He remembered how Tait had been chosen by the trustees even though he was the inferior scholar: Onslow, the Cambridge Senior Classic, had been rejected as too young at twenty-six.
    ‘I only wish I were such a scholar as your lordship,’ said the junior cleric.
    ‘Of one thing I’m very sure. Soapy Sam has been hankering after a more important bishopric for I don’t know how many years, but there was not a scrap of hope for him while Lord Palmerston remained in office. Oh, I do hope we shall not see him translated to Winchester or Durham, he is intolerable enough as it is, with his mixture of pugnacity and toadying,’ said Primrose. Soapy Sam was Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford.
    ‘Mr Gladstone wanted to send him to York, Martin, and I am sure was very nearly successful,’ Onslow teased. ‘Perhaps he will be so when he is back in office, if the Archbishop obliges him by dying in the meantime.’
    Primrose went on regardless. ‘I detest men with ingratiating manners, and no one has ever been able to discover whether he has any consistent views. I am surprised he did not turn himself almost into a follower of Mr Spurgeon to please Lord Shaftesbury, instead of making a fool of himself with that attempt of his to make adultery a criminal offence. But I suppose I must do him justice: in some respects he has been growing steadily Higher, even though it is contrary to his temporal interests.’
    ‘Very true, alas,’ said Dr Tait. He added: ‘I must point out, Primrose, that in attacking Lord Palmerston’s appointments you find yourself in perfect agreement with the man you so dislike. Does not that appal you?’
    ‘So I do! you are quite right – I must retract my abuse at once. After all,’ he said, suddenly grave again, ‘it is more important for a bishop to be a good pastor than anything else.’
    Dr Tait, as a good host, thought of trying to bring thelaymen into this discussion, but he saw they were absorbed in a three-cornered conversation of their own.
    ‘Dr Onslow, what do you think the new ministry is likely to do?’ he said.
    Onslow gently swung the port in his glass and said:
    ‘It is a pity the Bishops of Oxford and Exeter between them have given both the public and any prospective government a distaste for the mere idea of bishops with High Church sympathies, however vague. I doubt Lord Derby will seek to correct the real imbalance of parties on the bench of bishops – though I daresay he will not prefer even more Evangelicals, Lord Palmerston’s policy has been too unpopular.’
    ‘I think you are right in thinking that all parties ought to be represented on the bench,’ said Dr Tait, ‘but I cannot think of a High Churchman of note who ought to be preferred. Dr Pusey is out of the question.’
    ‘Quite so, my lord,’ said Onslow, without denying his real beliefs – he was nothing like so High Church as Dr Pusey.
    ‘It is time Dr Pusey followed Newman to Rome,’ struck in the young clergyman. ‘He ought not to remain in the Church of England.’
    ‘You are too harsh, Mr Lincoln,’ said Dr Tait, making him blush.
    ‘How would Denison do for a High Church bishop?’ said Primrose, looking innocent. Onslow raised his eyebrows.
    ‘My dear Martin, what an excellent