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traversing it so far, turned sharply to the right and disappear into a bay from where in former times the great Queen used to descend by a staircase to the Terrace. It was four on a February afternoon, just before closing time. When the attendant came to close the door Lieutenant Glyn asked who the lady was who was at work in the inner room. "No one," said the attendant. "But," said he, "I have seen her just now walk into the inner room." The attendant went to see, found no one, and returned. "She must have gone out of a door in that corner," said Lieutenant Glyn, pointing to the bay from which in olden times the gallery ran down to the Terrace. "But there is no door there," said the attendant. Greatly marvelling at the sudden disappearance of the lady in black lace, the Lieutenant departed, little thinking that he had been the first man in the present reign to see the ghost of the famous Elizabeth. When the attendant reported the occurrence to the librarian, Dr. Holmes,* he at once sent for Lieutenant Glyn and asked him to describe the figure he had seen. When he did so the librarian said, "It is the same. You have seen the apparition of Queen Elizabeth." It seems that from of old time Windsor Castle has been occasionally revisited by the famous Queen. The Empress Frederick, when a child, is said to have seen the apparition in the same place. The librarian has been familiar with the story for twenty-seven years, and often at Hallowe'en has sat late waiting to see the ghost, but he waited in vain. Now, as is usually the case with genuine ghosts, it appeared in the daylight to a young Guardsman who had never heard of it, and who, like Mary Magdalene on another occasion, mistook the supernatural figure for an ordinary being of every-day flesh and blood.

a pity that Lieutenant Glyn is not clairaudient as well as clairvoyant, for it would be interesting to hear what Elizabeth would have to say of her latest successor. In one thing they are as opposite as the poles. Elizabeth was hot against a married clergy. In the eyes of Queen Victoria nothing so well becomes a priest as a good family of his own. Who is there who does not recall the familiar insult which Elizabeth addressed to Mrs. Parker, wife of the Archbishop of Canterbury, as she was leaving Lambeth Palace, where she had been entertained with more than regal magnificence? “Madam I may not call you, and mistress I am loth to call you; however, I thank you for your good cheer."

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What a contrast to this old-world gibe is the remark once made to me by an eminent Anglican with whom I was talking on the subject of Church patronage! "The Queen," said my friend, " dear lady, is dominated by domesticity. Of the idea of a Church in the sense in which we understand it she has absolutely no conception. But the patronage of the Church she regards with the jealous eye natural to a Monarch who has seen one class of offices after another removed from the sphere of patronage until now only the Church appointments are left. These she regards as a kind of family perquisite to be distributed as rewards of virtue to the most deserving clergymen, who are usually those who have the largest families. It is a curious motive to decide the making of Bishops-is it not? But the heart of the mother is so strong in our good lady the Queen that orthodoxy, learning, zeal, good Churchmanship count for nothing compared with the claims of the clergyman who has a large family, especially if he has nothing to feed them with. For then the desire to feed the hungry reinforces the instinct of rewarding the multiplication of the species."

My friend mayhap spoke with a trifle of exaggeration, for the High Church party never quite forgave Her Majesty for insisting on the promotion of Tait.

"It was no use," said my Anglican friend ruefully; "Tait's claims were irresistible. Mrs. Tait had not only had eight children already, but had lost six of them in a single

* According to a newspaper report, which Dr. Holmes assures me is "unauthorised and inaccurate."

ARCHBISHOP TAIT: THE QUEEN'S FAVOURITE PRIMATE. From "Life of Tait," by Randall Davidson, Bishop of Winchester.

(Published by Macmillan and Co.)

month by scarlet fever. What more could be required to qualify a man first for the great diocese of London, and then for the throne of Canterbury ?"

As it is true that the Queen stood by Tait, would have Tait, and nobody but Tait, as Archbishop of Canterbury; and as Tait had, when Dean of Carlisle, lost six daughters all in one epidemic, the origin of the taunt is obvious.

It is an interesting question how far the Queen has personally interfered in the appointment of Bishops. Elizabeth had no scruples on the subject. When the Bishop of Ely ventured to protest against the spoliation of his See, she wrote: "Proud prelate, you know what you were before I made you what you are. you do not immediately comply with my request, by God I will unfrock you."

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It is probable that Her Majesty, without exactly regarding the Church of England

as the sole remaining branch of the Civil Service to which Royal favouritism could make appointments, has never taken a very high view of the pretensions of the Anglican sect. When in Scotland she has showed more signs of enjoying the simple Presbyterian service than she has ever done in participating heartily in the Anglican ritual in England. She is Erastian by heredity and by training. Her predecessors on the throne had regarded a Bishop chiefly as a kind of Protestant officer holding an outpost against the Papal foe, for the craze of anti-Romanism raged fiercely among the Hanoverian Kings. When Dr. Longley did homage to William IV. on his appointment to the See of Ripon, "no sooner had he risen from his knees than the King suddenly addressed him in a loud voice thus: Bishop of Ripon, I charge you, as you shall answer before Almighty God, that you never, by word or deed, give encouragement to those damned Whigs who would upset the Church of England. Her hereditary Hanoverian Erastianism was not likely to be seriously affected by the teaching of her first Ministerial tutor. Lord Melbourne may have had many virtues, but he was certainly not a High Churchman. "Damn it, another Bishop dead!" is said to have been his characteristic exclamation on hearing of a vacancy in the episcopate. That graceless reprobate Lord Palmerston, who broke the record as a Bishopmaker, having made five Archbishops, twenty-two Bishops, and ten Deans, was as little given as Lord Melbourne to indulgence in High Church exclusiveness. Mr. Gladstone and Lord Salisbury, with the dubious exception of Lord Derby, were the only High Church Premiers of the reign. But although Mr. Gladstone was allowed

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to offer Canterbury to the Dean of St. Paul's, it was generally believed that Her Majesty forbade the nomination of Canon Liddon to any of the greater Sees. Liddon's offence was neither his celibacy nor his High Church doctrine. He had on one occasion, during the first fervour of the revolt against the Turkish alliance, let himself go against the Turk and his backer Beaconsfield in a fashion which Her Majesty is said neither to have forgotten nor forgiven. This may be so or it may not. Liddon believed it himself, and it certainly was extraordinary that, although he was the intimate friend of both Mr. Gladstone and Lord Salisbury, bishopric after bishopric was given to far inferior men, while the Chrysostom of the English pulpit was left to live and die as Canon of St. Paul's.*

The secrets of the Royal Closet are guarded so jealously that no one can say with certainty, save those who stand nearest the Throne and the Prime Minister, how much Royal favour or prejudice counts in ecclesiastical matters. The Prime Minister always assumes the responsibility for the nomination, especially when it is made against his own wishes. Of this there is a notable instance in the case of Archbishop Tait. When the Bishopric of London was offered him, the appointment having been really pressed upon Lord Palmerston by Lord Shaftesbury, the Premier wrote:

"I have much pleasure in informing you that I have received the Queen's commands to offer you the See of London."

But when Disraeli offered him the Archbishopric of Canterbury twelve years later, he wrote

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"It is my desire, if it meet your own wishes, to recommend Her Majesty to elevate you to the

BISHOP WILBERFORCE.

Reproduced from "Life of Bishop Wilberforce," by R. Wilberforce.

(Published by John Murray.)

Primacy. I can assure you in so doing, I feel a responsibility as grave as any your Lordship can experience if you accept this paramount trust; but I believe that I am taking a course which will be most serviceable to the Church, especially at this critical moment in its history."

Who would imagine from reading this Disraelitish epistle that the nomination of Tait had been forced upon the Prime Minister by the Queen? Such, however, was the case, as we may read in the vivacious and veracious chronicles of Bishop Wilberforce. The passages describing this notable and significant incident in the disposal of the Royal patronage are not so familiar to the general reader as they might be. Disraeli had written proposing to nominate Tait on November 12th. On that day

*Mr. Gladstone writes me that these reports were without foundation. Lord Salisbury offered Dr. Liddon St. Albans, which he declined.

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Wilberforce, who was then staying at Blenheim, heard from his hostess that the Dean of Windsor's wife had announced Tait's appointment. Wilberforce on the next day wrote in his diary:—

"November 13th.-Wrote a good deal. Walked with Lord Churchill round Park. The Duke told me of Disraeli's excitement when he came out of Royal Closet. Some struggle about the Primacy. Lord Malmesbury also said that when he spoke to Disraeli he said, 'Don't bring any more bothers before me; I have enough to drive a man mad.' My belief is that the Queen pressed Tait, and against possibly Ely, or some such appointment."-" Life of Bishop Wilberforce," vol. iii., p. 267.

Sixteen days later he had an opportunity of talking to the Dean himself. Afterwards he made the following entry in his diary :

"The Church does not know what it owes to the Queen. Disraeli has been utterly ignorant, utterly unprincipled; he rode the Protestant horse one day; then got frightened that it had gone too far, and was injuring the county elections, so he went right round and proposed names never heard of. Nothing he would not have done; but throughout he was most hostile to you; he alone prevented London being offered to you. The Queen looked for Tait, but would have agreed to you.”—Īb., vol. iii., p. 268. "Disraeli recommended for Canterbury!!! the Queen would not have him; then Disraeli agreed most reluctantly and with passion to Tait. Disraeli then proposed Wordsworth for London. The Queen objected strongly; no experience; passing over bishops, &c.; then she suggested Jackson, and two others, not you, because of Disraeli's expressed hostility, and Disraeli chose Jackson. "How can

have got that secret understanding with Disraeli? You are surrounded by false double-dealing men. Disraeli opposed Leighton with all his strength on every separate occasion. The Queen would have greatly liked him, but Disraeli would not hear of him. You cannot conceive the appointments he proposed and retracted or was overruled; he pressed Champneys for Peterborough ; he had no other thought than the votes of the moment; he showed an ignorance about all Church matters, men, opinions, that was astonishing, making propositions one way and the other, riding the Protestant horse to gain the boroughs, and then, when he thought he had gone so far as to endanger the counties, turning round and appointing Bright and Gregory; thoroughly unprincipled fellow. I trust we may never have such a man again.”—Ib., vol. iii., p. 269.

The reasons

The name left blank in the diary is supposed to have been Ellicott. given by the Queen for refusing to promote the good Bishop of Gloucester were said to be more domestic than theological. It is admitted, however, that the Queen's choice was much the best that could have been made. She has always regarded the appointment to Canterbury as one of special interest to the Crown. The Primate is Chief Court Chaplain, central celebrant at all family functions from christenings and burials. But, as the foregoing extract shows, her interest was by no means confined to the Primacy. It is to her credit that we must place the selection of Dean Magee, afterwards Archbishop of York, for the See of Peterborough. Disraeli's choice was Champneys. But when he was overruled and the appointment went to Magee, no one was quicker to claim credit for the selection than the astute Benjamin, who, as we have seen, also posed as nominator of Tait, to whose selection he had agreed most reluctantly, and "with passion."

We are too near the recent appointments to know what part the Queen played in the selection either of Dr. Benson or Dr. Temple. It is, however, generally believed that she pressed for Benson because of the declared preference expressed by Archbishop Tait, in whose judgment and good sense she had implicit confidence. It is also probable that the decision to promote Dr. Temple was one in which the Queen's voice was more potent than Lord Salisbury's. Equally evident is the Royal favour in the translation of Dr. Creighton from Peterborough to London, and the nomination of Dr. Carr-Glyn to the vacant See.

Queen Elizabeth used to tune her pulpits, as Carlyle remarks modern rulers inspire newspapers. The Homilies which she ordered to be read from the pulpit, the Book of Martyrs which she ordered to be exposed for perusal in every church, indicated the practical determination of the great Tudor Princess to use her spiritual apparatus for teaching the people what she thought they needed to learn. Victoria has never made any attempt at such pulpit tuning. But her influence has been pretty steadily exerted in the direction of a broad rationalism.

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