Memoirs of James Robert Hope-Scott, vol 2 | Page 7

R. Hope, Esq._
December 30, 1841.
My dear Hope,--I have this moment ended your pamphlet, and will not wait for a cooler moment to thank you. I do so heartily. God grant we may be true and manly in affirming the broad rule of Catholic order. I add my thanks to you in another shape. In your last three or four pages you and I were nearing each other's thoughts. It is refreshing to find an answer at a distance. Forgive my long neglect of the enclosed paper, which after all bears only my name, and probably too late for use.
Ever yours, dear Hope, most sincerely,
H. E. MANNING.
_The Rev. William Palmer (of Magdalen College, Oxford) to J. R. Hope, Esq._
Mixbury, near Brackley: December 29, 1841.
Dear Hope,--I am much obliged to you for sending me a copy of your letter, which I have read with the greatest pleasure.... I see that in the statement just published by authority, no Prussian documents are given. I think your letter will be a puzzling one; but the spirit of practical Protestantism is subtle and versatile, and able to set aside everything--laws, principles, rubrics, and canons. Else I do not see how the mischief which I apprehend could be realised.
Ever yours sincerely,
W. Palmer
P.S.--I am glad you think my pamphlet may be useful. We have taken entirely different sides of the same subject; I the theoretical (as it seemed to me), and you the practical view of the question.
_Sir John Taylor Coleridge to J. R. Hope, Esq._
My dear Hope,--Many thanks for your letter, which I have read through with, I may say, a painful interest. Of course, in a matter so difficult in itself, and so new, I must confess, to me, I do not take on me at once to pronounce that you are right, but I cannot at present find out where you are wrong; and I am the more inclined to think that you may be right because I see in the Act just words enough to satisfy people rather precipitate that the Prussian scheme might be carried through safely on them. 'Spiritual jurisdiction,' 'over other Protestant congregations,' would seem to ordinary minds enough--till it was further considered how the English Bishop was to work out the scheme by virtue of these words, and yet be consistent with his own engagements.
I shall not be sorry, however, to find that you are answered; not that I wish to accomplish, or seem rather to accomplish any end by a disorderly and indigested attempt at union; nor do I think this thing of itself so important as many do: still it is one which very much arrests the imagination, and excites strong devotional feeling; and I rather looked on it as leading to more important matters with Prussia itself. I cannot, too, help a little more personal feeling for the Bishop than it fell within our plan to express--a good and pious man, I believe, but not by intellect or previous habits fitted to meet such emergencies as you place before him.
Very truly yours,
J. T. Coleridge.
December 30,1841.
Montague Place.
_Sir Francis Palgrave, K.H. to J. R. Hope, Esq._
Rolls House: January 4, 1842.
My dear Sir,--I ought before this to have thanked you for your kindness in sending me your most able letter, but I did not like to do so until I had read it with that attention which it deserves.
It is difficult to understand how your arguments can possibly be shaken. The statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 21 evidently relates only to such dispensations upon the suit or for the benefit of individuals as had been theretofore usually issued by the Roman Chancery, and to wrest it into the power of establishing an uncanonical see appears a most bold attempt.
Nothing would more clearly show the true relation of the Church of England to 'other Protestant churches' than a reprint of the whole proceedings of the Convocations from William and Mary to their extinction-- adding proper notes.
Yours ever truly,
Francis Palgrave.
_The Right Rev. Dr. Philpotts, Bishop of Exeter, to J. R. Hope, Esq._
Bishopstowe, Torquay: November 10, 1842.
My dear Sir,--Permit me to ask you whether you can receive and answer a case of ecclesiastical law? That you can answer it better than any other man I have no doubt; but can you receive the case _professionally_, so as to enable a Bishop to show your opinion as his authority for action?
I have never thanked you for your kindness in sending me a copy of the second edition of 'The Bishopric of the U. C., &c., at Jerusalem,' for I am ashamed to own I have never, till this day, read the new matter which it gives to us. Accept now my hearty thanks for your kindness to me in sending to me a copy, and my still heartier acknowledgments of your invaluable service