Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/350

310 310 THE RIVINGTONS, THE PARKERS, just been admitted into public measures on a large scale .... when the Irish sees had been suppressed by the state against the Church's wish They were written with the hope of rousing members of the Church to comprehend her alarming position of helping them to realize the fact of the gradual growth, allowance, and establishment of unsound principles in her internal concerns ; and, having this object, they used spontaneously the language of alarm and com- plaint. They were written as a man might give notice of a fire or inundation, so as to startle all who heard him" (vol. iii. p. 3). As far as fulfilment of intention went in startling, the writers were perfectly successful. Exhibiting great talents, depth of thought, logical power, acuteness of reasoning, and an undoubted religious feeling, their effect was spontaneous. By one party, and an increasing one, the writers were wel- comed with a reverend love that almost forbade criticism, and by the other with the greatest uneasiness and suspicion. The chief writers in the series, for the "Tracts" continued to appear during the space of several years, were Newman, Pusey, Keble, and Williams. In Ireland the clergy were anxious to come over in a body, and greet them collectively. In Scot- land, Pusey and Newman were denounced at a public dinner as enemies to the established religion ; and at Oxford, where they were personally loved and re- spected, they were looked upon by a large portion of the members with peculiar distrust. Parties in the Church were formed, and claimed, or were christened after, the names of the writers such were originally the Puseyites and Newmaniacs. At length the famous "Number 90" appeared, and was thus greeted by the University : " Modes of interpretation such as are