Page:Correspondence between the Warden of St Columba's College and the Primate of Armagh.djvu/9

 In the first place, I must beg your Grace to consider that the possible and even probable consequence of compliance with such a requisition from one in your exalted station, would be the utter and irretrievable ruin of all the earthly prospects of a person in my position; and although I well know that nothing can be further removed from your Grace's wish than to do me any injury, yet this fact does not diminish at all the severity of the measure on your part; while the circumstance that I am exempt from its worst consequences, makes it, perhaps, more incumbent upon me to regard it in its bearings upon others, who might not be so happily circumstanced as myself.

Next, I must submit that I have great reason to complain that, without a word of previous inquiry from me as to the circumstances attending that act which you disapprove, your Grace should have called upon me to resign the trust which I hold, for causes quite unconnected with my administration of the Wardenship of S. Columba's College.

Had your Grace vouchsafed such inquiry, it would have been in my power to have stated, that the insertion of my name on the Committee for circulating the Memorial to the Oriental Patriarchs had no sanction from me, either directly or indirectly; and that I have taken no part whatever in circulating that paper, or in procuring signatures to it. These assurances I now spontaneously give to your Grace, although I did not think fit to volunteer any