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 existing law, and in a series of articles in the former publication he led in 1882-3 the agitation for the amendment of the Education Act of 1870 in the interest of voluntary schools (cf. Miscellanies, vol. iii., and a separate reprint of the articles on the Education Act, with other of his miscellanea, entitled 'National Education,' London, 1889, 8vo). In October 1886 he published in the 'Dublin Review' a direct appeal to Roman catholics to make the amendment of the Education Act a test question at the ensuing general election.

Manning sat on the royal commission of 1884-6 on the housing of the working classes, and signed, besides the principal report, which did little more than indicate the urgency and difficulty of the problem, a supplementary report in favour of the enfranchisement of leaseholds. He was also a member of the royal commission of 1886-7 on the Elementary Education Acts. In the proceedings of both commissions he took an active part, and in the signing of the reports was accorded precedence next after the chairman. The compromise embodied in the Education Act of 1891 was largely due to his skilful and patient advocacy of the claims of voluntary schools.

So far as consisted with his firm and uncompromising adhesion to ultramontane principles, Manning was a patriotic Englishman, full of pride in his country and loyalty to his queen. His sympathy with the needy and suffering was profound, and sometimes for the better of his political economy. In January 1888 he boldly maintained in the 'Nineteenth Century' the right of the sufferers by the prevalent industrial stagnation to 'work or Dread,' and, as a member of a deputation received by Lord Salisbury on 1 Feb. following, urged the advisability of instituting relief works. On occasion of the strike of the London dock labourers in August 1889 he warmly espoused their cause, and materially contributed to bring about an adjustment of the dispute. In December 1890 he published in the 'Nineteenth Century' an article on 'Irresponsible Wealth,' in which he advocated wholesale almsgiving as the social panacea.

Other causes in which Manning interested himself were the suppression of the East African slave-trade and of the Indian custom of 'child-marriage,' state-directed colonisation, and the raising of the minimum age for child-labour (cf. Times, 21 May 1886 and II Feb. 1887). He paid an eloquent tribute to Newman's memory at his requiem mass in the Brompton Oratory on 20 Aug. 1890. His own strength was now failing, but his energy remained unabated, and in the winter of 1891-2 he was hard at work on a scheme for providing maintenance for superannuated teachers, when an attack of bronchitis terminated his life at 8 on 14 Jan. As the end approached, he was clothed, by his own desire, in the full dress which he wore on state occasions, 'glad,' as he said after making his last profession of faith, 'to have been able to do everything in order,' His remains, after lying in state for some days, were removed to the Brompton Oratory, and were interred in St. Mary 8 cemetery, Kensal Green, on 22 Jan. His obsequies were attended by immense crowds. By his will he appointed three of the oblates of St. Charles and Canon Keens his executors; his property was sworn under 3,000l., and the net value did not exceed 760l.

By his distinguished appearance, fine manners, and exquisite tact, Manning was eminently qualified to make proselytes in the fashionable world. His portrait as he appeared in and to society has been painted by Lord Beaconsfield in the Cardinal Grandison of 'Lothair' and the Nigel Penruddock of 'Endymion.' His saintliness was of the most exalted type, deeply tinged with mysticism and entirely free from spiritual pride and moroseness. His work on 'The Eternal Priesthood' (London, 1883, 8vo) shows how lofty was his conception of priestly dignity and duty.

Manning was above the middle height, spare and agile in frame, with extremely regular and refined features, clear and penetrating grey eyes, and a high and expansive forehead. By the rigour of his asceticism he became in later life attenuated almost to emaciation. A miniature of him (done in 1812) as a child holding a seashell to his ear was the property of his elder brother, Charles John Manning, on whose decease in 1880 it passed to his widow. His portrait in oils, by George Richmond, R.A., painted in 1844, is in the possession of his sister, Mrs. Austen. His bust in marble, by Mr. J. Harvard Thomas, is at Archbishop's House; another in terra-cotta, by Mr. F. F. Stone, for which he gave several sittings shortly before his death, has since been completed.

A great ecclesiastical statesman and diplomatist, an eloquent and impressive preacher, a dogmatic theologian of considerable learning and rare power of logical and luminous exposition, an acute, subtle, and trenchant controversialist, Manning was disqualified for the part of mediator between Christianity and modern thought by the unspeculative and uncritical cast of his mind. At the outset of his career he set his face as a flint