Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/17

Milner Those he forced the society to elect to fellowships. His proceedings excited considerable opposition at first, but gradually the. society submitted, and to the last he ruled over the college with a despotism that was rarely called in question. Nor was he unpopular. The numbers steadily increased, and though sneered at as ‘a nursery of evangelical neophytes,’ Queens' College stood fourth on the list of Cambridge colleges in 1814.

In December 1791 Milner was presented to the deanery of Carlisle. He owed this preferment to the active friendship of Dr. Thomas Pretyman, afterwards Tomline [q. v.], bishop of Lincoln, who had been Pitt's tutor. In consequence of his university duties he was installed by proxy a beginning which might have been regarded as typical of his whole career as dean, for during his twenty-nine years of office he never, except once towards the close of his life, resided at Carlisle for more than three or four months in each year. He made a point of presiding at the annual chapter. He preached frequently in the cathedral, and energetically supported all measures for moral and material improvement, but this was all (Life, p. 101).

Milner resigned the Jacksonian professorship in 1792, and thenceforward gave up chemistry, and science in general, except as an amusement. To the end of his life he was, however, continually inventing something— as for instance a lamp or a water-clock—in the workshop fitted up for his private use in Queens' Lodge. He was also a member of the board of longitude. But after his election to the headship of his college he became daily more and more immersed in, and devoted to, university affairs. In November 1792 he was elected vice-chancellor. His year of office was rendered memorable by the trial in the vice-chancellor's court of the Rev. William Frend [q. v.] for publishing ‘Peace and Union,’ a tract recommending both political and religious reforms. Frend announced himself a Unitarian, and objected to various parts of the liturgy. But the prosecution was political rather than religious. Mr. Gunning, who was present at the trial, says that ‘it was apparent from the first that the vice-chancellor was determined to convict’ (Reminiscences, i. 272). Milner hated what he called ‘Jacobinical and heterodox principles,’ and had, moreover, personal reasons for exhibiting himself as the assertor of law and order at this particular time. He was ambitious, and the piece of preferment that he most ardently coveted was the mastership of Trinity College. This is evident from a remarkable letter to Wilberforce, dated 13 May 1798 (Life, p. 161), in which he admits that he ‘should not have been sorry to have been their master’ in 1789, when Dr. Postlethwaite was appointed. In 1798 the office was again vacant, and the letter was written in the hope of influencing Pitt in the choice of a successor. In the course of it this sentence occurs: ‘I don't believe Pitt was ever aware of how much consequence the expulsion of Frend was. It was the ruin of the Jacobinical party as a university thing, so that that party is almost entirely confined to Trinity College.’ Then, after discussing various claimants, he adds: ‘When I say that in all I have said, I have, on this occasion, whatever I might have had formerly, no respect to myself, I am sure you will believe me.’ Wilberforce may have believed his correspondent, but it is difficult for posterity to be equally credulous.

In November 1797 Milner lost his elder brother, Joseph. The grateful affection with which he had always regarded him is one of the most pleasing traits in his character. During the rest of his life his best efforts were directed to preserve his brother's memory. He edited, with additions, the volumes of his ‘History of the Church of Christ’ which had already appeared, and continued it to 1530. He prided himself greatly on the importance assigned to Luther, and on his character as there set forth; but the writer's ignorance of German, and his religious prejudices, must throw doubt on the accuracy of his statements. In connection with this work he was led into a controversy with Dr. Thomas Haweis [q. v.]

In 1798 Milner was elected Lucasian professor of mathematics, a post which he held till his death. He delivered no lectures, but performed the other duties, such as examining for the Smith's prizes, very efficiently.

The remainder of Milner's life was apportioned, with undeviating regularity, between Cambridge and Carlisle. In 1809-10 he was again vice-chancellor, and in 1813 he had a brisk controversy with Dr. Herbert Marsh [q. v.] on the Bible Society. Marsh had addressed the senate on the impropriety of circulating the Bible without the prayerbook, and of allowing an auxiliary branch of the society to establish itself at Cambridge. Milner had spoken (12 Dec. 1811), at the meeting called to establish the auxiliary branch; and subsequently elaborated a volume of ‘Strictures on some of the Publications of the Rev. Herbert Marsh,’ in which he traversed almost the whole of his life and writings. Marsh replied, and his antagonist did not venture to enter the lists with him again.

Milner was fond of describing himself