Page:Report on the Conference upon the Rosenthal Case 1866.pdf/19

14 false a position, and this may account for the extraordinary document just brought under my notice, which purports to be a speech delivered by Lord Shaftesbury.

I don't feel justified in commenting upon that document, further than to say, that the pretext upon which it is founded is wholly devoid of accuracy. I was myself present when Lord Shaftesbury introduced Dr. M'Caul's name, and quoted his intimate acquaintance and unreserved communication with that lamented gentleman, as an answer and refutation to the supposition that Dr. M'Caul was partly cognisant of Dr. Macgowan's infirmities. Thus the introductions of that name described by Lord Shaftesbury as unnecessary (Speech, p. 14), emanated from himself.

The object I had in view, was to obtain justice for a grossly ill-used family, and to remove, if possible, from the operations of the Society, the stain and reproach, that, in the minds of many of its sincere and religious supporters, had been cast upon it by the state and acts of its Mission at Jerusalem. To obtain this end, it was desirable to secure the impartial consideration of a few leading friends of the Society assembled in an amicable but earnest conference. It was especially desirable that persons not already committed, or personally involved, should have been selected. A very different course was, however, adopted, with results that might have been anticipated.

I was quite ready to maintain the cause which we had in hand, on the basis of the document sent in previously for the purpose of defining the limits of the inquiry. I am still ready to attend any meeting for that purpose; but I am not prepared to follow any irrelevant subject, or to submit to the violent language or unworthy insinuations which Lord Shaftesbury has thought fit to make use of, in order to strengthen a position which I presume he deems untenable, if he confines himself to fair argument and courteous language. My respect for your Lordship precludes my being a willing witness of unbecoming treatment, from which your character and position should have protected you.

My sincere admiration for Lord Shaftesbury renders me unwilling to interfere in a phase of this controversy with which I have no concern, and which I consider calculated to injure him in the public estimation.

I trust your Lordship will kindly inform me on what day the original subject of the Conference will be resumed.

I remain, my dear Lord Bishop, Yours very faithfully, ..

After the first two sittings of the Conference, the Society's Representatives proposed the introduction of a short-hand writer, to which we objected, as the report of our subsequent proceedings, without any report of the evidence which had been given during the first two days of the enquiry, would have been calculated to mislead, and from the use which has been made of the report of the President's speech of the 16th June, we are the more satisfied that we were right in so doing.

On the question of fixing a day for one of our Conferences the following difficulties occurred; the Bishop was engaged to attend the consecration of a church in his diocese, Lord Claud Hamilton was obliged to sit on a Railway Committee of the House of Commons, and Mr. Money had to be present at