Page:The Conscience Clause (Oakley, 1866).djvu/8

 were present on the occasion referred to went away with the impression that many men are so apt to receive, that because a reply to their opinions was not made, no reply could possibly be made.

I venture to appeal to the opponents of the clause to give a careful consideration to the facts and arguments of this address; and to its ardent supporters to be patient of the tone of apology and expostulation into which I have been led. This was unavoidable in a concio ad clerum, and if any one is disposed to underestimate the amount and force of the feeling against it on the part of the Church, I can only point to the recent majority against the clause in the Lower House of Convocation, which, whatever its defects or sins, does certainly include many of the best and ablest clergymen in the country. I am well aware that the facts are differently interpreted by many able and excellent men—that some of my arguments will not only not commend the clause to some of its adversaries, but will confirm their suspicions of it. Nevertheless, I trust I have suggested grounds on which all, or nearly all, may consent to adopt some arrangement of the kind proposed. And my object has been that alone—to advocate the acceptance, on whatever grounds and in whatever form may finally be agreed upon, of a stipulation which I believe that the State has every right to demand, and the Church every obligation and inducement to give.

One point I am induced to mention here, not having referred to it in the body of this paper, in the plan of which it did not appear to me to have any part; and wishing to print my address as nearly as possible in the form in which