"I have no intention of entering into controversy on this point; and I should, according to my hitherto invariable practice, have left both the misrepresentation and the criticism unnoticed, were it not that the words, as they stand, if used by me, would have evidenced an unworthy desire of turning aside from my subject to pander to the passions of my audience, and seeking a miserable popularity by an attempt to feed that theological rancour which is the most detestable phase of the religion of the day.

"I do not merely say that I was not guilty of this paltry work. I say it is simply impossible to me. To affirm, whatever may be taught by our savage polemics, whether Tractarian or Evangelical, that the new commandment is NOT this' that ye hate one another 'and that discipleship to Christ is proved more by the intensity of love for good than by the vehemence of bitterness against error, is with me a desire too deep, too perpetual, and too unsatisfied, to have allowed the possibility of my joining, even for one moment, in the cowardly cry with which the terrors and the passions of the half-informed are lashed by platform rhetoric into hatred of High Churchmen."

And, as further elucidating his opinions on these subjects, the following extract from a letter which he wrote about this time will be of interest:

"I gratefully accept your hint about the definition of High Churchmanship. I will modify what I said, to prevent misunderstanding. At the same time, as High Churchmanship, in the sense in which I was then speaking, is in my view an error, I must represent it in its most

developed, not in its modified form, and as the exact opposite of Pantheism. All grand truth is the statement of two opposites, not a via media between them, nor either of them alone. I conceive Wordsworth to have held both the Personality of the Eternal Being, and also His diffusion through space. Now I cannot conceal my Conviction that it is the vice of High Churchism in its tendency, to exaggerate the former of these, by localising Deity in acts, places, &c. It is the vice of Pantheism to hold the latter alone.

"When a High Churchman fully recognises the latter, as Wordsworth did, I care little for any trifling exaggerations of the former, and I will always fight for him and maintain that his High Churchism has no radical error in it, even though his expressions may to my mind seem to predicate locality of Him much more than I should like to do it. But when he represents Personality as a limitation to Time, Space, Acts, &c., instead of recognising it in three essential points, all metaphysical and super-sensual, viz., Consciousness, Will, Character, then I must earnestly and firmly oppose High Churchism, and say that its tendency is to localize: and I must quote anxiously those texts which, taken alone, have a Pantheistic sound. ፡ Howbeit, the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands. Heaven is my throne: Earth is my footstool: what house will ye build for me,' &c.

"And indeed I do think that this is a very common and very dangerous tendency. I will modify my definition by saying it is the tendency of high Churchism. That it is not inseparable from it I showed by defending Wordsworth. High Churchism I hate. High Churchmen, many of them, I love, admire, and sympathise with."

The next in order in this volume is the Lecture delivered at the opening of a Reading Room at Hurstperpoint, a village about eight miles from Brighton, and which lecture Mr. Robertson consented to deliver from motives of personal friendship.

A reporter was present, and a fair copy from his notes was given to Mr. Robertson. That fair copy cannot now be discovered, and as these notes, in his own handwriting, appear to be the original preparative sketch of his lecture, and are so exceedingly suggestive, it has been judged better to print them as they were found.

The friend at whose instance this lecture was delivered writes:

*

although the language used by Mr. Robertson was much above the comprehension of the agricultural class of the village, whose life is more marked by its stern contentment than of much selfeducation through the medium of books, yet I am able to record that there was nevertheless such a charm about this lecture as to excite a considerable number of the audience, to request its immediate publication."

The Speech on the question of closing shops at an earlier hour, is printed from a transcript from the short-hand writer's notes, aided by such private memoranda as were available; it was not popular with the employés, partly, it is believed,

from some little misconception. Mr. Robertson could never be a mere partizan, and his clear judgment saw that, however desirable and right was the object which the young men were striving to attain, there were difficulties to be overcome which it was not wise to ignore; and also that there were two sides to the question, the arguments not being exhausted by denouncing all the masters who hesitated in making the concession, as mean, selfish, and tyrannical.

As delivered, it was a noble speech: it did not of course win the loudest cheers; but it aided the cause of the young men more effectually than some other speakers did, who raised a temporary enthusiasm by refusing to admit that there were any obstacles but such as were represented by

covetousness.

The Speech on behalf of the Association for improving the Dwellings of the Working Classes, was remarkable on account of the bitterness which it produced in some minds, owing to the fearlessness with which Mr. Robertson treated the Sabbath question.

At the time of this meeting, the Crystal Palace at Sydenham was being erected, and it was currently reported that the Government had granted a Charter of Incorporation to the Company, with permission to open the building to the public on

Sunday. The country was much disturbed thereat, and Brighton was not behind other places in petitioning and holding meetings. Sermons were preached, simultaneously, in nearly all the pulpits in the town, on the general question of the desecration of the Sabbath; thousands of tracts on the subject were distributed, and associations formed.

From this movement Mr. Robertson held aloof: he preached a sermon on the subject, which, to many minds, was most conclusive ;* and in reference to the controversy, which had become (on one side) very bitter, he wrote to a friend:

:

"As you will be here next week, I will not write you a volume, for nothing less would do. I preached on the subject on Sunday, satisfactorily to myself at least, a thing which has occurred to me but once or twice in all my ministry; so I am thoroughly prepared with an opinion on a matter I have well considered. I will say at present I am quite resolved to sign no petition. Dr. V.'s pamphlet does not go to the root of the matter. I agree with him in viewing the move, so far as it is an avowed innovation, with great jealousy, but I cannot ask for a State enactment to re-impose a law which Christianity has repealed, without yielding the very principle

* This Sermon is published in the Second Series of Mr Robertson's Sermons, and should be read by any one desirous of understanding Mr. Robertson's views on this question, as it is treated there more completely than it was possible to do in a letter. There is also a Sermon on the "Shadow and Substance of the Sabbath," in the First Series, which may be read with advantage.