In the preceding volume some very interesting pages have been devoted to chronicling the earlier work done for the House by one of its veteran supporters, the Rev. G. R. Gleig, the late Chaplain-General. The years that followed the production of such works as ‘The Subaltern’ &c., did not in any way dim his literary powers, though he worked at rather different subjects; and we find him in the “sixties” and “seventies” with unabated vigour writing on any topic of the day which occurred to his active mind, or which had been suggested to him by his friend the Editor. “Yes,” John Blackwood writes, “I shall have great pleasure in handing over Dean Stanley's new work to you for review.” This was Stanley's ‘Lectures on the Jewish Church,’ which seems to have inspired the “Church militant” with a thoroughly combative tendency,—so much so, that we find the Editor, interposing on behalf of the Dean, led on by the subject in hand to express to Mr Gleig what were his own views in matters of faith.

John Blackwood to Rev. G. R. Gleig.

Sept. 14, 1866.

My own faith is very simple, and I have never been, nor cared to be, a theological student at all, so that I am not a good judge in a case like this. My impression, however, is very strong that you should soften the censure of Stanley.