I^|*v ' Btic knell B7 II, .,j.JmMiA " •¦Ml TO THE REV. E. B. PUSEY, KEGIUS PEOFESSOK OF HEBREW, Rev. Sib, " A Member of Convocation," in a public letter, dated February the 21st, which has hitherto been " treated as though it had never been written,'" has very distinctly indicated the character of Mr. Newman's recent retractation of certain "statements" and "views" by which he some years since wished persons to understand him as " pledging himself strongly" against Rome." Allow me to suggest that your own position is materially affected by the terms of this retractation. You will recollect the publication in 1836, by an eminent divine, now no more, of a Satire entitled " The Pof^s Pastoral Letter to Certain Members of the University of Oxford'''" which, among other passages, contained the fol- - Newman's Letter to Jelf, page 30. lowing, addressed to your party, and which 1 transcribe as extracted by yourself.'' " We make allowance for those difficulties which impede your perception or your avowal of the truth." (p. 6.)^ — " We pardon some expressions towards us ; compelled, no doubt, partly by the unhappy circumstances of your country. You have indeed sometimes employed terms which wc well know our ad versaries use in derision of us ; but, we repeat, we can pardon these, whether they are the result of prejudices still entertainecj by you, or are employed for some other teason. (p. 6, 7.) 'That communion, of which the present circum stances of your country have made you, almost unavoidably, members, (p. 11.) While we perceive with delight that you have always spoken, in your own persons, in accordance with our sentiments on this head, you have, at the same time, selected some tracts from early writers of your communion, in which our sentiments are impugned. These old tracts will not be read with much at tention, compared, at least, with your own more lively productions: they can too be readily withdrawn when it is expedient; for they are not a pledge of your opinions as strong as your own writings. In the mean time, you may appeal to your republication of them as a proof that you have not leagued yourselves with us." To these insinuations you thought fit to rejoin. In " An Earnest Remonstrance to the Author'''' of the Satire ; in which, after indignantly charging the writer with " sacrifice of truth," — " false insinuation, and consequently slandering," — " want of honesty, and " evil desertion of the truth," and indulging hi many just expressions on the beauty of truth, sincerity, and simplicity, you thus conclude : Now of all this, Sir, you do not believe one syllable; you do not think that, either in the republication of th6 older, or the protests of the more modern tracts against Popery, their editors or authors were actuated by any such mo tives'; while you impute insincerity, you have reason to believe them as sincere as yourself. It is an ill tree which brings forth fruit thus corrupt. I am by no means inclined (unless your silence should force '¦ Pusey's Earnest Remonstrance, page 3'2. 3 on me a conviction to the contrary) to dispute, that this "Remonstrance" was at the time as sincere as it was ener getic. But — now that we have in Mr. Newman, a " confi- tentem reum^'' now that he has (whether spontaneously, or in deference to some eager follower) admitted, that there were "difficulties impeding his avowal of the truth,"" such perhaps as " the unhappy circumstances of our country," — that the terms he employed were " employed for some other reason than on account of prejudices still entertained by him,"*" — now that he has, in effect, " withdrawn the tracts selected from early writers of our communion, in which the sentiments of the Bishop of Rome are impugned;" — and has availed himself of the distinction that they were " not a pledge of his opinions as strong as his own writings,"'' although he, " In the mean time, appealed to his republication " of such views, " as a proof that he had not leagued himself" with Rome;** — permit me, Rev. Sir, with all deference, to adopt this means of conveying » "Such views too are necessary to our position."— iVewman's iie«cc to the Eiditor of the Conservative Journal. '' " Such language is, I fear, to be, in no small measure, ascribed to an im. petuous temper, and a hope of approving myself to persons' respect." — Ibid. c " I said to myself, I am not speaking my own words, I am but following a consensus of the divines of my Church." — Ihid. <> Newman's Letter to Jelf, page 30. "I pledged myself most strongly against the Church of Rome." Also, vide Appendix to Pusey's Letter to the Bishop of Oxford, containing " Extracts from the Tracts for the Times, the Lyra Apostolica, and other publications, shewing that to oppose Ultra- Protestantism is not to favour Popery, 1839." — Ibid. 4 to you an opinion, extensively shared by others, that your colleague has left you no alternative but that of "earnestly remonstrating " against confessions which I cannot characterize In stronger language than you did, when they were advanced, In the form of charges, by an opponent, unless you would dispute his claim to be considered the most accomplished adept in the revived arts of " economy" and " phenaclsm." I remain, Rev. Sir, Yours, &c. ANOTHER MEMBER OF CONVOCATION. Oxford, March 15, 184.3.