ld take rank as gossip; neither meriting nor obtaining
any serviceable notice. Two points are still in suspense: whether the
people of England as a nation have taken any interest in the uproar
caused by Lord John's letter; and secondly, whether the writer of that
letter took much interest in it himself. Spite of all the noise and
tumult kept up for three months by the Low-Church party, clerks and
laymen, it is still a question with many vigilant lookers-on--whether
the great neutral majority in the lower strata of society (five-sixths
in short of what we mean by the nation) have taken any real interest in
the agitation. Any real share in it, beyond all doubt, they have _not_
taken: the movers in these meetings from first to last would not make
fifteen thousand; and the inert subscribers of Petitions would not make
seventy thousand. Secondly, in spite of the hysterical violence
manifested by the letter of the Premier, and partly in consequence of
that violence (so theatrical and foreign to Lord John's temperament),
many doubt whether he himself carried any sincerity with the movement.
And this doubt is strengthened by the singular indecorum of his having
addressed himself to Dr. Maltby.

Counterfeit zeal is likely enough to have recoiled from its own act in
the very moment of its execution. The purpose of Lord John was
sufficiently answered, if he succeeded in diverting public attention
from quarters in which it might prove troublesome: and to that extent
was sure of succeeding by an extra-official note addressed to any bishop
whatever--whether zoological like the late Bishop of Norwich, or
Prosodiacal like Dr. Maltby. A storm in a slop-basin was desirable for
the moment. But had the desire been profoundly sincere, and had it
soared to that height which _real_ fears for religious interests are apt
to attain, then beyond all doubt the Minister would not have addressed
himself to a Provincial bishop, but to the two Metropolitan bishops of
Canterbury and York. They, but not an inferior prelate, represent the
Church of England.

The letter therefore, had it been solemn and austere in the degree
suitable to an _unsimulated_ panic, would have taken a different
direction. Gossip may be addressed to anybody. He that will listen is
sought for; and not he that can co-operate. But earnest business,
soaring into national buoyancy on the wings of panic, turns by instinct
to the proper organs for giving it effect and instant mobility