to be as fair to my
adversaries as possible; and thirdly I thought that there was a great
deal of shallowness among our own friends, and that they undervalued
the strength of the argument in behalf of Rome, and that they ought
to be roused to a more exact apprehension of the position of the
controversy. At a later date (1841), when I really felt the force of
the Roman side of the question myself, as a difficulty which had to
be met, I had a fourth reason for such frankness in argument, and
that was, because a number of persons were unsettled far more than I
was, as to the Catholicity of the Anglican Church. It was quite
plain, that, unless I was perfectly candid in stating what could be
said against it, there was no chance that any representations, which
I felt to be in its favour, or at least to be adverse to Rome, would
have had their real weight duly acknowledged. At all times I had a
deep conviction, to put the matter on the lowest ground, that
"honesty was the best policy." Accordingly, in 1841, I expressed
myself thus on the Anglican difficulty: "This is an objection which
we must honestly say is deeply felt by many people, and not
inconsiderable ones; and the more it is openly avowed to be a
difficulty, the better; for there is then the chance of its being
acknowledged, and in the course of time obviated, as far as may be,
by those who have the power. Flagrant evils cure themselves by being
flagrant; and we are sanguine that the time is come when so great an
evil as this is, cannot stand its ground against the good feeling and
common sense of religious persons. It is the very strength of
Romanism against us; and, unless the proper persons take it into
their serious consideration, they may look for certain to undergo the
loss, as time goes on, of some whom they would least like to be lost
to our Church." The measure which I had especially in view in this
passage, was the project of a Jerusalem Bishopric, which the then
Archbishop of Canterbury was at that time concocting with M. Bunsen,
and of which I shall speak more in the sequel. And now to return to
the Home Thoughts Abroad of the spring of 1836:--

The discussion contained in this composition runs in the form of a
dialogue. One of the disputants says: "You say to me that the Church
of Rome is corrupt. What then? to cut off a limb is a strange way of
saving it from the influence of some constitutional ailment.
Indigestion may cause cramp in the extremities; y