expense
was incurred, remained enforcible in the same manner as contracts of a
like character. Mr. Gladstone's bill became law in the course of the
summer, and a struggle that had been long and bitter ended.

In another movement in the region of ecclesiastical machinery, from which
much was hoped, though little is believed to have come, Mr. Gladstone was
concerned, though I do not gather from the papers that he watched it with
the zealous interest of some of his friends. Convocation, the ancient
assembly or parliament of the clergy of the church of England, was
permitted in 1852 to resume the active functions that had been suspended
since 1717. To Mr. Gladstone some revival or institution of the corporate
organisation of the church, especially after the Gorham judgment, was ever
a cherished object. Bishop Wilberforce, long one of the most intimate of
his friends, was chief mover in proceedings that, as was hoped, were to
rescue the church from the anarchy in which one branch of her sons
regarded her as plunged. Some of Mr. Gladstone's correspondence on the
question of convocation has already been made public.(112) Here it is
enough to print a passage or two from a letter addressed by him to the
bishop (Jan. 1, 1854) setting out his view of the real need of the time.
After a generous exaltation of the zeal and devotion of the clergy, he
goes on to the gains that might be expected from their effective
organisation:--

First as to her pastoral work, her warfare against sin, she would
put forth a strength, not indeed equal to it, but at least so much
less unequal than it now is, that the good fight would everywhere
be maintained, and she would not be as she now is, either hated or
unknown among the myriads who form the right arm of England's
industry and skill. As to her doctrine and all that hangs upon it,
such questions as might arise would be determined by the
deliberate and permanent sense of the body. Some unity in belief
is necessary to justify association in a Christian communion. Will
that unity in belief be promoted or impaired by the free action of
mind within her, subjected to order? If her case really were so
desperate that her children had no common faith, then the sooner
that imposture were detected the better; but if she has, then her
being provided with legitimate, orderly, and authentic channels,
for expressing and bringing to a head, as need ar