nterbury. He is still a great personage, but he is
great in a new way, with less of wealth and power but larger
opportunities of influence. He is also a kind of Pope in a new way,
because he is the central figure of the Anglican communion over the
whole world, with no legal jurisdiction outside England (except in
India), but far over-topping all the prelates of that communion in the
United States or the British Colonies. Less deference is paid to the
office, considered simply as an office, than it received in the Middle
Ages, because society and thought have been tinged by the spirit of
democratic equality, and people realise that offices are only
artificial creations, whose occupants are human beings like
themselves. But if he is himself a man of ability and force, he may
make his headship of an ancient and venerated church a vantage-ground
whence to address the nation as well as the members of his own
communion. He is sure of being listened to, which is of itself no
small matter in a country where many voices are striving to make
themselves heard at the same time. The world takes his words into
consideration; the newspapers repeat them. His position gives him easy
access to the ministers of the Crown, and implies a confidential
intercourse with the Crown itself. He is, or can be, "in touch" with
all the political figures who can in any way influence the march of
events, and is able to enforce his views upon them. All his conduct is
watched by the nation; so that if it is discreet, provident, animated
by high and consistent principle, he gets full credit for whatever he
does well, and acquires that influence to which masses of men are
eager to bow whenever they can persuade themselves that it is
deserved. During the first half of the nineteenth century the English
people was becoming more interested in ecclesiastical and in
theological matters than it had been during the century preceding. It
grew by slow degrees more inclined to observe ecclesiastical persons,
to read and think about theological subjects, to reflect upon the
relations which the Church ought to bear to civil life and moral
progress. Thus a leader of the Church of England became relatively a
more important factor than he had been a century ago, and an
archbishop, strong by his character, rectitude, and powers of
utterance, rose to occupy a more influential, if not more conspicuous,
position than his predecessors in the days of the Georges had done.

Th