nst calumny and misrepresentation
by the most popular and promising young man in the West Riding.
There lies before me as I write a letter written by an Evangelical
mother--Lady Charles Russell--to her son, then just ordained to
a curacy at Doncaster.

"I want to hear more about Lord and Lady Halifax. I knew them pretty
well as Sir Charles and Lady Mary Wood, but I have lived in retirement
since before he was raised to the peerage. His eldest son was not
only very good-looking, but inclined to be very good, as I dare
say Dr. Vaughan may have heard. Do you know anything about him?"

That "very good" and "very good-looking" young man was now approaching
what may be called the decisive event of his life. In April, 1867,
Mr. Colin Lindsay resigned the Presidency of the English Church
Union, and Mr. Charles Lindley Wood was unanimously chosen to fill
his place. Eleven years later Dr. Pusey wrote: "As to his being
President of the E.C.U., he is the sense and moderation of it." He
has administered its affairs and guided its policy through fifty
anxious years. Indeed, the President and the Union have been so
completely identified that the history of the one has been the
history of the other. His action has been governed by a grand and
simple consistency. Alike in storms and in fair weather, at times
of crisis and at times of reaction, he has been the unswerving
and unsleeping champion of the spiritual claims of the English
Church, and the alert, resourceful, and unsparing enemy of all
attempts, from whatever quarter, to subject her doctrine and discipline
to the control of the State and its secular tribunals. The eager
and fiery enthusiasm which pre-eminently marks his nature awakes
a kindred flame in those who are reached by his influence; and,
even when the reason is unconvinced, it is difficult to resist
the leadership of so pure and passionate a temper.

It would be ridiculous for an outsider, like myself, to discuss the
interior working of the E.C.U., so I avail myself of the testimony
which has reached me from within.

"Like most men of his temperament, Lord Halifax seems now and again
to be a little before his time. On the other hand, it is remarkable
that Time generally justifies him. There is no question that he
has always enjoyed the enthusiastic and affectionate support of
the Union as a whole."

It is true that once with reference to the book called _Lux Mundi_,
and once with reference to the "Lambeth Opinion