VEREND AND DEAR LORD,--Any word coming from your lordship to me
is of grave importance, as should, I think, be all words coming from a
bishop to his clergy; and they are of special importance when containing a
reproof, whether deserved or undeserved. The scurrilous and vulgar attack
made upon me in the newspaper which your lordship has sent to me would not
have been worthy of my serious notice had it not been made worthy by your
lordship as being the ground on which such a letter was written to me as
that of your lordship's of the 12th instant. Now it has been invested
with so much solemnity by your lordship's notice of it that I feel myself
obliged to defend myself against it by public action.

"If I have given just cause of scandal to the diocese I will retire both
from my living and from my school. But before doing so I will endeavour
to prove that I have done neither. This I can only do by publishing in a
court of law all the circumstances in reference to my connection with Mr.
and Mrs. Peacocke. As regards myself, this, though necessary, will be
very painful. As regards them, I am inclined to think that the more the
truth is known, the more general and the more generous will be the
sympathy felt for their position.

"As the newspaper sent to me, no doubt by your lordship's orders, from the
palace, has been accompanied by no letter, it may be necessary that your
lordship should be troubled by a subpoena, so as to prove that the
newspaper alluded to by your lordship is the one against which my
proceedings will be taken. It will be necessary, of course, that I should
show that the libel in question has been deemed important enough to bring
down upon me ecclesiastical rebuke of such a nature as to make my
remaining in the diocese unbearable,--unless it is shown that that rebuke
was undeserved."

There was consternation in the palace when this was received. So
stiffnecked a man, so obstinate, so unclerical,--so determined to make
much of little! The Bishop had felt himself bound to warn a clergyman
that, for the sake of the Church, he could not do altogether as other men
might. No doubt certain ladies had got around him,--especially Lady
Margaret Momson,--filling his ears with the horrors of the Doctor's
proceedings. The gentleman who had written the article about the Greek
and the Latin words had seen the truth of the thing at once,--so said Lady
Margaret. The Doctor had condoned the offence committed by