As he could not
bring himself to expose the Bishop, he must see whether he could not reach
the man by means of his own power of words;--so he wrote as follows;--

"MY DEAR LORD,--I have to own that this letter is written with feelings
which have been very much lacerated by what your lordship has done. I
must tell you, in the first place, that I have abandoned my intention of
bringing an action against the proprietors of the scurrilous newspaper
which your lordship sent me, because I am unwilling to bring to public
notice the fact of a quarrel between a clergyman of the Church of England
and his Bishop. I think that, whatever may be the difficulty between us,
it should be arranged without bringing down upon either of us adverse
criticism from the public press. I trust your lordship will appreciate my
feeling in this matter. Nothing less strong could have induced me to
abandon what seems to be the most certain means by which I could obtain
redress.

"I had seen the paper which your lordship sent to me before it came to me
from the palace. The scurrilous, unsavoury, and vulgar words which it
contained did not matter to me much. I have lived long enough to know
that, let a man's own garments be as clean as they may be, he cannot hope
to walk through the world without rubbing against those who are dirty. It
was only when those words came to me from your lordship,--when I found
that the expressions which I found in that paper were those to which your
lordship had before alluded as being criticisms on my conduct in the
metropolitan press,--criticisms so grave as to make your lordship think it
necessary to admonish me respecting them,--it was only then, I say, that I
considered them to be worthy of my notice. When your lordship, in
admonishing me, found it necessary to refer me to the metropolitan press,
and to caution me to look to my conduct because the metropolitan press had
expressed its dissatisfaction, it was, I submit to you, natural for me to
ask you where I should find that criticism which had so strongly affected
your lordship's judgment. There are perhaps half a score of newspapers
published in London whose animadversions I, as a clergyman, might have
reason to respect,--even if I did not fear them. Was I not justified in
thinking that at least some two or three of these had dealt with my
conduct, when your lordship held the metropolitan press _in terrorem_ over
my head? I applied to your lordship for t