George Williams

“ I trust I may be pardoned one remark on the extremely embarrassing position in which I am placed towards the parents of the boys committed to my charge, as well as towards those gentlemen to whose zealous cooperation and support I am so largely indebted for any measure of success that has attended my exertions in this place, by the fact, that while your Grace calls upon me to resign my appointment, you intimate a doubt whether, even in that event, you will continue your connexion with the College. ”

“ My Lord, my opinion on Bishop Gobat's proceedings in Palestine have never been made a secret of by me; I published it fully to the world at a time when they had attracted no public attention, more than a year before your Grace honoured me with this appointment. It was not my fault if my sentiments were not clearly understood. ”

“ And when a Head Master comes before the public as a leader in a new ecclesiastical agitation, the well-judging portion of the community will, I am confident, coincide with me in opinion, that such a person manifests a want of discretion that must militate against the welfare of the School: and in the particular case before me, the School thereby becomes liable to the suspicion, which I have already adverted to, of being a place in which the extreme opinions of those with whom the Master has allied himself are inculcated. ”

“ If the Warden shall be charged with immoral conduct, or with holding opinions contrary to the teaching of the United Church of England and Ireland, as at present established, or with the commission of any criminal act, it shall be competent for the Majority of the Fellows to call upon the Visitor to inquire into the truth of such charges, and in the event of such charges, or any of them, being proved to the satisfaction of the Visitor, it shall be competent for such Visitor to declare the said office of Warden to be vacant, and it shall be so accordingly from the date of such declaration. ”

“ In conclusion, I must be permitted to express my deep regret, that my constant uniform endeavours to conduct an Institution, which was calculated to become a great national blessing, on the principles on which it was first established, and on which alone I consented to become connected with it, so as to secure your Grace's confidence, have been counteracted, by circumstances which I could not control. ”

“ It has appeared to me, on the most mature consideration, that while compliance with his Grace's suggestion, previous to inquiry, might seem to indicate, on my part, a guilty consciousness, from which, I thank God, I am entirely free; and might be regarded as equivalent to a plea of guilty to the grave charge implied in his Grace's communications, — which could not but be most injurious to my own character ”

“ In the first place, I must beg your Grace to consider that the possible and even probable consequence of compliance with such a requisition from one in your exalted station, would be the utter and irretrievable ruin of all the earthly prospects of a person in my position; and although I well know that nothing can be further removed from your Grace's wish than to do me any injury, yet this fact does not diminish at all the severity of the measure on your part ”

“ You inform me that it was without your knowledge, and without previously obtaining your consent, that your name was placed on the Committee; yet, so far from having taken care to let this be known, a letter of yours to the Rev. R. S. Brooke, (which at your desire was shown to me, and which bears the same date as your letter to the Rev. C. A. Fowler,) assures him that your signature was attached to the document to which he alluded, by your authority,—that document (the only document in which your name appeared before the public) being the list of the Committee. ”

“ You are of course aware, that on a former occasion, previous to your appointment, I found it necessary to interfere for the purpose of freeing the College of S. Columba from what was in a similar way injurious to it; and both at the time I gave my sanction to your filling the office of Warden, and on other opportunities which offered, I have very distinctly informed you that I would give no countenance to the introduction into that College of the peculiar views and observances of the agitating party in the Church to which I allude. ”

“ The effect of these anarchical proceedings can only be to disgust them, and to counteract their endeavours.
Thirdly, I am convinced that any further divisions among the Eastern Christians must expose them to still more fatal injury from the attacks of the Church of Rome, which has already made terrible havoc in those parts through the insidious assaults of the Jesuit missionaries ”

“ W. D. Veitch, written by the desire of the Archbishop of Canterbury, enclosing a copy of a statement prepared by the Committee of the Jerusalem Bishopric Fund.
Your name being the only one connected with Ireland in the list of signatures, must necessarily attract particular observations, and the more so, on account of the responsible office which you fill. In my endeavours to establish and to maintain the College of S. Columba, I have had serious difficulties from without to contend against ”