by name in the November number of the ‘Edinburgh Review.’ His ‘Letter to Francis Jeffrey,’ dated 30 Dec., was a fierce retort.
In 1825 he began his well-known Roman catholic controversy with Charles Butler (1750–1832) [q. v.] by a series of fifteen letters produced in April upon the tenth letter in Butler's ‘Book of the Roman Catholic Church.’ They were uncompromising in tone, but of such conspicuous learning and logic, and so courteous to Butler personally, that Butler sought out his adversary and made his acquaintance. Nevertheless Phillpotts continued the controversy. He published in 1826 a further letter to Butler, and in 1827 two letters to Canning, dated 23 Feb. and 7 May, on the question of the Roman catholic relief. He suggested a new form of test declaration to be subscribed by Roman catholics, and prepared a draft of an elaborate bill dealing with the tests, which he embodied in a letter to Lord Eldon in 1828. In view of his change of opinion shortly following, this fact is of importance. Canning spoke of Phillpotts's letters to himself as ‘stinging,’ his friends denounced them as libellous, and his opponents utilised them as an armoury of weapons for hostile use in debate. Lord Kenyon was so much struck with Phillpotts's grasp of the question in dispute that he entrusted to him eleven letters which he had received from George III, when he was consulted between 1795 and 1801, upon the late king's scruples about his coronation oath. Phillpotts published them on 25 May 1827. The wisdom of this step was questioned. The Roman catholics claimed them as facts in their favour. Phillpotts's own friends blamed him for injuring the protestant cause. Accordingly he vindicated his conduct in a ‘Letter to an English Layman’ early in 1828, and at the same time made a fierce onslaught upon the ‘Edinburgh Review,’ which had reviewed the king's letters in June 1827, and had practically said that they were the writings of a madman.
Thus down to 1828 Phillpotts was a tory and anti-catholic controversialist, as militant, perhaps, as befitted a cleric, and undoubtedly a useful supporter of the ministry. He was rewarded with the deanery of Chester when his friend Copleston vacated it for the bishopric of Llandaff, and was instituted on 13 May 1828. Now, however, came a change of view on his part, for which he was very violently attacked. The tory ministry gave way in 1829 to the Roman catholic demands, and passed the Relief Act. The government's conversion was shared by Phillpotts, and he voted for Sir Robert Peel, who was chiefly responsible for the government's change of front, at his election contest at Oxford (cf. his letter to Dr. Ellerton). Phillpotts was said to have ‘wheeled to the right-about as if by military command’ (Times, 3 Feb. 1829); but he had always been willing to make the concession if accompanied by what he deemed sufficient safeguards, and saw no reason why he should abandon all his political interests and alliances because he could not have his own way on one point. His timely recognition of the necessities of the government was promptly recognised by the Duke of Wellington. In November 1830 he succeeded Bethell in the bishopric of Exeter.
A difficulty at once arose. When first the bishopric of Exeter was offered to him, Phillpotts had replied that he could not afford to take it, with its income of under 3,000l., unless he might retain his living of Stanhope and its income of 4,000l. Many bishops of Exeter had held parochial preferment along with their sees, and the government granted Phillpotts's request. Although the last three rectors of Stanhope had been also prelates of distant sees, the parishioners were at once set in motion, and petitioned against Phillpotts's retention of the living; they complained that he took 4,000l. a year and left all the duties to a ‘hireling.’ The matter was mentioned in parliament, but, pending its discussion, a change of ministry took place, and the whigs came into office under Lord Grey. The new ministry refused to sanction the arrangement, but, after some negotiation, in effect gave way (Greville Memoirs, 1st ser. ii. 97). A canon of Durham was induced to exchange his stall for Stanhope, and Earl Grey presented Phillpotts in January 1831 to the vacant stall. He held it for the rest of his life, regularly taking his turn of residence (see Hansard, 3rd ser. i. 622, 932, and Wellington Despatches, vii. 362). Some of the clergy of the diocese of Exeter at the same time petitioned against his appointment, alleging that he had changed his opinions in 1829, and the Earl of Radnor attacked him on the same ground in 1832; but on both occasions the Duke of Wellington stated that the advancement was made in spite of, and not in consequence of, Phillpotts's opinion of the Roman Catholic Relief Act.
His consecration took place at Lambeth on 2 Jan. 1831, and he arrived at Exeter on the 10th. He was installed on the 14th, and took the oaths and his seat in the House of Lords on 7 Feb. He voted against the Reform Bill, but did not engage in the debates until the Tithes Bill was before the house in October, when he came into violent collision with Earl Grey (see Greville Memoirs, 1st ser. ii. 205, 289; Charles Words-
