subscriptions then required, and the proposal, upon which his Glasgow experience gave him a title to speak, relating to the admission of non-collegiate students. His suggestion on this subject bore fruit many years later.
His last year at Carlisle was overclouded by a great family disaster. He had married in 1843, and he had at the beginning of 1856 seven children, ranging from ten years old to a few weeks. Between 6 March and 8 April five died from scarlet fever. Leaving their desolate home after the last of these deaths, the parents went with their son of seven years old and the infant daughter, who alone remained to them, to Ullswater for the summer. They returned for a short time in September to another house in Carlisle, and were making arrangements for resettling at the deanery, when a letter from Lord Palmerston arrived offering Tait the bishopric of London. He was consecrated at the chapel royal, Whitehall, on 22 Nov. 1856.
Tait’s entrance into the bishopric of London was by no means easy. He was, with one exception, the only man for nearly two hundred years who had been made bishop of London without having held any other see. He had not the full support of either of the two great clerical parties; he sympathised with what was best in each of them; but neither of them entered into the object which he set before him—that of claiming an all-embracing national influence for the church of England—and only a few, of whom Walter Farquhar Hook [q. v.] was one, showed that they could welcome the appointment of a just man not precisely of their own views.
Tait’s first acts as bishop were designed to stimulate evangelistic efforts. Within a month of his consecration he attended a meeting in Islington at which it was resolved to build ten new churches, and he promised to subscribe 60l. to each. He preached himself in omnibus yards, in ragged schools, in Covent Garden Market, and to the gipsies at Shepherd’s Bush. In 1857 he founded the Diocesan Home Mission, and arranged a series of services, at some of which he was himself the preacher, for the working people throughout the north and east of London. In 1858 he obtained the opening of Westminster Abbey for the popular evening services, an example which was followed by St. Paul’s not long afterwards; and he expressed a modified sympathy with the movement for making use of theatres and public halls for evangelistic services.
The church controversies of the day, which took up much of his episcopal life, though of less permanent interest, proved his diligence, his courage, and his impartiality. He had little taste for the minutiæ of ceremonial or of doctrinal definition; his sole desire was that the law, for the enforcement of which he was responsible, should be made clear, and that within its limits earnest men should be able to use the church system freely as they thought most conducive to the good of those entrusted to them. A serious question, that of confession, was brought before him in 1858, which led to his withdrawing the license of Alfred Poole, curate of St. Barnabas, Pimlico, on the ground that his practice of confession was inconsistent with that recognised by the prayer-book. Poole appealed, with Tait’s full consent, to the archbishop, John Bird Sumner [q. v.], who confirmed Tait’s sentence.
In the House of Lords Tait’s tact and power at once made an impression, which grew deeper as time went on. The first measure on which his influence in the house told conspicuously was the divorce bill of 1857. Though the bill was vehemently opposed by Mr. Gladstone and Bishop Wilberforce, its justice was acknowledged by the archbishop of Canterbury, with whom nine bishops voted for the second reading. Tait, while voting with the government, had a considerable share in modifying the bill in accordance with the conscientious wishes of the clergy. His speech helped to carry the clause which, while maintaining the divorced person’s right to be married in his parish church, left the clergyman free to refuse to officiate.
Tait’s primary charge, delivered in November 1858, summed up the work of his first two years as bishop of London and gave his views of the position of the church generally. It was far more comprehensive than such documents had previously been, and occupied five hours in its delivery under the dome of St. Paul’s. It attracted much attention, went through seven editions in a few weeks, and was viewed by all organs of opinion as a masterly exposition of church affairs.
The year 1859 was made notable by the disastrous riots at St. George’s-in-the-East, occasioned by the dislike of the people to the innovations of Charles Fuge Lowder [q. v.], the high-church incumbent. By a succession of conciliatory measures the bishop was finally successful in restoring peace. A memorial was addressed to him by more than two thousand of the parishioners thanking him for his action.
Other embarrassments followed. In 1860, the year following that of the appearance of
