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The life of Edward White Benson, sometime Archbishop of Canterbury
The life of Edward White Benson sometime Archbishop of Canterbury Author:Arthur Christopher Benson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. PARLIAMENTARY WORK. " Audire magnos jam videor duces Non indecoro pulvere sordidos." Horace. I DO not propose to give more than a summary o... more »f the Archbishop's Parliamentary work. It was not congenial to him ; he was convinced of the importance of securing prompt and practical Church legislation, but the Parliamentary methods of securing it were distasteful to him. He cared deeply and anxiously for the results of measures, but he was not a good Parliamentary speaker, and he had none of the arts of the Lobbyist. Moreover he had had no apprenticeship. He entered Parliament for the first time when he became Archbishop, at the age of fifty-three : for two hundred years there had been no Archbishop who had not previously sat as Bishop. In the House of Lords, I think it may be said, his historical sensitiveness, his love of antiquity and tradition, were a misfortune to him. The atmosphere seemed to overawe him, and make him ill at ease. I have often heard him speak of his first days in the House, how the imperturbable indifference, the genial consciousness of position, the amiable toleration of religion, the well-bred contempt for enthusiasm weighed his spirits down. He seldom spoke there with any pleasure either of anticipation, performance or recollection. Yet B. Ii. 5 66 PARLIAMENTARY WORK Aet. 54 there were few more constant attendants at the sittings of the House, and the increasing familiarity with the course of affairs gradually gave him influence and won him respect among those whom he used to designate as Terrarum Dominos. Chancellor Dibdin, who was more familiar with the Archbishop's legal and parliamentary work in his later years than any other person, and whom the Archbishop consulted on most measures of importance, says in his Article in the Qua...« less