General Chat

MR WILMOT ON BISHOP COLENSO To the Editor of "South Africa" Sir,--Since your reviewer has made some extraordinary blunders in his article, in your last issue, on my father, the late Bishop of Natal, I must beg you to allow me to point them out:-- (1) Mr. Wilmot begins by saying. "to show his standpoint, and to indicate the sincerity of his convictions, let us hear him upon the main question. He says"-and then proceeds to quote, not the Bishop's words, but those addressed to him at his consecration by Bishop Wilberforce! Those words are prominently prefixed to Sir George W. Cox's biography of my father, in triumphant vindication of that life, and are as follows, correctly given in your article:--"You need boldness to seek God, to stand by the truth and its supporters against men's threatenings and the Devil's wrath.You need a patient meekness to bear the galling calumnies and false surmises with which, if you are faithful, that same Satanic working, which, if it could, would burn your body, will assuredly assail you daily through the pens and tongues of deceivers and deceived, who, under semblance of a zeal for Christ, will evermore distort your words, misrepresent your motives, rejoice in your failings, exaggerate yo! ur errors, and seek by every poisoned breath of slander to destroy your powers of service." (2) The Bishop never "ceased to be Bishop," or to administer his diocese, for the Metropolitan Bishop of Cape Town was held, and subsequently proved, to have no jurisdiction over him. (3) To state, without qualification, that "he was looked upon as a dangerous heretic by English Churchmen," is to absolutely disregard the large body, both of clergy and of laity, who supported him with their names and contributions to a spontaneous Defence Fund. (4) With regard to his being considered "a wrong-headed political firebrand by the people of Natal." I have yet to learn that Mr. Wilmot is commissioned so to speak for the white colonists of Natal, or for its black aborigines. (5) The statement that the Bishop was "at all times in doubt," will be received with derision by any who have met him, and incredulously by the rest; for who, not positive of his facts and faith, could have so maintained a lifelong struggle for truth and justice? (6) Finally, your reviewer speaks of my father "neglecting his diocese, and residing in Europe." Without quoting, as a refutation to this slur, Dean Stanley's indignant and ardent words in defence of the Bishop, which may be found in the above-quoted work, and which I had myself repeated by the Dean, I would remind Mr. Wilmot that my father was twice, in the whole of his ministry, forced to visit Europe, once in his own defence and in that of his diocese, once in defence of a helpless native chief; and I conclude by inquiring how many colonial Bishops of our Church have been as short a period away from their dioceses as 3 ½ out of a period of 28 years? I am, faithfully yours, Robert J. Colenso 27, Royal Exchange December 15 Compliments of E:S: