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THE DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND AND THE

ARTICLE ON IRVINGISM.

WE have received the following letter from the Duke of Northumberland in reference to the article in our last number, entitled 'The History and Doctrines of Irvingism.'

We print it as we have received it, but in so doing we feel bound to make our strongest protest against such expressions as 'lie,' ' fabrications,' 'gross and malignant falsehood,' and 'hypocritical affectation,' of which the three first quoted are employed in a context which leads to the inference that the writer of the letter assumes the contributor to have been himself the fabricator, and of which the fourth can only be applied to him.

However much the Duke of Northumberland may have regretted the publication of the statements in question, and disbelieved their accuracy, he was bound to have given credit to the author of the article and to the Review which published it for a bonâ fide conviction of their truth. It is, we trust. totally needless to add our sincere regret that the statements should have given pain to any one living, especially to the relatives of a lady who was spoken of exclusively as an historical character.

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'To the Editor of the "Church Quarterly Review."

'Alnwick Castle, Nov. 1st, 1878. SIR,-Certain falsehoods affecting the memory of the late Lady Harriet Drummond having appeared in an article in the last number of the Church Quarterly Review, headed "History and Doctrines of Irvingism" (pages 50 and 51), I trust that you will see the propriety of giving publicity in your next number to my peremptory and emphatic denial of the truth of these fabrications.

'The first of them has, indeed, this minimum of fact for its foundation, that Lady Harriet did suffer, on the occasion alluded to, from a malady, the nature of which was mistaken by her physician; but the whole account of the " expectation of the birth of Elias," "the lying in state," &c. &c., is a gross and malignant falsehood, not improved, in my opinion, by the hypocritical affectation of reluctance on the part of the narrator to "violate the sanctities of private life.”

'Of the other story given in the footnote, I will only observe that, though it cannot be more untrue than the first, it is absolutely baseless, with the additional merit of having been fastened successively on two other victims by persons assuming authority equally unimpeachable for the lie.

'The utter disregard shown for the feelings of the children by whom Lady Harriet's memory is loved and hallowed, is the more cruel and offensive, that these inventions can have no bearing on the truth or falsehood of the tenets which the author of the article desires

to refute in his review of the work misnamed the "History and Doctrines of Irvingism.”—I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 'NORTHUMBERLAND.'

(Signed)

Immediately on the receipt of the foregoing, we communicated it to the writer of the article, from whose rejoinder we print the following:

'My information comes from one who was resident at Albury at the time, and who, for some years before and after, was a member of a leading Irvingite family, living on the most intimate terms with Mr. Drummond and the other members of the community.

'I have never known a shrewder or more sensible person, or one on the accuracy of whose deliberate statements of what she herself had seen and heard I could more implicitly rely. Since writing the article I have seen another lady who was present on the same occasion, which I will not call a "lying in state," if that is objected to, but a reception, and who has a most vivid recollection of all the circumstances.

She fully corroborates all that I have written, and could supply many additional particulars.

"The "expectation of Elias" was, I have been informed, perfectly notorious among the whole Irvingite community at Albury. They had been for some months previously in a state of excitement on the subject, which rose to fever heat when the arrival of the doctor's carriage was made known, and the subsequent collapse was in proportion. The doctor is now dead.

'I cannot at all agree with his Grace that these inventions, as he terms them, have no bearing on the truth or falsehood of the tenets of the Irvingites. It seems to me, on the contrary, that they are very important as showing the real character of their pretensions to prophetical and miraculous gifts, and it is only on that ground that I have been induced to record them.'

Our contributor says the same in regard to the story contained in the foot-note.

It appears to us that additional comment on our part is needless, unless indeed it be to repeat that we should not have published the impugned statements had we not been convinced of their very and definite bearing on the argument of the article.

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P.S. Having obtained the further information which is contained in the above paragraphs, we submitted them in proof to the Duke of Northumberland, in the hope that he, of whose perfect sincerity of conviction we have no doubt, would on his side have withdrawn the imputations on our bona fides, which is as precious to us as the reputation for sober sense of his relatives is to him, and would have assisted us in investigating statements in which we are as much interested as the Duke in probing to the uttermost. We have, in reply, only received another letter from the Duke, reiterating in the same terms the charge contained in his first communication; so that here we leave the subject.

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The allegations refer to matters of fact on which either side considers that it possesses evidence proving the other to be under a mistake, and upon which we are chiefly concerned in maintaining our own bona fides. Upon the subject-matter of the allegations, we have been able, by the assistance of our contributor, to furnish evidence, which, until it is rebutted, must be admitted in justification of their accuracy. We offered to the other side the opportunity of rebutting these definite statements, but it has preferred merely to meet them by strong language.

Erratum.

On page 285, in line 11, an Act of Queen Elizabeth is named as of the year 1570. It should have been 1571.

INDEX TO
TO VOLUME VII.

ADA

ADAMNAN, his account of S.

Columba and the monastery

of Iona, 165 sq.

Adams, Rev. H. C.: Wykehamica:
a History of Winchester College
and Commoners, 493
Elfric, Abp., Anglo-Saxon Easter
Homily of, cited, 296
Affleck, W., his translation of Paul
Janet's Final Causes, with Pre-
face by Dr. R. Flint, 485
Ambrose, S., on Matt. xvi. 18, 21;
on Luke xxii. 31, 27; on John
xxi. 15-17, 28, 30.
American Theology, 512 sq.
Ashley, Rev. J. M.: Origen the
Preacher, 258

Atkinson, F.: Resurrection and
other Poems, 258

Atwell, Dr. W. E.: The Pauline
Theory of the Inspiration of Holy
Scripture, 472

Augustine, S., on Matt. xvi. 18, 23;
on Luke xxii. 31, 28; on John
xxi. 15-17, 29, 31

Awdry, F. Sketch of Anne Mac-
kenzie and her Brother the Mis-
sionary Bishop, 258

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CAR

Black, Mr. W.: Macleod of Dare,
505

Blunt, Rev. J. H., his Annotated
Bible, &c., 466

Boulter, Abp., 109, 113
Bramhall, Abp., re-ordinations by,
288; on Roman Catholicism
and Protestantism, 299

Bristol, Earl of, his correspondence
with Bp. Gauden on Icon Basilikè,

342
Browne, Dr. J.: Life of John
Eadie, 253 sq.

Browning, Mr., his Poems, 65-92
Burke, Edmund, on Protestantism,
268 sq.; on the Coronation Oath,
272

Burnet, Bp., on the authorship of
Icon Basilike, 353

Buxton, Rev. H. W.: Mission Ser-
mons for a Year, 511

CAHIER, Rev. P. C.: Nouveaux
Mélanges d'Archéologie,
d'Histoire et de Littérature sur
le Moyen-âge, 248 sq.

Campbell, Mary, her pretended
gift of tongues, 42 sq.

Candida Casa, church of, 150 sqq.,
158

Cardale, Miss, her pretended gift
of tongues, 46, 49

Cardale, J. B., Pillar-Apostle of
Irvingism, 36 sq.; 48 sq.
Carpenter, Dr., on Miracles and the
Resurrection, 332

Carter, Mr. T. T.: Present Move-
ment a True Phase of Anglo-
Catholic Church Principles, &c.,
259

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