At  this  time  the  Church  of  England  was  profoundly  agi-
tated by  the  Gorham  controversy.  Dr.  Phillpotts,  the
Bishop  of  Exeter,  refused  to  institute  Mr.  Gorham  into  a
living  to  which  he  had  been  presented  by  the  Lord  Chan-
cellor, on  the  ground  that  he  did  not  hold  the  Church  doc-
trine of  baptismal  regeneration.  Mr.  Gorham  appealed  to
the  law,  and  in  1849  ^he  Dean  of  Arches  Court  pronounced
against  him,  to  the  great  satisfaction  of  the  High  Church
party.  He  appealed,  however,  to  the  Judicial  Committee
of  the  Privy  Council,  and  the  judgment  of  the  lower  Court
was  reversed,  on  the  ground  that  many  eminent  prelates
and  divines  had  maintained  opinions  like  Mr.  Gorham's
without  censure.  It  was  now  the  turn  of  the  Evangelicals
to  exult,  while  their  opponents  bewailed  their  subjection  to
a  secular  tribunal.  Mr.  Martineau  took  advantage  of  these
events  to  write  for  the  April  number  of  the  "  Westminster
Review,"  1850,  a  long  and  elaborate  article  on  "  The  Church
of  England,"  ^  in  which  he  endeavoured  to  lift  the  whole
controversy  to  higher  ground,  and  to  point  out  how  far
the  Church  was  at  that  time  from  fulfilling  its  duties  as
a  national  institution.  After  a  humorous  description  of
the  attitude  of  Englishmen  towards  law  and  theology,  and
their  contentment  with  practical  results,  he  remarks :  "  The
decisions  in  the  Articles  may  be  stringent,  the  pretensions
of  the  Ordination-service  arrogant,  and  the  imprecations
of  the  Creed  unflinching;  but  while  they  are  not  pressed
into  any  visible  form  of  ecclesiastical  action,  the  persons
of  a  few  mild  and  charitable  Bishops  suffice  to  counteract
their  effect,  and  to  persuade  men,  fresh  from  the  very  sound


1  Reprinted  in  Miscellanies,  and  in  Essays,  II.
