DR. PUSEY AND CARDINAL NEWMAN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 328, 1 August 1879, Page 9

DR. PUSEY AND CARDINAL NEWMAN.

The Weekly Register publishes the following letter addressed by Dr. Pusey to the Eev. Father Belany, under date Christchurch, Oxford, May 20, 1879 :-« My dear Belany,-The idea of my having written to dear Newman most earnestly to refuse the Cardinalate is, of course, simply absurd 1 1 heard at one and the same time that it had been offered him and that he had declined it. This was said, as far as I know, without the slightest contradiction. All the papers were full of it. I waited for a week, and then, supposing it to be certain that he had declined it, I wrote to congratulate him on the mark of confidence which the offer implied, and on his non-acceptance of the offer. It has been to me and to several of his old friends like those old lines — I have been honoured and obeyed,' &c. I do not know whether you love those old lines in the ' Lyra Apostolica 'as we do. His still life m the Oratory at Birmingham has been an ideal to me which I love to dwell upon. However, I found that people were mistaken, and that dear Newman thought that it would have been ungrateful in him towards those who had been at the pains to obtain this honour for him, and that he had accepted it, though he himself preferred obscurity. So I wrote to retract what I had said. Why do people gossip about such a sacred thing as a love of above half a century ? I heard a little while ago that I had declined seeing him when he came here on being made Honorary Fellow of Trinity. The fact was simply that I did not know by what train he was coming. ... I was confined to the house, but, of course, I was glad to see him as soon as he could come. People do not mean to be unkind, but it is not kind thus to profane such a friendship as his and mine. For my part, in early life I learned how all reports were either untrue or had just enough of a basis of truth to make them the more noxious ; so I believe no reports if they have any unkindness in them, but turn away from them as one should from something putrid. You may assure your friends that nothing either has or can come between me and my deep love for John Henry Newman. As for their thinking me pert enough to offer him advice, of course they are welcome enough to believe me capable of any folly. You will not be surprised that in the midst of the work of Term, in addition to other things, I have not been able to finish sooner so Jong a letter. I might ha\e said at once 'I was not impertinent enough to offer any advice to John Henry Newman.' But this would not have met the fact that I had written to him when there seemed an univeisal agreement that he had respectfully declined the honour. Thank you much for your kind expression towards myself. With evciy good wish, yours affectionately,—E. B. Pusey. Of course, it would have been wiser to have ascertained the fact fiom dear Newman instead of believing what was said ; but I thought that there had been a general consent of your papers as well as the ordinaiy secular papers. And now, while I was writing to learn your direction, the great day of John Henry Newman has come and gone, aud his giand speech has been made. It was a beautiful speech, quite the old John Henry Newman speaking out the truth, yet not wounding a single heart."