Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria.
2nd February 1841.
Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. Lord Melbourne will be happy to wait upon your Majesty on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, but he finds that there is to be a Cabinet dinner to-morrow.
Lord Melbourne will speak to Lord Palmerston about Lord John Russell.
Lord Melbourne does not see the name of the Archbishop of Canterbury as a subscriber to this "Parker" Society, and if your Majesty will give him leave, he will ask him about it before he gives your Majesty an answer. It is in some degree a party measure, and levelled against these new Oxford doctrines. The proposal is to republish the works of the older divines up to the time of the death of Queen Elizabeth. Up to that period the doctrines of the Church of England were decidedly Calvinistic. During the reign of James II.,4 and particularly after the Synod of Dort (1618-1619), the English clergy very generally adopted Arminian opinions.
It is proposed to republish the works of the divines who wrote during the first period, and to stop short when they come to the second. There is meaning in this. But, after all, the object is not a bad one, and it may not be worth while to consider it so closely.
Footnote 4: Lord Melbourne must have meant James I.
Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria.
ILLNESS OF DUKE OF WELLINGTON