Believe me, dear Newman, ever yrs truly,
JAMES R. HOPE.
Rev. J. H. Newman.
Mr. Newman wrote in explanation as follows:—
The Rev. J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq.
Littlemore: February 3, 1843.
My dear Hope,—It is amusing in me to talk of being tired of giving explanations, when I have neither given nor mean to give any; but so it is, whether my hand aches, or I am sick of the subject, I feel as if I have given a hundred. Since you ask me, I will say, as far as I can collect my thoughts on an instant, that my reason for writing and publishing that notice was (but first I will observe that I do not wish it talked about, though it is not worth while going into the reasons why I did it in the way I have. I did it thus after a good deal of thought and fidget, and not seeing any better way, i.e. clearer of objections)—but my reason for the thing was my long-continued feeling of the great inconsistency I was in of letting things stand in print against me which I did not hold, and which I could not but be contradicting by my acting every day of my life. And more especially (i.e. it came home to me most vividly in that particular way) I felt that I was taking people in; that they thought me what I was not, and were trusting me when they should not, and this has been at times a very painful feeling indeed. I don't want to be trusted (perhaps you may think my fear, even before this affair, somewhat amusing); but so it was and is; people won't believe I go as far as I do—they will cling to their hopes. And then, again, intimate friends have almost reproached me with 'paltering with them in a double sense, keeping the word of promise to their ear, to break it to their hope.' They have said that my words against Rome often, when narrowly examined, were only what I meant, but that the effect of them was what others meant. I am not aware that I have any great motive for this paper beyond this—setting myself right, and wishing to be seen in my proper colours, and not unwilling to do such penance for wrong words as lies in the necessary criticism which such a retractation will involve on the part of friends and enemies; though, since nothing one does is without a meaning [that is, higher than one's own], things may come from it beyond my own meaning.
Thanks for … the information from newspapers, which you give me, of our hopes from Sir R. P., which I had not seen in them.
By-the-bye, in the paper, for 'person's respect' near the end, read 'persons I respect;' and 'to the editor' is fudge.
Ever yours,