[216] As the law stood, Government could only grant life insurances to the amount of £100 to persons who purchased deferred annuities. Mr. Gladstone abolished that restriction. It is curious that, though the Bill met with much opposition in the House of Commons, in the Lords it was welcomed as a boon to the working-classes, who urgently desired the measure to pass.
[217] One was Dr. Rowland Williams, whose essay on Bunsen’s Biblical Researches—affirming that the Bible was “an expression of devout reason, and therefore to be read with reason in freedom”—was supposed to deny that it was the actual word of God. It also affirmed that “the doctrine of merit by transfer is a fiction.” The other defendant was the Rev. H. B. Wilson, whose essay on “Séances Historiques de Genève” was said to deny that the Holy Scriptures were written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and to challenge the doctrine of final judgment and eternal punishment.
[218] Wilberforce’s popular nickname was notoriously “Soapy Sam”—hence the malignity of Westbury’s attack.
[219] Life of Wilberforce, Vol. III., p. 143.
[220] It was said that at the outset he might have embarked his army from Washington and transported them without the loss of a single man to the point he had now reached, after prowling like a wolf for many weeks round the Confederate lines to the south of Richmond.
[221] Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., p. 309.
[222] Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., p. 318.
[223] He was executed on the 14th of November, 1864.
[224] Alice: Grand Duchess of Hesse. Biographical Sketch and Letters, pp. 74, 75.
[225] Life of Dr. Norman McLeod, Vol. II., pp. 176, 177.