Autograph Letter, Signed

Brighton Rectory: Aug. 7, 1838. WILBERFORCE, Samuel [1805-1873] [successively Bishop of Oxford (1845-69) and Winchester (1869-73), best remembered today for his opposition to Darwin’s theory of evolution]. Autograph Letter, Signed, dated Brighton Rectory, Aug. 7, 1838, to the Honble Fox Maule[-Ramsay, 11th Earl of Dalhousie] (1801-74), M.P. An angry refusal of a government request by Lord John Russell: “...I am not aware that the parochial clergy have any such connection with the Home Office, as will justify his Lordship in the use of this language of command. Nor is it an accidental use of improper language since 1st if it were not pretended that these extracts from the parish register were demanded by Authority the clergy would be entitled at the common law to certain fees for sending them 2ly since this mode of demanding them is new. The ascertained custom upon such occasions being for the government to communicate with the clergy through their Bishops to whom they will be always to yield glad obedience. It is therefore from no petulant spirit of opposition to authority that I refuse to obey his Lordships commands but because in doing so, as far as I can see, I should 1st sanction the covert introduction of a dangerous principle (the dependance of the clergy on the home office) and hereby IIly endanger the independant rights of the clergy, and so IIIly (which is Lordship would be doubtless most unwilling to promote) impair the liberty of the subject.” At the time Wilberforce was rector of Brightstone in the Isle of Wight. Fox-Maule was Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department. 4to. pp. 3. (horizontal & vertical folds, hinged on right side)