"Believe me, my dear Nicholson,

"Your affectionate friend,

"Francis W. Newman."


This letter was written from Escot, Ottery St. Mary, Devon, [Footnote: His
wife's old home.] in September, 1844.

In 1841 Ward of Balliol brought out a very strong pamphlet, and accused
the Reformation of many changes in the English Church; as Rev. J. B.
Mozley says in his _Letters_, it was "a kind of strong interpretation of
No. XC, just as Pusey's ... is a mollifying one, proving that No. XC says
nothing but what our divines have said before." As regards "the statute",
the Hebdomadal Board had early in this year "proposed a new statute" for
the conferring of B.D. degrees.


"_30th Dec._, 1844.

"... I suppose you are busy with _Ewald's_ [Footnote: Dr. Nicholson was
the pupil of Ewald, and the first translator of his _Hebrew Grammar_.]
_Grammar_.... I shall be more at rest whenever circumstances put me into
that direct conflict with current opinion, which I dare not go out of my
way to provoke, and yet feel it to be my natural element. My antagonism to
'things as they are'--politically, scientifically, and theologically--
grows with my growth; and I believe that every year that delays change
more and more endangers destruction to our social framework."