Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Saturday 26 December 1874, page 22


CLERICAL ASSOCIATION WITH THE TURF

Tho Rev. J. AV. King, the owner of Apology, the winner of the St. Leger, lus addressed the following letter to the Bishop of Lincoln :

" Aehby-de-la-Launde, October 19.

"My Lord,-I observe with pain that your lordship has thought fit to publish your last letter to myself. Your lordship is aware that I was unable nt the time to reply in person, being disabled by au accident which has confined me to my bed; bat the publication of your lordship's letter compels me, at whatever cost, to clo so now.

" Permit me in the first place to express my deep acknowledgment of the spirit which pervades your last communication, and the kind expression it contains, and to assure your lordship that had your former letters been similar in character to I this you would have had no reason to complain of

their recaption at my hands. But your lordship must remember that they contained simply legal threats, amounting to notice of proceedings, and left me, na an Anglo-Saxon (whose ancestors laid clown their lives to establish the reformed Protestant religion), no alternative except the course which I pursued, viz., to refer your lordship to my solicitor. My lord, with reference to your preseut letter, it is true that now for more than fifty years I have bred and sometimes had in training horses for the turf. They are horses of a breed highly prized, which I inherited with my estate, and have been in my family for generations. It may be difficult, perhaps, to decide what constitutes a scandal in the Church ; but I cannot think that in my endeavours to perpetuate this breedand thus improve the horses in this country, an object of general interest at the present moment-I have done anything to incur your lordship's censure. I am fully aware-as I think your lordship must be, too, by this time-that 'acal proceedings upon your part would be powerless against me ; and if,'therefore, I resign the livings which I hold within your lordship's diocese, it will be not from any consciousness bf wrong, or from fear of any , consequences which might ensue in the ecclesiasI tical courts, but simply because I desire to live the

remainder of my clays in peace and charity with t all men, and to save your lordship the annoyance,

and the Church tho scandal, of futile proceedings I hoing taken against ono who has retired for some | time from parochial ministration, and is lying on the bed of sickness at this moment.-I rest, yours faithfully, J, W. KING."

The Bishop of Lincoln hastened to make sure of the opportunity offered by tho Rev. J. AV. King, to escapo froiii the unpleasant position iu which he was placed. He sent the following reply :

,Ris6holme,Oet.2l,1874.

" My dear sir,-I hasten to roply to your letter of the 19th, which I found here on my return from Grimsby last night. I waa very sorry to havo caused you any pain hy the discharge of a public duty ; aud my regret was greatly increased by the news which I afterwards received of the serious accident from which you aro now suffering, and for which .1 sincerely sympathise with you. Let ino now bo allowed to express to you my gratitude for the intention announced in your letter, to sacrifico private interest to public principle, «nd for the sake ot' peace ; and I earnestly pray that you may long enjoy that comfort which arises from*the consciousness of such a sacrifice ; aud that we may j both have that consolation from above which is

bestowed on the lovers of truth and charity, in the time of sickness and sorrow, and at the hour of

dentil.

-I am, my clear sir, yours sincerely, C. '

LINCOLN." |