262 EARLY REMINISCENCES I saw the House of God filled with poor folk, all eagerly and lovingly taking part in Divine worship, I turned back in memory to the lone black figure at S. Barnabas, kneeling hour by hour in silent prayer ; and I thought how that he must at last have seen " the travail of his soul, and been satisfied with it." And how marvellously out of that seed sown by Charles Lowder has a plentiful crop of spiritual and religious life sprung up among the humblest classes, and all full of zeal for the worship and faith of the Church of England. At the time when I was in Jr about London, Manning was a great retiarius for the Roman Church, casting his net to right and left so as to catch whom he could. Manning, in the opinion of those who had known him in his Anglican days, was not a sincere man ; he was devoured by ambition, and his confidence in making his way in the English Church was shaken when so much popular feeling was roused against the Tractarians ; and when the statesmen and judges seemed to be combined to stamp out the movement; then thinking that every door was shut against advancement in the English Church, he seceded in 1851. His piety, his fasting, were ostentatious. At a dinner party where he was, as well as my uncle, Sir Edward Sabine, he would drink nothing but water, and only nibbled at a bit of bread. It was for display ; but also for his health's sake.1 It was significant that after his promotion to be Archbishop of Westminster he exhibited a rancorous hatred of the English Church, displaying so different a temper from that of Newman. The prominent characteristic of the latter may be said to have been love for those from whom he found himself separated, whereas Manning's line was an uncompromising and contemptuous denunciation of the errors from which he rejoiced to be freed. He seemed to be quite unable to see how it was possible that persons with whom he once sympathized should not follow his example. Manning, in his animosity entertained towards the English Church, did not fail to extol the Dissenters, at her expense, as the only consistent and upright Christians outside the pale of the Latin Church. 1 It was well known to his intimates that, before going out to dinner, he partook of a meal at home, tasty and nutritious.
