Page:Distinguished Churchmen.djvu/385

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
THE REV. JOHN COX EDGHILL, D.D.
335

him to organise the Army Chaplains' Department. I should have said before this, however, that Mr Gleig was at Oxford at the time he resolved to enter the Army as a combatant officer. He was himself engaged in the Peninsular War, and, returning, was ordained. His article attracted much public attention and served to show how utterly wrong the then existing state of things in the Army was. Mr Gleig really started both the Education Department and the Religious Department of the Army. You may, perhaps, know that he afterwards became the Chaplain-General, continuing in that office until 1875. He was not the first Chaplain-General, but he was, I think, the first to fill that post under the new warrant. During the Crimean War a large number of chaplains were appointed, and soon after the services of Roman Catholic and Presbyterian chaplains were requisitioned. In 1861 the number was increased by Lord Herbert; but there had been no increase since until the present year, when twelve more Church of England chaplains were sanctioned.”

“And now something as to the number of chaplains and how they are distributed?”

“There are at the present time sixty-five chaplains attached to the Church of England. Of Roman Catholics there are thirteen in actual commission, and eight Presbyterians. It is understood that five Wesleyan ministers are about to be