CHAPTER XVI 1863 MY mother and my father had been strongly opposed to my entering Holy Orders, as I desired, because they had settled in their minds that the Rectory was to be the portion of one of the two younger sons, and that for the junior son who did not take it a charge in the shape of an annuity was to be laid on the estate for his support. But, shortly before her death, my mother withdrew her opposition ; and so did my father, when he discovered how impracticable was his scheme, for my brother William emphatically protested that he would not " go into the Church," as it was then termed, and my youngest brother, Edward Drake, had been given a purely mathematical and mechanical education, and possessed no knowledge of Latin or Greek, in fact of the latter he did not even know the letters. Moreover, he expressed a decided repugnance towards the Ecclesiastical profession. My father had learned from Mr. Williams what a fatal mistake it was for a parent to force his son into Holy Orders, when he was without inward call to the same. He was put in great difficulties how to settle matters rightly ; he was, however, very reserved as to his purpose, but once or twice he threw out the warning to me that as my grandfather had cut off the entail he could do with the estate what he liked. Finally, he told me that all I must look to would be the Rectory on my uncle's death. I was aware of the weakness of the English Church, the ineptitude of the bishops, the hostility of the man-in-the-street, and the resolution of the Whig party to devitalize the Church as much as possible. A certain naturalist extracted the brain from a frog, and the amphibian hopped about and ate unconcernedly. The Whig politicians purposed operating on the Church in much 297
