298 EARLY REMINISCENCES the same way, by depriving her of her spiritual element, so as to reduce her to a hopping and an eating condition only, without a will of her own. They did not desire to kill her, for they purposed to retain the plump benefices for their sons and nephews, and as rewards for such as had done them political service ; but she must have no independence whatever, no other object in life than to serve the Whig party. Apart from that she was welcome to hop about and catch flies. Lord John Russell followed in the footsteps of Sir Robert Walpole ; but since the days of Sir Robert a new spirit had arisen in the Church, that was too strong for him to master completely, though he might, for the time, materially depress it. The English Church had met with wounding blows, and she bore the discoloration on her. The Jerusalem Bishopric had been a scheme of Chevalier Bunsen, warmly seconded by Dr. Arnold, and meeting with the approbation of Prince Albert. It was a scheme for associating the Church of England with the mongrel State-Church set up in Prussia by Frederick William III in 1817, by a fusion of Calvinism and Lutheranism on a non-dogmatic basis. The new King of Prussia, Frederick William IV, in 1841 sent Bunsen over to arrange with the English Government for a joint Anglo-Prussian protectorate over the Protestants in Syria and Palestine. It was supposed to be possible that the English Church and the Prussian Establishment might agree to combine for this purpose under an Ecclesiastical head ; and the King of Prussia had a vague purpose thereby of introducing Episcopacy into his realm as the head of the bastard Establishment thathad been settled there a little over twenty years previously, and which was not working as harmoniously as had been hoped. He was willing to share in the expense of the maintenance of a Bishop in Jerusalem, who should ordain German Protestant ministers on their signing the Augsberg Confession, and who would undertake to use the colourless service book put forth for use in the evangelische Kirche. Howley, Archbishop of Canterbury, was too old and timorous to oppose an intrigue which in his heart he disliked. But the Queen, influenced by Prince Albert, favoured the project, and her will was law to a subservient Primate. The High Churchmen saw plainly enough what were the ultimate objects aimed at by
