Nigel Scotland

This is an interesting book for what will admittedly be a small readership, of those who want to know more about the views and work of the large group of Anglican bishops appointed in the Church of England in the mid-19th century at the behest of the Prime Minister Lord Palmerston. The book reviews the context in which the appointments were made and the influences (particularly that of Wilberforce) on Palmerston, but the greater part of the book is taken up with describing the consequences in terms of the way those appointed carried out their work in their dioceses - so different chapters look at the way they supervised clergy, tackled the Ritualist movements, and so on. The book is clearly the result of much research amongst the papers of the relevant bishops, and surveys the field well. If I would make one criticism it is that the various chapters tend to be written basically as lists (ie X did that, Y did that, Z did this), rather then there being a complete synthesis of material for each sub-theme. This suggests that the first draft of the book from research notes did not receive sufficient editorial attention to make it flow better, and become a more complete work. But nonetheless it is a commendable addition to the corpus of works on the 19th century church.… (meer)