“Dr. Bardsley and I had both sent in our cards, and I saw that he was eager to speak. About twenty minutes before the close of the meeting the Bishop turned to me and said that he could just manage to find a place for me. So I told him he had better call Bardsley instead, which he did. So B. spoke, and some other man after him, when the Bishop turned round again and said, ‘I think after all I can find time for you.’ All this made me the last speaker of the day. Off I went, and I believe before the Lord; He seemed to give me the ears and the good-will of the people at the very first sentence. I was enabled to say exactly what I wished, till at length, speaking of toleration, I said, ‘But if men introduce a ritual intended to symbolise Rome—’ when two or three persons cried out ‘No, no.’ But their objection only roused the whole multitude to what seemed like an almost unanimous cheer, which went on so long that at length the bell rang without my being able to finish my sentence, and there the discussion ended. So I lifted up my heart to the Lord and thanked Him for His mercy. “I sent in my card next day on ‘Reformation Principles,’ but the Bishop of Carlisle, who was chairman, did not call me up. “On Friday I read my paper. {209} Of course there was no excitement about that, but quite as much cause for thanksgiving, for several persons, amongst them Arch-deacon —, came to me in the evening and thanked me for it as having been a real help to them in their own souls. So I am come away with a thankful heart and a longing desire to spend what time remains as a firm and faithful witness for truth.” Few speeches at a congress can have aroused more excitement than Canon Hoare’s famous impromptu address at Derby in 1882, and none probably have been so far-reaching in their effect. The enthusiasm aroused in the vast audience was electrical; cheers and shouts of applause interrupted the speaker at every sentence. The same night it was being sold about the streets of Derby as a separate publication, next day it was in all the papers word for word, and during the twelve months that followed letters came in large numbers from nearly every part of the world, thanking him for his manly and vigorous words, in which he did not merely “hold the fort,” but carried the war into the camp of those who wished to bring our Church back into the dominion of Rome. Commenting upon it, the _Guardian_ of that date said: “No one, whether agreeing with Canon Hoare or not, could fail to be struck with admiration at the courage and skill with which he grappled his antagonist.”