Transcribed from the 1863 Rivingtons edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org PROPOSED SURRENDER OF THE PRAYER-BOOK AND ARTICLES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. A LETTER TO THE LORD BISHOP OF LONDON, ON PROFESSOR STANLEY’S VIEWS OF CLERICAL AND UNIVERSITY “SUBSCRIPTION.” * * * * * BY WILLIAM J. IRONS, D.D. PREBENDARY OF ST. PAUL’S, AND INCUMBENT OF BROMPTON, MIDDLESEX. * * * * * LONDON: THEODORE WRIGHT, 188, STRAND; RIVINGTONS, WATERLOO PLACE; AND PARKERS, 377, STRAND, AND OXFORD. 1863. * * * * * LONDON: SAVILL AND EDWARDS, PRINTERS, CHANDOS STREET, COVENT GARDEN. * * * * * A LETTER, ETC. BROMPTON, _Whitsuntide_, 1863. MY DEAR LORD, IF twenty years ago, soon after a few of the clergy had asserted their “claim to hold all Roman doctrine,” {3} a proposal had been made to abolish Subscription to the English Formularies, it would surely have been thought to indicate very grave disloyalty to our Church. And now, when others have asserted the right to unfettered “free-thinking” within her pale, and endeavoured to vindicate that right in our Courts of Law, can we help being struck at the intrepidity of the demand to sweep away at once the sober restraints of orthodoxy to which Churchmen have been so long accustomed? Your Lordship has been openly addressed, as we are all aware, in behalf of this “Relaxation of Subscription;” but as our Bishop—so deeply interested in the welfare of the whole Church—I venture to believe that you will do justice to opposite views, and in offering them to your attention, I rely on that broad-minded charity to various schools among us, which has marked your Lordship’s administration of this diocese. Dr. Stanley’s position. {4a}