His share in the controversy led
to a curious personal encounter.
His conversion had come as a great shock to Mr. Gladstone.
Manning
had breathed no word of its approach to his old and intimate
friend, and when the news reached him, it seemed almost an act of
personal injury. 'I felt,' Mr. Gladstone said, 'as if Manning had
murdered my mother by mistake.' For twelve years the two men did
not meet, after which they occasionally saw each other and
renewed their correspondence. This was the condition of affairs
when Mr. Gladstone published his pamphlet. As soon as it
appeared,
Manning wrote a letter to the New York Herald, contradicting its
conclusions and declaring that its publication was 'the first
event that has overcast a friendship of forty-five years'. Mr.
Gladstone replied to this letter in a second pamphlet. At the
close of his theological arguments, he added the following
passage: 'I feel it necessary, in concluding this answer, to
state that Archbishop Manning has fallen into most serious
inaccuracy in his letter of November 10th, wherein he describes
'my
Expostulation as the first event which has overcast a friendship
of forty-five years. I allude to the subject with regret; and
without entering into details.'
Manning replied in a private letter:
'My dear Gladstone,' he wrote, 'you say that I am in error in
stating that your former pamphlet is the first act which has
overcast our friendship.
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