Revised Autograph Manuscript draft of 'Cardinal Wiseman's reply to the Address of the Clergy of the Diocese of Beverley' (headed 'To the Clergy of the Diocese of Beverley').

3pp., foolscap 8vo. On three leaves, with the reverse of the first docketed 'Cardinal Wiseman's reply to the Address of the Clergy of the Diocese of Brierley | Feb: 10th. 1851'. In fair condition, on aged paper with wear to the heads of the leaves. The address was published in the Tablet, 22 February 1851. The first page is headed 'To the Clergy of the Diocese of Beverley' and the first paragraph reads: 'My Rev. Brethren and Friends | If I have delayed answering your most kind Address, I trust you will have attributed it to pressing occupation, and to the peculiar incidents of the present moment.. The transfer of discussion on our ecclesiastical affairs from public meetings to the legislature, and the proposals now made to follow up angry clamour by deliberate penal enactments, give a character of serious importance to this crisis of the agitation, which will remain deeply impressed upon our history, and may well occupy our earnest thoughts.' The emendations include two deleted passages. First: 'If we have had reason to complain of misrepresentation during the past excitement, we have more reason to do so, if it be made [ends here]'; and second: 'With your <?> Bishop at your head the Clergy of the Diocese of Beverley will be joined [ends here]'. On 26 May 1851 C. Anstey declared in a speech in the House of Commons on the Ecclesiastical Titles Assumption Bill, that not only had the clergy of Beverley 'protested against the Rescript, but implored his Eminence to use whatever influence he might possess to establish such laws and institutions for their ecclesiastical government as might be in accordance with the free constitution and equitable laws of the country'.