[ Augustus Short, Bishop of Adelaide. ] Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'A Short'), written while at Oxford to Rev. Richard Harington, regarding the Oxford Movement and 'Schismatics', and reporting a comment by John Henry Newman.

Both items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. According to Short's entry in the Oxford DNB, he 'had many friends among the Tractarians, and wrote (but did not publish) a defence of Tract 90, though he voted for the condemnation of W. G. Ward's Ideal of a Christian Church in 1845. In 1846 he delivered at Oxford the Bampton lectures entitled The Witness of the Spirit with our Spirit'. ONE: 'Tuesday | June 4'. 3pp., 12mo. He begins by stating that he is enclosing the 'Extracts from the Tracts', together with Harington's 'paper of observations'. He continues: 'Newman directed my attention on the subject of Invocations & Paryers for the dead to Tracts 71 & 72. These he said would furnish a “MacMandate” against any supposed to in Tract 75. It is certainly but fair that those who undertake to criticize their expressions should examine the whole body of their teaching which appears to be carried on systematically and so we must read all the Tracts I suppose . . The world will not certainly and I fear not even that part of it which calls itself religious.' He gives details of two books which he has bought and ends with a comment concerning 'Hume of '. TWO: 'Wednesday. Mh. 13.' 3pp., 12mo. Presumably referring to the Bishop of Oxford, he writes that he has read Harington's 'letters to the Bishop with the attention the subject deserves. They remind me of a game of billiards where one player so places the balls that the adversary must almost inevitably pocket himself off the red and so lose the game. The Bishop however did not pocket himself but made a push for another part of the table.' The matter in question should be decided by a 'national Synod'. He agrees with the Bishop 'that practically we should lay as few obstacles as we can in the way of a returning Schismatic'. He end with reference to 'the New Poor Law' and 'the comparative comfort of the Agricultural Labourer'. From the Harington family papers.