The  best  result  of  Tait's  episcopate  was  the
establishment  of  the  Bishop  of  London's
Fund.  This  was  the  kind  of  business  in
which  he  excelled ;  but  in  more  spiritual
matters  his  rule  was  disastrous.  From  first
to  last  he  set  his  face  against  the  Catholic
revival  and  the  modest  beginnings  of
ritualism.  He  persecuted  Mr.  Liddell  of
St.  Paul's,  Knightsbridge,  for  having  a
stone  altar,  and  Mr.  Stuart  of  St.  Mary
Magdalen,  Munster  Square,  for  having  altar-
lights.  He  revoked  the  licence  of  a  curate
(Mr.  A.  Poole)  for  hearing  confessions.  He
publicly  rebuked  the  clergy  of  St.  Michael's,
Shoreditch,  for  wearing  coloured  stoles.  He
voted  for  the  Divorce  Act ;  he  encouraged
Bishop  Colenso  (q.v.).  He  admitted  un-
confirmed people  to  Communion.  He  was
friendly  to  Evangelicals,  enthusiastic  for
Latitudinarians  and  Broad  Churchmen,  and
consistently  hostile  to  every  one  who  believed
in  the  Church  as  a  spiritual  society  with  laws
and  powers  of  her  own.  And,  as  he  was  an
influential  speaker  in  the  House  of  Lords,
intimate  with  the  Queen,  and  closely  associ-
ated with  Whig  ministers,  he  was  a  most
formidable  foe  to  the  Catholic  cause  in
London.  Yet  his  action  in  opening  the  dome
of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  to  the  people  by
bringing  about  the  first  great  free  popular
service  held  there,  and  by  preaching  at  it,
must  be  counted  among  the  causes  which
have  led  to  the  position  which  St.  Paul's
now  fills  in  the  religious  life  of  London  and
of  the  country.
