E. C. WILSON IN EXPLANATION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 3, Issue 75, 5 March 1883, Page 2

E. C. WILSON IN EXPLANATION.

(to the editor op the standard.) Sir, — I wish to thank you very much for the kind expressions of feeling towards me as shown by your issues of February Ist and 2nd, and I regret to learn from the same source, that your contemporary ha 9 been fit to insert any paragraphs against me. If the fact of his having once been a Wesleyan preacher has bmuorht him such an unchristiau»like spirit, I certainly think that his secession ha- bpen a great gain to the Wesleyan body ; and I much regret having subscribed to his paper instead of thi Standard , which now so disinterestedly upholds me. And m the belief, Sir, that you will gire me a fair hearing m your impartial journal, I now intend for thelast time volnnta-ily to appear m print, aid I hope that my statements will confisrh the favourable opinion that you and many others still entertain towards me. In the first place, Sir, I made no secret of my visit to Wellington : it was known and talked about a forW night before I started • and, I 88k you if any suspicions were avousei, why did not all the tradespeople send, m their bills? One or two who did so," were paid ; the others I intended to settle with on my return : and yet three days after I had left Palmerston, I was subjected to the annoyance of appearing m court, and was termed - by your christen (?) contemporary a " defaulter", for what reason J know not— by the way, I wonder how he got .the strange nick" name of " Balaam's ass" on the West Coast ? Again, Fir, with regard to the financial working of the dioces a , I would like to mention that the Bibhop wrote to me personally to Australia, offering to ordain me* and stating the stipend I should receive; and yet when I- was obliged to g ue ' for twelve days stipend during January, be suddenly b; comes a spiritual being, far too ethereal to "mind earthly things, 1 ' or be mixed up wilh anything so terrestrial as stipends. And yet when I handed his Lordship some marriage fees, he accepted them personally; without any m timation that others, and not himself, had to do with the financial affairs of the diocese : and to show how wpakthe defendant's case was, I found that a person named Lowe had actually stated that T had declared myself perfectly satisfied with what! had already received i— what do you think of this, Sir ?, and at whose instigation, I wonder, was such an untrue statement made? Again, Sir, can you be. surprised at my dislike of the so-called aristocracy of my late congregation, when they circulated such false reports about me as tne following— that Mrs Wilson and myself had gone through the marriage ceremony five times ; that 1 had met her at a circus m Australia, where she was performing ; and that I was not an ordained clergyman at all ? But " you can't make a silk purse out cf a sow's ear" ; and so I suppose I must not expect individuals who have made their money by general stores and grog shanties, to have the respect; for the clergy that real ladies and gentlemen would have. Unfortunately I wasted mx months among such people, and I know this much that wi'h one or two exceptions, not a single so-called upper class member of All Saint?' congregation wrulri have been admitted to my father's house m England, as the social «*qual of himself or of any members of bis family. With this letter, I shake off all recoMection of Palmpiston with joy and gladness : yet m justice to myself I say that if any of your readers have the courasre to make any statement against dip openly, and not anonymously, ei'her m your columns or m thoße of your contemporary, let them do it, and they shall prove their words, if it costi me £50 to make them do so. If, however, lam attacked again anonymously \ it wiU perhaps prove to the public that my traducers are what I most emphatically declare them to be, mean cowards and shame-faced liars. — I am, ivc , E. C. Wilson. [Mr Wilson is rather under a misapprehension with regard to our views concerning his manner of leaving Palmerston, which wp tnihlr was most unbecoming, to say the least of it. We wish to undeceive him m regard to tbe supposed manifestation on our part of any sympathy whatever with his recent conduct. V?e considerhis action throughout has been most reprehensible, and totally at variance with the sacred office from which he has been most properly^ removed. Granted that he intended Utb ; . come back and act honestly, his manner of departure was such as to excite grave suspicion as to his bona fide. We need not recapitulate the circumstances, which unfortunately are too widely known, and no special pleading will alter the " bearing" of those circumstances. The way m which Mr Wilson speaks of his late congregation is nothing short of disgraceful, and betrays but little of the spirit supposed to guide and control his acton. His taking his Bishop to Court is to our mind an unparalleled act of meanness, which will banish even from the minds of his best ftiends the last remnant of sympathy. We re«?refc that Mr Wilson should not have displayed more regard for the feelings of h's wife than dragging her name into this unseemly correspondence, which every right-tbinking person must sincerely deprecate. Theie can be little doubt it were better for All Saints congregation that their late spiritual pastor had not honoured them with bis presence, as his subsequent action has not tended to raise them, himself, or religion generally m the eyes of the community. The Palmeraton people and congregation of All Saints will be as glad to forget the existence of Mr Wilson, and his brief connection with them, as be should be to bury m oblivion the six months he spent m Palmerston, the manner of his departure, ant? the peculiar facts that his retirement hes elicited.— En. M. S.]