264 DISTINGUISHED CHURCHMEN
Mr Fowler thought for a moment, and then observed, " They were men of a widely different calibre. The general impression appears to be that Archbishop Benson was a man of extreme courtesy of manner, while Archbishop Thomson was somewhat unapproachable and austere. Cer tainly in the case of the Archbishop of York that character was only superficial, because he was one of the kindest-hearted of men. There might have been now and then a case where he gave the impression of considerable sternness in regard to a particular clergyman, but while having to take up a judicial attitude because of some charge of misdemeanour, he would more likely than not be privately helping that same man and his family in their financial difficulty. A case like that was of frequent occurrence. Perhaps Dr Thomson s great power was to be found in his addresses to mass meetings of working men, and in the won derful facility which he possessed of assimilating knowledge of any subject towards which he turned his attention. You may have heard the story of how on one occasion, while going over some works in one of our maufacturing towns, he so astonished the foreman by his accurate knowledge of the various details of the machinery, that the man subsequently said, * What a good iron-master they spoilt when they made William Thomson a Bishop ! Among his other accomplishments, the late Archbishop of York was one of the best
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