THOMSON.
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haven, Cumberland, Feb. 11, 1819, was educated at Shrewsbury School and at Queen's College, Oxford, of which he was successively Scholar, Fellow, Tutor, and Provost. He took the degree of B.A. in 1840, was ordained Deacon in 1842, and Priest in 1843. After four years' experience of parochial labour at Guildford and at Cuddesden, he became tutor of his College, and was appointed Select Preacher at Oxford in 1848. He was chosen to preach the Bampton Lectures in 1853, the subiect being " The Aton- ing Work of Christ." He continued at Oxford imtil his marriage (1855) with Zoe, daughter of James Henry Skene, Esq., Her Majesty's Consul at Aleppo. He was appointed to the Crown living of All Souls^ Marylebone, in 1855 ; and the Pro- vostship of the College becoming vacant by the death of Dr. Fox, he was, notwithstanding the part he had taken in altering the close con- stitution of the College, which had excited some opposition, elected to succeed him. In 1856 he was ap- pointed one of the Select Preachers a second time ; in 1858 was chosen Preacher of Lincoln's Inn, which post he held till his elevation to the Episcopal Bench; and in 1859 he was appointed one of Her Majesty's Chaplains in Ordinary. On the translation of Dr. Baring to the bishopric of Durham, Dr. Thomson was, on the recommendation of Lord Palmerston, appointed to the vacant see of Gloucester and Bristol (Dec, 1861). He did not remain long in that diocese, for on the death of Archbishop Sumner, Dr. Longley was translated to Canterbury, the archiepiscopal see of York became vacant, and after some delay the appointment was, contrary to all precedent, conferred (Nov., 1862) on Dr. Thomson, who had not been a twelvemonth bishop. The cn- thronization was celebrated in York Minster, Feb. 24, 1863. His Grace took an active part in promoting the Public Worship Regulation Act,
and had charge of that measure in the House of Peers ; and at his in- stance the Government, in Feb., 1878, consented to the appointment of a Koyal Commission on Church Patronage. Dr. Thomson, who is a Fellow of the Boyal and Geogra- phical Societies, was for some time Examiner in Logic and Mental Science to the Society of Arts, and acted for several years as Examiner in Divinity in the Oxford Middle- Class Examinations. He is the author of ** An Outline of the Neces- sary Laws of Thought: a treatise on pure and applied logic " (2nd ed., 184-9), which is used in several uni- versities in this country and in America as a text book ; *• The Atoning Work of Christ viewed in relation to some current Theories," being the Bampton Lectures for 1853 ; *' Crime and its Excuses," in the " Oxford Essays," 1855 ; " Ser- mons preached in Lincoln's Inn Chapel," 1861 ; " Pastoral Letter to the Clergy and Laity of the Province of York," in reference to the recent decision of the Privy Council on two of the *' Essays and Reviews," 1864 ; "Life in the Light of Gcki's Word," sermons, 1868; "The Limits of Phi- losophical Inquiry," an address de- livered to the members of the Edin- burgh Philosophical Institution, 1868; "Seven Years," a charge to the clergy of the diocese of York, 1870; "Design in Nature," a lec- ture delivered in connection with the Christian Evidence Society, 5th ed., 1871 ; articles on "Jesus Christ " and the " Gospels" in Smith's " Dic- tionary of the Bible;" and nume- rous single sermons. He also edited "Aids to Faith" (1861), a series of theological essays, by several writers, in reply to the "Essays and Reviews ; " and he was the pro- jector of " The Speaker's Commen- tary." His Grace is Primate of England, a Governor of the Char- terhouse, and of King's, College, London, and patron of ninety-six livings. The see is of the annual value of jeiO,000.
