OUR PORTRAIT GALLERY.

SECOND SERIES.-No. 37.

THE VERY REV. ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, D.D., LL.D., F.R.S., &c., DEAN OF WESTMINSTER,

Corresponding Member of the Institut de France.

On

THE Dean of Westminster enjoys a reputation second to that of no churchman of his time for the genial courtesy of his character, the cultured liberality of his spirit, and the graphic power of his pen. questions of Church polity he has encountered many and determined opponents, for he is unflinching in controversy wherever the great broad principles of religious liberty are at stake. Ritualists dislike the breadth of his views; the Evangelical party dislikes his tolerance; and Dissenters dislike his loyalty to the State Church; but all parties are ready to bear witness that he is a chivalrous champion of his cause, and that no personal animosities stain the fervour with which he maintains his principles.

The Dean was born in 1815, and is a son of the late Dr. Edward Stanley, Bishop of Norwich. He was educated at Rugby, under the famous Dr. Thomas Arnold, of whom he was a favourite pupil, and whose biographer he afterwards became. From Rugby school he passed to Balliol College, Oxford, where he held a scholarship. His connection with the University of Oxford was long and honourably distinguished. He received the Newdegate prize for English poetry, and in 1837 gained the Ireland scholarship and took a first class in classics. The Latin Essay prize was awarded to him in 1839, and in the following year the prizes for the English and Theological Essays. In the latter year he was elected a fellow of University College, of which he was tutor for twelve years.

In 1844 he made his first venture in the world of letters by the publication of his "Life of Dr. Arnold," a work which at once took rank in the very highest class of English biographies, and which may now fairly be regarded as a British classic. No doubt the liberal spirit of the great school