A misjudged appointment to a bishopric or deanery might influence a by-election, ...

A misjudged appointment to a bishopric or deanery might influence a by-election, or provoke a Cabinet crisis.

Church policy could shake a Government - In the circumstances of nineteenth-century England, the arguement for an Establishment must in fairness be pronounced to be convincing.

The parochial system, worked by a married clergy, was unquestionably a civilizing influence which nothing else could have replaced. Whether it was in equal measure a religious influence may be doubted: the English Churchman was rarely so well informed in his faith as the Irish Catholic or the Scotch Presbyterian, and he was not called upon to be so active in his membership as the English Dissenter.

The Church was on the defensive: Nonconformity had the strategic initiative.