The self-assured and well-connected Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, was asked by Whitwell Elwin, editor of the Quarterly Review, to review Darwin’s Origin of Species. Wilberforce wrote a stinging, anonymous attack against the book, maintaining the notion of evolution was 'absolutely incompatible' to the word of God and the moral and spiritual condition of man. He also held his own at the historic 'evolution' debate on 30 June 1860, against Darwin's 'bull-dog', Thomas Huxley. Here is the famous Vanity Fair caricature of Wilberforce and the rare issue of his review.
Samuel Wilberforce, Vanity Fair, 24 July 1869. Heritage Collection, Dunedin Public Library
Samuel Wilberforce, review of Origin of Species in Quarterly Review, July 1860. Special Collections, University of Canterbury
Samuel Wilberforce
