It is the fundamental premise of this book that ‘the Fathers of the Victorians were Hanoverians’. The Evangelicals, who since at least the time of G. M. Young's interwar essay on Victorian England have often been seen as its moulders, were not so preoccupied with moralistic reforms, the author contends, as to be exempt from the cultivation of superiors and the promotion of dependants. They were enmeshed in assorted webs of patronage, manipulating them with great success in order to enter the higher ranks of public life. The argument is not unlike that of Ford K. Brown, who in 1961 portrayed the Evangelicals of the age of William Wilberforce as out for power. Gareth Atkins tells us that the ‘establishment Evangelicalism’ that he studies was engaged in a ‘takeover bid’ (p. 6). Yet the tone is not that of Brown, who could be accused of attempting a hatchet job. Rather, Atkins sees the circles around Wilberforce (with inevitable exceptions) as moderate, pragmatic and accommodating, earning approval by their dedication and efficiency. The author cites favourable estimates by their contemporaries despite their earnestness. ‘I give [inserted: ‘many of’] them full credit for their zeal’, wrote Lord Liverpool as prime minister in 1821, ‘and believe that good may sometimes arise from their Enthusiasm’ (p. 107). This book is a critical but sympathetic assessment of Evangelical networking based on enormous exploration of contemporary sources, manuscript as well as published. It is a very firmly based analysis.

After an opening chapter setting out his perspective in relation to earlier ones, Atkins examines the role of the Evangelical clergy in the sixty years around the opening of the nineteenth century. He makes use of a database that he has compiled of about 1,000 of them, showing that they were not yet a party by 1800 but that over the next thirty years they consolidated into one. The chief agency was the Church Missionary Society, which was ineffective in recruiting clergy as missionaries in its early years but gave them a common cause at home. He moves on in the next chapter to examine the men of business associated with the movement. An early one, John Thornton (d. 1790), was perhaps the second greatest merchant in the Europe of his day, leaving an estate worth £600,000; one of his sons, Robert, illustrated the capacity of Evangelical adherents to tarnish their profession by going bankrupt. The British and Foreign Bible Society, very much a business concern, was hugely successful, raising over £70,000 in 1814–15, only its tenth year of existence. A further chapter discusses the development of an Anglican Evangelical party distinct from its traditionalist ‘Orthodox’ opponents. The Evangelicals had a struggle to secure patronage, with Wilberforce finding his old college friend William Pitt, for example, prejudiced against them. The remaining chapters contain case studies of the efforts of Evangelicals to advance their cause in three crucial sectors. The Sierra Leone colony, originally a commercial venture in which Evangelicals were heavily involved, was designed, Atkins argues, as ‘a blueprint for the more intensely Christian empire they wished to build’ (p. 146). The Royal Navy became especially permeated by Evangelicalism. Charles Middleton, Comptroller of the Navy Board from 1778 to 1790 and so the architect of British preparedness at sea for the French Wars, and subsequently First Lord of the Admiralty, exerted a powerful religious sway, being responsible for regulations embedding chaplains more firmly in the naval structure. And the East India Company was another major sphere of influence. The first bishop of Calcutta, a High Churchman appointed in 1814, was dismayed to discover that nearly every European in the city supported the Bible Society. In his conclusion Atkins contends that the two prevailing accounts in the existing historiography of the trajectory of the Evangelical movement, one favouring continuity and the other emphasising discontinuity around 1830, both contain elements of truth. Although fresh doctrines and sterner principles were introduced about then, much of the accommodating style of Wilberforce and his friends survived into the middle years of the century.

This analysis is highly persuasive. It has long been accepted that patronage in an ecclesiastical setting was a primary concern of Evangelicals in these years, but it is helpful to have it suggested that they were usually worthy of their appointments. As high a number as 167 of the 1,000 clergy under the microscope were Fellows of their colleges, and, though that is no guarantee of outstanding intellectual capacity in this period, it does indicate a measure of diligence. It is not surprising that the provision of places for promising individuals was just as important in secular contexts. A strong feature of the book is the pinning on of telling primary quotations. ‘If you hear of any Advowsons or Presentations to be sold in useful spots with Incumbents above fifty or sickly’, wrote the immensely rich John Thornton to a correspondent in 1787, ‘I should be glad to lay out a few Thousands in that way’ (p. 30). That comment captures much of the argument of the whole book. It may be suggested that there was more political engagement by Evangelicals in earlier years than the author allows, for George Whitefield had frequented the court of the prince of Wales and John Wesley had denounced the American revolutionaries. In addition there was probably more participation by Dissenters in some of the developments chronicled here than Atkins suggests, for the spirit of joint enterprise in the 1790s brought Evangelicals of Church and Dissent together and a couple of those named here without denominational labels (Olinthus Gregory and W. B. Gurney) were actually Baptists. Yet the mountain of evidence in this book does show that most Anglican Evangelicals were attached to the establishment in every sense and intended to penetrate it. That an archbishop of Canterbury, J. B. Sumner, was appointed from the Evangelical camp before the mid-point of the century points to their high degree of success.