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Bloomsbury, and drive to Court in his cabriolet; but the dignity of a Bishop cannot be without a palace, and carriages and horses, and servants in purple, and himself in fine linen.

There was the sad case of the Bishop of Hereford, passing poor with something more than two thousand pounds a-year-that is, not having more than should suffice for the wishes of any reasonable man. What a case of distress! How could he support his dignity? While in this pickle-while waiting for the promised stall (a stall not of the stable in which Jesus lay), he must have been without a dignity! He had cauliflower wig, apron, shovel hat, purple and fine linen, but not a dignity, for he had not money enough to keep it up, and therefore was the stall promised him. But at last the stall was given, and then the dignity was set up. Now, the Bishop was the same man before and after he was stalled, and we should like to know in what the maintenance of the dignity appeared? Was the dignity incarnated in two new footmen, with floured heads, purple liveries, and copper-headed canes? or in a pair of sleek and prancing coach-horses? or was it built and painted blue in Longacre? or worked into tureens and butter-boats at Rundell's? or made into chairs, tables, carpets, and hangings, at the upholsterer's? We wish to know the manifestation of the thing. Bel's divinity was manifested by eating much meat. Dignity is a great consumer-requires a

vast deal for its keep; but of what is our question? It is easily answered. The Bishop of Hereford has only to say what he has had since his stall which he had not before he held his stall, and we know in what his dignity consists to a tittle. Has he new-furnished his palace? why, then, it is in upholstery. Has he bought plate? it is in spoons and forks. Has he engaged more servants? it is in John Dobson and Thomas Stokes. We have here the easiest possible case for the detection of a dignity. The Bishop could not maintain it upon the revenues of the See, and the addition of the stall enabled him to support it; therefore the answer to the question-How do you expend the emoluments of the stall?—gives the dignity.

The episcopal office is the last for which the necessity of show can be argued, as the state of the Bishop is withdrawn from the gaze of the many, and chiefly seen by the Clergy whom he superintends, and who should not be supposed to need gauds-the pomps and vanities of this wicked world to impress them with respect for their spiritual superior.

LORD DURHAM.

THE opinion we had conceived of the sound principles and high purposes of Lord Durham is confirmed by his speech at Gateshead. In this speech we have evidence that Lord Durham is a man above party views, party influence, and party sympathies. He looks to the rights and interests of the people, and states them at the full. With statesman-like comprehension he sees what must be, and how it can best be; he knows with what he has got to do, and what to do with it. He sees the element which is rising into might, and that the only safety is in floating on it; while others, the fools of custom, would be whetting the scythes or yoking the warhorses of the chariots of Pharaoh. While such a political sciolist as Mr Stanley is like the antic on a chimney-top fighting against the wind, Lord Durham is like the mariner who makes the gale the moving power of his vessel, and guides it through its troubled way by the very power he has borrowed from the storm.

Lord Durham is not one of those statesmen with one foot on sea and one on land; he is not one of those wavering beings who shuffle and juggle between two conflicting principles, giving power to

one, and struggling for the safety of the other. The avowed author of the first Reform Bill, he does not contend for the finality of the measure in force. He regards it, and justly, as a great first step, but still as a first step, and he declares its imperfections, and advises the people to bestir themselves for the improvement of the measure.

For the first Reform Bill, the work of his own hands, he does not claim that character of perfection which his minor colleagues insisted on in bar to any alteration of the second. He states:

"I was assisted by the advice of three of my col"leagues-Lord John Russell, Sir James Graham, ❝and Lord Duncannon; and, with their co-opera“tion, the first Reform Bill was submitted to the "Cabinet and to the Sovereign. Of that measure "I shall say no more than that, if it was not en"tirely perfect, it was, at the same time, free from many of those imperfections which attended he

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passing of the second Reform Bill,—and which, "from accidental circumstances, it was impossible "to guard against. I allude, in particular, to the "50%. tenant's clause, which was forced upon the

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supporters of the Bill by the then Tory House "of Commons, and afterwards inserted in the se"cond measure, although contrary to the principles "on which the first was framed; or, at least, upon "which I framed it-namely, that independence "should be the security for a vote, and that, no mat"ter how small the property was, provided the voter

VOL. II.

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"could exercise an independent suffrage, he should "be entitled to vote for his representative. It is "needless for me to tell you that circumstances to "which I cannot, and dare not, further allude, pre"vented my attending in my place in Parliament "during the discussion of the first measure, and "from having any thing to do with the formation "of the second. When it did come before the "House of Lords, I supported it to the best of my ability, knowing that, with all its imperfections on its head, it was one of the greatest charters of public liberty, and one of the greatest renova❝tions of the constitution that any government "ever staked its existence upon, or the two Houses "of Parliament ever ventured to pass into a law. “ I know that much remains to be done; many imperfections to be remedied; especially with regard "to rating.—If we find that the non-payment of "rates should tend to disqualify those who have the "right of voting, that part of the measure should "be altered and amended. Also, with regard to re

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gistration and the expense of elections; these are points which require to be reconsidered, and with 66 respect to which you have nothing to do but to "instruct your representatives to attend to them, "and they must be carried. And here allow me "to observe, that, in these days, we must not blame "individuals, or ministers, if they have not carried "the principles of that Bill into execution.

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power rests with yourselves now to instruct your

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