272

WORKS OF THE REV. SIDNEY SMITH.

by the parallel, I have a perfect right to state this corrupt and unabolished practice of their own sees-a practice which I never heard charged against deans and chapters.*

I do not mean to imply, in the most remote degree, that either of the present archbishops have sold their options, or ever thought of it. Purer and more highminded gentlemen do not exist, nor men more utterly incapable of doing any thing unworthy of their high, stition; and I am convinced the Archbishop of Canterbury will imitate or exceed the munificence of his predecessor: but when twenty-four public bodies are to be despoiled of their patronage, we must look not only to present men. but historically, to see how it has been administered in times of old, and in times also recently past; and to remember, that at this moment, when bishops are set up as the most admirable dispensers of patronage-as the only persons fit to be intrusted with it-as marvels, for whom law and justice and ancient possessions ought to be set aside, that this patronage (very valuable because selected from the whole diocese) of the two heads of the church is liable to all the accidents of succession-that it may fall into the hands of a superannuated wife, of a profliof a weak daughter, or a rapacious creditor -that it may be brought to the haminer, and publicly bid for at an auction, like all the other chattels of the palace; and that such have been the indignities to which this optional patronage has been exposed, from the earliest days of the church to this moment. Truly, men who live in houses of glass (especially where the panes are so large) ought not to fling stones; or if they do, they should be specially careful at whose head they are flung.

gate son,

And then the patronage which is not seized-the patronage which the chapter is allowed to present to its own body-may be divided without their consent. Can any thing be more thoroughly lawless, or unjust than this-that my patronage during my life shall be How do my rights divided without my consent? lay patron, who during my life differ from those of a is tenant for life? and upon what principle of justice or common sense is his patronage protected from the commissioners' dividing power to which mine is subjected? That one can sell, and the other cannot sell, the next presentation, would be bad reasoning if it were good law; but it is not law, for an ecclesiastical corporation, aggregate or sole, can sell a next presentation as legally as a lay life-tenant can do. They have the same power of selling as laymen, but they never do so; that is, they dispense their patronage with great propriety and delicacy, which, in the estimate of the commissioners, seems to make their right weaker, and the reasons for taking it away more pow

erful.

Not only are laymen guarded by the same act
which gives the power of dividing livings to the com-
missioners, but bishops are also guarded. The com-
missioners may divide the livings of chapters without
their consent; but before they can touch the living of
a bishop, his consent must be obtained.
after a few of these examples, to become a little
clearer, and more intelligible, why the appointment
of any other ecclesiastics than bishops was so disa-

agreeable to the bench.

It seems,

for the good of the public; and with these sort of anil-
ities, whig leaders, whose interest it is to lull the bish-
this intolerabie nonsense they are not ashamed to jus
ops into a reform, pretend to be satisfied; and upon
tify spoliation.*

A division is set up between public and private
patronage, and it is pretended that one is holden in
trust for the public, the other in private property.
This is mere theory-a slight film thrown over conve
nient injustice. Henry VIII. gave to the Duke of
Bedford much of his patronage. Roger de Hoveden
gave to the church of St. Paul's much of his patronage
We are both under the same
before the Russells were in existence. The Duke Las
the legal power to give his preferment to whom he
pleases-so have we.
moral and religious restraint to administer that pa
tronage properly-the trust is precisely the same to
both; and if the public good requires it, the power of
dividing livings without the consent of patrons should
be given in all instances, and not confined as a mark
of infamy to cathedrals alone. This is not the real
eason of the difference: bishops are the active mem.
bers of the commission-they do not choose that their
own patronage should be meddled with, and they
know that the laity would not allow for a moment that
their livings should be pulled to pieces by bishops,
and that if such a proposal were made, there would
be more danger of the bishop being pulled to pieces
than the living. The real distinction is, between the
weak and the strong-between those who have power
to resist encroachment, and those who have not.
is the reason why we are selected for experiment, and
is purple and fine linen in every line of it.
so it is with all the bill from beginning to end. There

This

Another strong objection to the dividing power of the commission is this: according to the printed bill brought forward last session, if the living is not taken by some members of the body, it lapses to the bishop. Suppose, then, the same person to be bishop and commissioner, he breaks the living into little pieces as a commissioner, and after it is rejected in its impover ished state by the chapter, he gives it away as bishop of the diocese. The only answer that is given to such They are, objections is, the impeccability of bishops; and upon this principle the whole bill has been constructed, and here is the great mistake about bishops. upon the whole, very good and worthy men; but they are not (as many ancient ladies suppose) wholly exempt from human infirmities: they have their malice, hatred, uncharitableness, persecution, and interest l'ke other men; and an administrat on who did not think it more magnificent to laugh at the lower clergy, than to protect them, should suffer no ecclesiastical bill to ing how its provisions may affect the happiness of pass through Parliament without seriously considerin solitudepoor clergymen pushed into living tombs, and pining

Vates procul atque in sola relegant Pascua, post montem oppositum, et trans flumina lata. There is a practice among some bishops, which may as well be mentioned here as any where else, but which, I think, cannot be too severely reprobated. evidence respecting the character and conduct of his Does he shoot? Is he They send for a clergyman, and insist upon his giving Does he attend to his The reasoning, then, is this: If a good living is va-neighbour. Does he hunt? cant in the patronage of a chapter, they will only in debt? Is he temperate? on one of their body or their parish? &c. &c. Now what is this, but to destroy for friends. If such a living falls to the gift of a bishop, all clergymen the very elements of social life--to pu he will totally overlook the interests of his sons and an end to all confidence between man and man-and daughters, and divide the living into small portions to disseminate among gentlemen, who are bound to live in concord, every feeling of resentment, hatred. *Can any thing be more shabby in a government legis- and suspicion? But the very essence of tyranny is to lating upon church abuses, than to pass over such scandals act, as if the finer feelings, like the finer dishes, were as these existing in high places? Two years have passed, delicacies only for the rich and great, and that little and they are unnoticed.

think of conferring

The options of the Archbishop of York are compara-people have no taste for them and no right to them. A tively trifling. I never heard, at any period, that they good and honest bishop (I thank God there are many have been sold; but they remain, like those of Canterbury, who deserve that character!) ought to suspect himself in the absolute possession of the archbishop's repreresenta- and carefully to watch his own heart. He is all of a tives after his death. I will answer for it that the present archbishop will do every thing with them which becomes his high station and high charaeter. They ought to be abolished by act of Parliament.

*These reasonings have had their effect, and many early acts of injustice of the commission have been subsequently

corrected.

sudden elevated from being a tutor, dining at an early hour with his pupil, (and occasionally, it is believed, on cold meat,) to be a spiritual lord; he is dressed in a magnificent dress, decorated with a title, flattered by chaplains, and surrounded by little people looking up for the things which he has to give away; and this often happens to a man who has had no opportunities of seeing the world, whose parents were in very humble life, and who has given up all his thoughts to the frogs of Aristophanes and the Targum of Onkelos. How is it possible that such a man should not loose his head? that he should not swell? That he should not be guilty of a thousand follies, and worry and tease to death (before he recovers his common sense) an hundred men as good and as wise and as able as him

self?*

The history of the division of Edmonton has, I understand, been repeatedly stated in the commissionand told, as it has been, by a decided advocate, and with no sort of evidence called for on the other side of the question, has produced an unfair impression against chapters. The history is shortly this:-Besides the mother church of Edmonton, there are two chapels Southgate and Winchmore Hill chapels, Winchmore Hill chapel was built by the society for building churches upon the same plan as the portions of Marylebone are arranged; the clergyman was to be remunerated by the lease of the pews, and if curates with talents for preaching had been placed there, they might have gained £200 per annum. Though men of perfectly respectable and honourable character, they were not endowed with this sort of talent, and they gained no more than £90 to £100 per annum. The Bishop of London applied to the cathedral of St. Paul's, to consent to £250 per annum in addition to the proceeds from the letting of the pews, or that proportion to the whole value of the living, should be al lotted to the chapel of Winchmore; and at the same time we received an application from the chapel at Southgate, that another considerable portion, I forget what, but believe it to have been rather less (perhaps £200) should be allotted to them, and the whole living severed into three parishes. Now the living of Edmonton is about £1,350 per annum, besides surplice fees, but this £1,350 depends upon a corn rent of 10s. 3d. per bushel, present valuation, which, at the next valuation, would in the opinion of eminent land surveyors whom we consulted, be reduced to about 6s. per bushel, so that the living, considering the reduction also of all voluntary offerings to the church, would be reduced one half, and this half was to be divided into three, and one or two curates (two curates by the present bill) to be kept by the vicar of the old church; and thus three clerical beggars were, by the activity of the Bishop of London, to be established in a district where the extreme dearness of all provisions is the plea for making the see of London double in value to that of any bishopric in the country. To this we declined to agree; and this, heard only on one side, with the total omission of the changing value of the benefice from the price of corn, has most probably been the parent of the clause in question. The right cure for itis and all similar cases would be to give the bishop a power of allotting to such chapels as high a salary as to any other curate in the diocese, taking as part of that salary, whatever was received from the lease of the pews, and to this no reasonable man could or would object: but this is not enough-all must bow to one man- Chapters must be taught submission. No pamphlets, no meeting of independent prebendaries, to remonstrate against the proceedings of their superiors-no opulence and ease but mine.'

Some effect was produced also upon the commission, by the evidence of a prelate, who is both dean and bishop, and who gave it as his opinion that the pa

*Since writing this, and after declining the living for myself, I have had the pleasure of seeing it presented in an undivided state to my amiable and excellent friend Mr. Taite, who, after a long life of moods and tenses, has acquired (as he deserved) ease and opulence in his old age. This prelate stated it as his opinion to the commission, that in future all prelates ought to declare that they held their patronage in trust for the public.

tronage of bishops was given upon better principles than that of chapters, which, translated into fair Eng tish, is no more than this-that the said witness, not meaning to mislead, but himself deceived, has his own way entirely in his diocese, and can only have it partially in his chapter.

There is a rumour that these reasonings, with which they were assailed from so many quarters in the last session of Parliament, have not been without their effect, and that it is the intention of the commissioners only to take away the patronage from the cathedrals exactly in proportion as the number of their members are reduced. Such may be the intention of the commissioners; but as that intention has not been publicly notified, it depends only upon report; and the commissioners have changed their minds so often, that they may alter their intentions twenty times again before the meeting of Parliament. The whole of my obser vations in this letter are grounded upon their bills of last year-which Lord John Russell stated his intention of re-introducing at the beginning of this session. If they have any new plans, they ought to have published them three months ago-and to have given to the clergy an ample opportunity of considering them: but this they take the greatest care never to do. The policy of the government and of the commissioners is to hurry their bills through with such rapidity, that very little time is given to those who suffer by them for consideration and remonstrance, and we must be prepared for the worst beforehand. You are cashiered and confiscated before you can look about you-if you leave home for six weeks, in these times, you find a commissioner in possession of your house and office. A report has reached my ears, that though all other cathedrals are to retain patronage exactly equal to their reduced numbers, a separate measure of justice is to be used for St. Paul's; that our numbers are to be augmented by a fifth; and our patronage reduced by a third; and this immediately on the passing of the bill. That the Bishop of Exeter, for instance, is to receive his augmentation of patronage only in proportion as the prebendaries die off, and the prebendiaries themselves will, as long as they live, remain in the same proportional state as to patronage; and that when they are reduced to four (their stationary number), they will retain one-third of all the patron. age the twelve now possess. Whether this is wise or not, is a separate question, but at least it is just; the four who remain cannot with any colour of justice complain that they do not retain all the patronage which was divided among twelve; but at St. Paul's not only are our numbers to be augmented by a fifth, but the patronage of fifteen of our best livings is to be instantly conferred upon the Bishop of London. This little episode of plunder involves three separate acts of gross injustice: in the first place, if only our numbers had been augmented by a fifth (in itself a mere bonus to commissioners), our patronage would have been reduced one-fifth in value. Secondly, one-third of the preferment is to be taken away immediately, and these two added together make eight-fifteenths, or more than one-half of our whole patronage. So that, when all the cathedrals are reduced to their reformed numbers, each cathedral will enjoy precisely the same proportion of patronage as it now does, and each member of every other cathedral will have precisely the same means of promoting men of merit or men of his own family, as is now possessed; while less than half of these advantages will remain to St. Paul's. Thirdly, if the Bishop of London were to wait (as all the other bishops by this arrangement must wait) till the present patrons die off, the injustice would be to the future body; but by this scheme, every present incumbent of St. Paul's is instantly deprived of eight. fifteenths of his patronage; while every other member of every other cathedral (as far as patronage is concerned) remains precisely in the same state in which he was before. Why this blow is levelled against St. Paul's I cannot conceive; still less can I imagine why the Bishop of London is not to wait, as all other bishops are forced to wait, for the death of the present patrons. There is a reason, indeed, for not waiting, by which (had I to do with a person of less cle

vated character than the Bishop of London) I would endeavour to explain this precipitate seizure of patronage-and that is, that the livings assigned to him in this remarkable scheme are all very valuable, and the incumbents all very old. But I shall pass over this scheme as a mere supposition, invented to bring the commission into disrepute, a scheme to which it is utterly impossible the commissioners should ever affix their names.

I should have thought, if the love of what is just had not excited the commissioner bishops, that the ridicule of men voting such comfortable things to themselves as the prebendal patronage would have alarmed them; but they want to sacrifice with other men's hecatombs, and to enjoy, at the same time, the character of great disinterestedness, and the luxury of unjust spoliation. It was thought necessary to make a fund; and the prebends in the gift of the bishops were appropriated to that purpose. The bishops who consented to this have then made a great sacrifice-true, but they have taken more out of our pockets than they have disbursed from their own; where then is the sacrifice? They must either give back the patronage or the mar. tyrdom: if they choose to be martyrs-which I hope they will do-let them give us back our patronage: if they prefer the patronage, they must not talk of being martyrs they cannot effect this double sensuality and combine the sweet flavour of rapine with the aro matic odour of sanctity.

We are told, if you agitate these questions among yourselves, you will have the democratic Philistines come down upon you, and sweep you all away together. Be it so; I am quite ready to be swept away when the time comes. Every body has his favourite death; some delight in apoplexy, and others prefer marasmus. I would infinitely rather be crushed by democrats, than, under the plea of the public good, be mildly and blandly absorbed by bishops.

I met, the other day, in an old Dutch chronicle, with a passage so opposite to this subject, that though it is somewhat too light for the occasion I cannot abstain from quoting it. There was a great meeting of all the clergy at Dordrecht, and the chronicler thus describes it, which I give in the language of the translation: And there was great store of bishops in the town, in their robes goodly to behold, and all the great men of the state were there, and folds poured in in boats on the Meuse, the Merve, the Rhine, and the Linge, coming from the Isle of Beverlandt, and Isselmond, and from all quarters in the Bailiwick of Dort; Arminians and Gomarists, with the friends of John Barneveldt and of Hugh Grote. And before my lords the bishops, Simon of Gloucester, who was a bishop in those parts, disputed with Vorstius, and Leoline the Monk, and many texts of Scripture were bandied to and fro; and when this was done, and many propositions made, and it waxed towards twelve of the clock, my lords the bishops prepared to set them down to a fair repast, in which was great store of good things-and among the rest a roasted peacock, having in lieu of a tail, the arms and banners of the archbishop, which was a goodly sight to all who favoured the church-and then the archbishop would say a grace, as was seemly to do, he being a very holy man ; but ere he had finished, a great mob of townspeople and folks from the country, who were gathered under the window, cried out, Bread! bread! for there was a great famine, and wheat had risen to three times the ordinary price of the sleich; and when they had done crying Bread! bread! they called out No bishops!-and began to cast up stones at the windows. Whereat my lords the bishops were in a great fright, and cast their dinner out of the window

The bishops have, however, secured for themselves all the livings which were in the separate gifts of prebendaries and deans, and they have received from the crown a very large contribution of valuable patronage; why or wherefore, is known only to the unfathomable wisdom of ministers. The glory of martyrdom can be confined only at best to the bishops of the old cathedrals, for there are scarcely any separate prebends in the new cathedrals.

A measure in the Bailiwick of Dort, containing two gal

lons one pint English dry measure.

to appease the mob, and so the men of that town were well pleased, and did devour the meats with a great appetite; and then you might have seen my lords standing with empty plates, and looking wistfully at each other, till Simon of Gloucester, he who disputed with Leoline the Monk, stook up among them and said, "Good my lords, is it your pleasure to stand here fasting, and those who count lower in the church than you do should feast and fluster? Let us order to us the dinner of the deans and canons, which is making ready for them in the chamber below." And this speech of Simon of Gloucester pleased the bishops much; and so they sent for the host, one William of Ypres, and told him it was for the public good, and he, much fear. ing the bishops, brought them the dinner of the deans and canons; and so the deans and canons went away without dinner, and were pelted by the men of the town, because they had not put meat out of the window like the bishops; and when the count came to hear of it, he said it was a pleasant conceit, and that the bishops were right cunning men, and had ding'd the canons well.

When I talk of sacrifices, I mean the sacrifices of the bishop commissioners, for we are given to understand that the great mass of bishops were never consulted at all about these proceedings; that they are contrary to everything which consultations at Lambeth, previous to the commission, had led them to expect; and that they are totally disapproved of by them. The voluntary sacrifice, then, (for it is no sacrifice if it is not voluntary,) is in the bishop commissioners only; and, besides the indemnification which they have voted to themselves out of the patronage of the cathedrals, they will have all that never-ending patronage which is to proceed from the working of the commission, and the endowments bestowed upon different livings. So much for episcopal sacrifices!

And who does not see the end and meaning of all this? The lay commissioners, who are members of the government, cannot and will not attend the Archbishops of York and Canterbury are quiet and amiable men, fast going down in the vale of life-some of the members of the commission are expletives-some must be absent in their dioceses-the Bishop of London is passionately fond of labour, has certainly no aversion to power, is quick of temper, great ability, thoroughly versant in ecclesiastical law, and always in London. He will become the commission, and when the Church of England is mentioned, it will only mean Charles James, of London, who will enjoy a greater power than has been possessed by any churchman since the days of Laud, and will become the Church of England here upon earth. As for the commission itself, there is scarcely any power which is not given to it. They may call for every paper in the world, and every human creature who possesses it; and do what they like to one or the other. It is hopeless to contend with such a body; and most painful to think that it has been estab lished under a whig government. A commission of tory churchmen, established for such purposes, should have been framed with the utmost jealousy, and with the most cautious circumspection of its powers, and with the most earnest wish for its extinction when the purposes of its creation were answered. The govern ment have done everything in their power to make it vexatious, omnipotent, and everlasting. This immense power, flung into the hands of an individual, is one of the many foolish consequences which proceed from the centralization of the bill, and the unwillingness to employ the local knowledge of the bishops in the process of annexing dignified to parochial preferment.

There is a third bill concocted by the commission bishops, in which the great principle of increasing the power of the bench has certainly not been lost sight of "" a brother clergyman, falls suddenly ill in the country, and he begs his clerical neighbour to do duty for him in the afternoon, thinking it better that there should be single service in two churches, than

*I am speaking here of the permanent commission established by act of Parliament in 1885. The commission for reporting had come to an end six months before this letter

was written.

The errors of the bill are a public concern-the injustice of the bill is a private concern. Give us our patronage for life.t Treat the cathedrals all alike, with the same measure of justice. Don't divide livings in the patronage of present incumbents without their consent or do the same with all livings. If these passed, this indulgence is extended to thirty years. Why poor clergymen have been compelled for the last five years to pay off the incumbrances at the rate of one twentieth I perceive that the Archbishop of Canterbury borrows per annum, and are now compelled to pay them off, or will, money for the improvement of his palace, and pays the when the bill passes, be so compelled, at the rate of one principal off in forty years. This is quite as soon as a debt thirtieth per annum, when the archbishop takes forty years incurred for such public purposes ought to be paid off, and to do the same thing, and has made that bargain in the the archbishop has done rightly to take that period. In year 1881, I really cannot tell. A clergyman who does not process of time I think it very likely that this indulgence reside, is forced to pay off his building debt in ten years. will be extended to country clergymen, who are compelled What bishops like best in their clergy is a droppingdown to pay off the debts for buildings (which they are compelled deadness of manner.

to undertake) in twenty years; and by the new bill, not yet† This has now been given to us.

gleton, will sit like Caius Marius on the ruins, and we shall lose for ever the wisest scheme for securing a well-educated clergy upon the most economical terms, and for preventing that low fanaticism which is the greatest curse of human happiness, and the greatest enemy of true religion. We shall have all the evils of an establishment, and none of its good.

points are attended to in the forthcoming bill, all complaint of unfairness and injustice will be at an end. I shall still think, that the commissioners have been very rash and indiscreet, that they have evinced a contempt for existing institutions, and a spirit of destruction which will be copied to the life hereafter, by commissioners of a very different description. Bishops live in high places with high people, or with little You tell me I shall be laughed at as a rich and people who depend upon them. They walk delicately, overgrown churchman; be it so. I have been laughlike Agag. They hear only one sort of conversation, ed at a hundred times in my life, and care little or no and avoid bold reckless men, as a lady veils herself thing about it. If I am well provided tor now-I have from rough breezes. I am half inclined to think, had my full share of the blanks in the lottery as the sometimes, that the bishop-commissioners really think prizes. Till thirty years of age I never received a that they are finally settling the church; that the House of Lords will be open to the bench for ages; and that many archbishops in succession will enjoy their fifteen thousand pounds a year in Lambeth. I wish I could do for the bishop-commissioners what his mother did for Æneas, in the last days of Troy:

'Omnem quæ nunc obducta tuenti Mortales hebetat visus tibi, et humida circum Caligat, nubem eripiam.

Apparent dire facies,' &c. &c.

It is ominous for liberty, when Sydney and Russell cannot agree; but when Lord John Russell in the House of Commons, said we showed no disposition to make any sacrifices for the good of the church, I took the liberty to remind that excellent person that he must first of all prove it to be for the good of the church that our patronage should be taken away by the bishops, and then he might find fault with us for not consenting to the sacrifice.

farthing from the church; then 501. per annum for two years-then nothing for ten years-then 5001. per annum, increased for two or three years to 2007, till, in my grand climacteric, I was made canon of St Paul's; and before that period, I had built a parsonage-house with farm offices for a large farm, which cost me 40007., and had reclaimed another from ruins at the expense of 2000l. A lawyer, or a physician in good practice, would smile at this picture of great ecclesiastical wealth, and yet I am considered as a perfect monster of ecclesiastical prosperity.

I should be very sorry to give offence to the dignified ecclesiastics who are in the commission; I hope they will allow for the provocation, if I have been a little too warm in the defence of St. Paul's, which I have taken a solemn oath to defend. I was at school and college with the Archbishop of Canterbury; fiftythree years ago he knocked me down with the chessboard for check-mating him-and now he is attempt. ing to take away my patronage. I believe these are I have little or no personal nor pecuniary interest in the only two acts of violence he ever committed in his these things, and have made all possible exertion (as life: the interval has been one of gentleness, kindtwo or three persons in the power well know) that ness, and the most amiable and high-principled courtthey should not come before the public. I have no esy to his clergy. For the Archbishop of York, I feel son nor son-in-law in the church, for whom I want any kindness I have received from him: and who can see an affectionate respect-the result of that invariable patronage. If I were young enough to survive any the Bishop of London without admiring his superior incumbent of St. Paul's, my own preferment is too agreeably circumstanced to make it at all probable I talents-being pleased with his society, without adshould avail myself of the opportunity. I am a sincere mitting that, upon the whole, the public is benefited advocate for church reform: but I think it very possi- by his ungovernable passion for business; and with ble, and even very easy, to have removed all odium out receiving the constant workings of a really good from the establishment in a much less violent and heart, as an atonement for the occasional excesses of revolutionary manner, without committing or attempt-bles had been turned, and if it had been his lot, as a an impetuous disposition? I am quite sure if the taing such flagrant acts of injustice, and without leaving behind an odious court of inquisition, which will inevitably fall into the hands of a single individual, and will be an eternal source of vexation, jealousy, and change. I give sincere credit to the commissioners for good intentions; how can such men have intended any thing but good? And I firmly believe that they are hardly conscious of the extraordinary predilection they have shown for bishops in all their proceedings; it is like those errors in tradesmen's bills of which the retail arithmetician is really unconscious, but which, somehow or another, always happen to be in his own favour. Such men as the commissioners do not say this patronage belongs justly to the cathedrals, and we will take it away unjustly for ourselves; but, after the manner of human nature, a thousand weak reasons prevail, which would have no effect, if self-interest were not concerned; they are practising a deception on themselves, and sincerely believe they are doing right. When I talk of spoil and plunder, I do not speak of the intention, but of the effect, and the precedent.

canon, to fight against the encroachment of bishops, that he would have made as stout a defence as I have done the only difference is that he would have done it with much greater talent.

As for my friends the whigs, I neither wish to of be as good a whig as any amongst them. I was a fend them nor any body else. I consider myself to whig before many of them were born-and while some of them were tories and waverers. I have always turned out to fight their battles, and when I saw no other clergyman turn out but myself-and this in times before liberality was well recompensed, and therefore in fashion, when the smallest appearance of it seemed to condemn a churchman to the grossest of obloquy, and the most hopeless poverty. It may suit the purpose of the ministers to flatter the bench; it does not suit mine. I do not choose in my old age to be tossed as a prey to the bishops; I have not deserv ed this of my whig friends. I know very well there can be no justice for deans and chapters, and that the momentary lords of the earth will receive our statement with derision and persiflage-the great principle which is now called in for the government of mankind. Nobody admires the general conduct of the whig administration more than I do. They have conferred, in their domestic policy, the most striking benefits on the country. To say that there is no risk in what they have done is mere nonsense-there is great risk; and all honest men must balance to counteract it-holding back as firmly down hill as they pulled vigorously up hill. Still, great as the risk is, it was worth while to

Still the commissioners are on the eve of entailing an immense evil upon the country, and unfortunately, they have gone so far, that it is necessary they should ruin the cathedrals, to preserve their character for consistency. They themselves have been frightened a great deal too much by the mob; have overlooked the chances in their favour produced by delay; have been afraid of being suspected (as tories) of not doing enough; and have allowed themselves to be hurried on by the constitutional impetuosity of one man, who cannot be brought to believe that wisdom often * I have heard that the Bishop of London employs eight, consists in leaving alone, standing still, and doing no-hours per day in the government of his diocese-in which thing. From the joint operation of all these causes, no part of Asia, Africa, or America is included. The word all the cathedrals of England will, in a few weeks, be is, I believe, taking one day with another, governed ir knocked about our ears. You, Mr. Archdeacon Sin- about a third of that time.