There have been several not very important ecclesiastical appointments announced
this week, of which much the most considerable is the promotion of the Rev. P. F. Eliot, Vicar of Holy Trinity, Bournemouth, and a Canon of Windsor, to be Dean of Windsor, in the place of Dr. Randall Davidson, the Bishop-Designate of Rochester. The Dean of Windsor, who is Chaplain to her Majesty, stands to the Throne very much in the position in which, theoretically, the Lord Chancellor stands, as what Roman Catholics would call " director "' of her conscience. Canon Eliot is an eloquent and im- pressive preacher of the Evangelical school, who has done admirable work at Bournemouth, where he has been now twenty-three years, during which time he has spent about £40,000 on church and school buildings, all of it raised by volun- tary contributions, and has remitted also £7,000 to the funds• of the Church Missionary Society ; in other words, he has got his people to give at least £2,000 a year on an average during the twenty-three years of his life in Bournemouth, to the work of extending the usefulness of the Church in Bournemouth, and of the Church Missions abroad. That is hardly a first-rate- test of religious depth, and very probably it may be a very inadequate one of Canon Eliot's power as a religious teacher; but at least it is as good a practical test of religious influence over the external world as any which that world has the means of applying. It is true that many people give generously to. causes for which they care very little, but only, as a rule, when they wish to please a representative of those causes for whom they care very much. And a religious teacher who can make his people care very much for him, is one of a select class.. Bishop Barry (formerly Bishop of Sydney) is to succeed Canon Eliot in the Windsor Canonry which the latter vacates.
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