The Reverend Sydney Smith is a thorn in the side
of the Bishop of London. Some time ago we noticed a protest of the Dean and Chap- ter of St. Paul's against the Bill for transferring Cathedral patronage to the Bishops, by means of the Bill for regulating Ecclesiastical Re- venues and Duties; and were at no loss to discover the "thief/were:us band " of the astute Canon Residentiary, in its pirjunnt and pointed paragraphs. Mr. Smith has aimed another blow at the Right Reve- rend Bench, in a letter to Archdeacon Singleton, just published. This pamphlet is written in the best style of its author ; end exposes, with au abundance of racy humour, the manifest tendency of the Dean and Chapters Bill, and the object of the Bishop of London in attempting to palm it on the Legislature as a measure of Reform. Some of the best bits in the pamphlet fall on Dr. Blomfield.
"There is emetic* among some Bishops, which may as well be mentioned here as anywhere else, but which I think cannot be too severely reprobated. They send for a ckrgyotan, and insist upon his giving evidence respecting the character and conduct of his neighbour. Boot he hunt? does he shoot? is he in debt? is he temperate ? does he attend to his parish? &c. &c. Nose what is this but to destroy fin all clergymen the very elements of social life—to put an end to all confidence between man and man, and to disseminate among gentlemen, who are bound to live in concord, every feeling of resentment, hatred, and suspi- cion ? But the very essence of tyranny is to act, as if the finer feelings' like the finer dishes, were delicacies only .fitr the rich and great, and that little people hare no taste fur them and no Twat to them. A goof and honest Bishop (I thank God there are many who deserve that character !) ought to suspect /simnel(' and carefully to watch his own heart. He is r'l of a sudden ekvated from being a tutor, dining at an early hour with his pupil, to be a spiritual lord ; he is dressed in a magnificent dress, decorated with a title, flattered by chaplain% and surrounded by little people looking up fur the things which he has. to give away; and this often happens to a man who has had no opportu• cities 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 Tarcum of Onkelos. How is it possible that such a man should not lose 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 himself?"
This is a picture which everybody will recognize as that of Charles James, Bishop of London. At Chester formerly, as now in London, he " worried and teased " his inferior clergy to death ; though he has been known to grow suddenly courteous, and almost fawning, when the object of his persecution has let out his connexion with a great man- s Marquis, for instance, in the Cabinet.
Mr. Smith has little fear of the People ; but if there is to be an overthrow of the Church, for his own part, he says, that he had rather be swept away by the Democracy, than be "blandly and mildly ab- sorbed by a Bishop." We apprehend that the Dean and Chapters Bill will not pass the House of Commons ; for there will now be a powerful Tory interest set in motion against it ; and as for the Liberal party, they will not see much advantage in transferring patronage from the Cathedral divines to the Bishops. Certainly, if' there is any difference worth mentioning in the mode of exercising patronage, the advantage does not lie on the Episcopel. side. Mr. Smith gives some instances of the manner in which Bishops sometimes perform this agreeable part of their duties.
" The worst case is that of a superannuated Bishop. Here the preferment is given away, and must be given away, by wives and daughters, or by sons, utterly unacquainted with ecclesiastical matters; and the poor dying patron'a patal:, 6.: hand is guided to the signature of papers the conteuts of which he is utterly unable to comprehend. In all such cases as these, the superior ity of Bishops on pattous will not assist that violence which the Commissioners have committed u run the patronage of Cathedrals. " I never _ward that Cathedrals have sold the patronage of their preferment ; such a practice, however, is not quite unknown among, the higher orders of the Chinch. When the :VONA gp of Canterbury consecrates au inferior 13i-hop,
he maths some piece of prefertnect iu the gift of the Bishop as Ida own. TVs
is denominated an option ; and whet; the preferment fills, it is not only in the gift of the Archbishop if he is r'ive, but in the gift of his representatives if he is out. It is an absolute chattel, which, like an" other chattel, is part of the Archbishops asset, ; and, if he died in debt, might be taken and sold for the benefit of his creditors; and within the memory of inm such options have been publicly sold by auction; and if the present at,•h!.i..hoe of Canterbury were to die in debt to morrow, such might be the fate of his options. What Archbishop Moore dill with It options I do nut know, but the late Archbishop Sutton very handsomely and properly left them to the present,—a bequest, however, whica would not have •tres clued such options front coming to the hammer if Arch- bishop ..Illt:011 haft out cleared off before his (1,.atli, those incumbrances which at one period of his life sat so heavily upon him."
If the People choose to have an Establishment, Mr. Smith tells them that they must make it worth while for gentlemen to enter the Church—either by giving them the chance of very handsome i:Tcomes, or by providing liberally for all : but this latter plan weak: be too cxpcnsiye- would go into the Church and spend 1,9.00/. or 1,;(A/. ulion edm•dion, if such (11.i0/. a year) were the highest renamerat:m. in. cmdd svci 10111; ti, t plesent, men are tempted into the Church by :he 1'1.: of thu t'aurclt ; bring into that Church a great deal of capital, wale!' emdiles .Lent to live in decency, supporting themselves, not with the 'minty a the p..blie, lint with their own uone.y, which, but for this temptation, would have 1,-en rattled into some retail trade. The otlice4 of the Church would then 1". w0 to men little less coarse and ignorant than agricultural li..hourers—the clergyman of the parish would soon be seen in the scuire's kitchen ; this would take place in a country where poverty is in.:mous. " lu fact, nothing can be more unjust and idle than -the reasoning of many hymen urn Church matters. You choose to have an Establishment—God fothid yeti should choose otherwise ! and you wish to have men of decent man- ners mul good education as the ministers of that Establishment : all this is very right ; but ate you willing to pay themes such Omen ought to be paid ? Are you willing to pay to each clergyman, confining himself to one spot, and cis mg uo all his time to the care of one parish, a salary of :IOW. per annum? To do this wiadd require :3,1011,0001. to be added to the present revenues of the Church • ;Lod such an expenditure is impossible! What then remains, if yon wi'l hats: it clergy, and will not -.ay them equitably and separately; but to may them un- equally nod by lottery : And yet this very inequality, which sectu,s to you a to-pent- hle clergy upon the most economical terms, is considered by laymen a grossAnse. It is au abase, however, wh1ch they have not the spirit to ex- tinguish by increased immiticence to their clergy, nor justice to consider as the toils. other method by which all the advantages of a respectable establishment can. be procured ; but they use it at the same time as a topic for sarcasm, and a source of economy."
The impression given by Mr. Sydney Smith's pamphlet is, Oa, the E-tehli-hineut is rotten to its core—choked up with abuses, which cannot lie removed without taking the whole edifice to pieces.
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