Thirty-seven of the clergy of Northumberland have addressed the Bishop
of DURHAM, praying his Lordship's attention to the evil of pluralities, and to the necessity of some measure of remu- neration for poor livings, by a graduated assessment on higher livings and on Church sinecures ; and lastly, to some less objec- tionable mode of paying clerical labours than by the tithe system. Forty-three of the clergymen of the same county have addressed the King, humbly representing to his Majesty the propriety of summoning a Convocation, in order that the reforms that are called for in the Church, may be begun by the Church itself. His Ma- jesty- received the address very graciously. The plan of the Church reforming itself is a specious, but a futile one. No irresponsible body ever did so. The Church will be reformed, as all things else are. Reform " suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." A Convocation is a most proper court to regulate Church spiritu- alities, and none else should regulate them; but when a Convo- cation sets about regulating Church temporalities, they will speedily find that they are reckoning without that most necessary personage, the host who furnishes the feast, the value of which they would pretend to calculate.
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