Dr. Fraser, Bishop of Manchester, in a discourse on the
17th just , delivered while reopening an old church, denounced the sale of livings in strong but temperate language. Nothing, he said, so alienated the Nonconformists, or so lowered the ideal of the Ministry. The evil did not work so badly as it might be expected to work, but it worked badly nevertheless, more espe- cially in creating a system of evasions of the law which were most demoralizing. What was the difference between purchase an hour after an incumbent's death and an hour before it? but the first was legal, the second illegal. We have commented on the Bishop's speech elsewhere, but may here observe that no clergyman really " pur- chases " a cure of souls. What he purchases is the preferential right among his order to be selected by the Bishop, if fit, according to the law of the Church. A Bishop can warn the patron, or even refuse to institute on any moral or doctrinal ground ; and as to capacity, that should be settled before ordination.
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