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Dr. Van Rlildert, Bishop of Durham, died on Sunday morning. His successor has not been announced ; but the Liberals expect that Lord :Melbourne will take the opportunity of promoting Dr. :Maltby, Bishop of Chichester, to the vacant see. The great age of the Bishop of Norwich puts him out of the question ; and, after Dr. Bathurst, no member of the Episcopal Bench has claims on a Reform Administre • tion which can be put in competition with those of the present Bishop of Chichester. The Morning Post mentions a rumou^ that Dr. Grey, the trimming Bishop of Hereford, is to have the see of Durham ; but this is impossible. Should Dr. :Maltby be translated to Durham, it is said that Dr. Hampden, the new Regius Professor of Dis inky at Oxford, will be made Bishop of Chichester. We hope that this rumour may prove true. Independently of other considerations, it would be proper to let the Doctor's calumniators understand, that their slander has failed of its intended effect. We never read any thing more indecent than the protest of certain resident Fellows of Oxford University against Dr. Hampden's appointment : their petition to the King to re- fuse his sanction to the choice of his responsible ads:sell, on the hypo- critical pretence of concern for the " spiritual and eternal interests" of his subjects, did not impose upon his Majesty, and only rendered the parties to it contemptible in the eyes of the public. The hierarchy seems to be in a perilous conditions : the country has just lost the Bishop of Durham, and we learn from the following announcements, all in the Chronicle of yesterday, that the prospect of vacancies in other sees is near.
" We fear there is but too much foundation for the report that Dr. Her- bert Marsh, Bishop of Peterborough, is so dangerously ill that his life is despaired of." o We are sorry to learn that the venerable and learned Bishop of Salisbury is so ill, that little hope is entertained of his recovery." " The Bishop of Ely, Dr. Sparkes, is, we understand. in a dangerous state." This is awful ! what will become of poor old England when Dr. Spathes is gone ?
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