Dr. Bickersteth, the Bishop of Ripon, died on Tuesday last,
-in an epileptic fit, at the age of sixty-eight. He leaves no such -decided Evangelical behind him on the Bench except the Bishop -of Liverpool and the Bishop of St. Asaph. Dr. Bickersteth was intended for the medical profession, and was a student of St. Thomas's Hospital. He exchanged this calling, however, for that of a clergyman, and was ordained in 1841. Lord Palmerston raised him to the Bench in 1856. For a longtime past his health has not allowed him to take active duty, and his course in bring- ing the Bishop of Huron, Dr. Hellmuth, to act as his coadjutor was, of course, not looked upon with favourable eyes by the Church. We have not the least guess as to his probable suc- cessor, but we should be very glad if the able and admirable Vicar of Leeds, the Rev. Dr. Gott, who knows the needs of that portion of England as well as any man living, and is as well able to supply them, were fixed upon to succeed him. Dr. Gott is, we fear, a strong Conservative ; but that is a disqualification which applies to so many of our best clergymen, that we fear it ought not to count for much in the matter. At all events, with our present Prime Minister, we may be very sure that it
will not count for much, whether he be right or wrong in wholly disregarding political conviction and action.
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