" Barchester Towers," to Bishop ; Prondie.- Proudie
replies, we are told, that "translations are occasionally made, but not so frequently as in former days." In these days, we fear, they are coming into favour again. In the last few days the Bishopric of Chichester has been offered to two prelates in succession,—the Bishop of Ripon and the Bishop of Newcastle,—and the latter has expressed his willing- ness to be translated to Chichester. We do not pretend to say that he is wrong. It may sometimes happen that a Bishop who has made an excellent beginning, gets out of sympathy with the clergy or laity of his diocese, and is yet likely to be efficient, and that perhaps in a high degree, in another See. Still, as we have said elsewhere, we do think that, in a very much larger number of cases, official permanence and continuous experience of the conditions under which his work is done, are the best possible qualifications for success in the work of governing a diocese. And we wish we could see a greater disposition on the part of our Bishops to stick to their Sees, and not desert them either for what is called " promotion " or for more worthy reasons. The loss of a See, of which the Bishop is declared to be the "father in God," ought to be almost, though not quite, as great a calamity as the alienation of a parent from his children.
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