THE CHURCH—THE BISHOP OF LINCOLN, AND MIL WRAY.
Gtoee—The case of Mr. Wray and the Bishop of Lincoln, has been the sub- ject of discussion in Parliament. Mr. Wray, in Ids pamphlet, suppressed a fact Avhich seems very material, viz., that in addition to the curacy which the bishop obligod him to resign, and the vicarage of 60/., on which we were led to suppose that with the thirteen little Wrays he must have been left in a starving condition, he held another living of 4001. or 5001. a-year. We bear it alleged, however, for Mr. Wray, that the advowson of this last-mentioned living, which was a family one, and which has descended upon Mr. Wray, was so deeply mortgaged, that it has been rather a loss than a benefit to him. But still this. though very unfor- tunate for Mr. Wray, was scarcely a matter which the bishop could take notice of in his favour ; he can scarcely be expected to be cognizant of the charges on or. if cognisant of them, to favour them. But though the bishop may be relieved from the charge of oppression, we see no reason to change our opi- nion as to the inconvenience of the present arbitrary and irregular mode of en- forcing double duty. Mr. Wray, according to a statement published ill his be- half, " offered to do morning and evening service at Bardney, and a service in the iffiddle of the day at Horsington. But the bishop informs him that the care of the parish of Bardney is sufficient to occupy the whole attention of one clergy- man.' Now, Bardney has a population of 850 souls, whilst Grinsley has a po- pulation of 2,747, and the clergyman is allowed to do service only once a day, and serve the parish of Clea also ; the parish of St. Swithin, in Lincoln, of 1,553 inhabitaets, has only one service a day. Horncastle has 2,622 inhabitants, and the clergyman performs one service, and an evening service and day duty in ano- ther parish. Others have (Inc morning service and one evening lecture (as llorncastie, 8,-.c.;) all that Mr. Wray wanted was to be put on the satne footing as these and many others." If there were some uniform rule for enforcing double duty, founded on the population of a parish, proximity of other churches, and inceme of the living, and other tangible reasons, the bishops would be exempted from the charges they are exposed to in the exercise of the discretion now vested in them to enforce a law which, on many persons, operates as a privation of half their incomes.
MORNING Cunoalcst —We do not see with what justice it can be said that Mr. Wray suppressed a fact which seems very material, in publishing a corre- spondence between the Bishop of Lincoln, the Archdeacon of Lincoln, and him- self, in the course of which the living of Manby was never once alluded to. The Bishop of Lincoln tells him, in the first letter of the correspondence, that the parish of Bardney is sufficient to occupy the whole attention of one clergyman, mid that he shall desire the incumbent of Horsington to umainate another curate. In Mr. Wray's answer, he tells the bishop that his vicarige seldom nets more than 601., that the sacrifice of his curacy to a man with a family of thirteen chil- dren was a sacrifice against which he would forgive his repining. The bishop, in reply, persists in requiring him to giveup the curacy of Horsingtom on the ground that" a parish containing nearly 1,000 inhabitants certainly requires two services." The bishop, in the various letters from him in the correspondence, never once hinted at the living of Manby, but confines himself to the necessity for a parish of a certain population having two services. When Mr. Wray
urged again and again to the bishop and archdeacon the hardship, in his pa; . ticular situation and circumstances, of imposing the sacrifice on him, they never
once thought of stopping his mouth by the allegation that it ill became him, the holder of a living of 4501. to talk of his 60/. a-year and his thirteen children, because they well knew that this would be adding mockery to rigour. It is well, now now thatsthe affair is before the public, to talk of the living of 450t, cause, though the bishop and archdeacon knew very well the circumstances under which it came into the possession of Mr. Wray, and that he does not receive es, farthing from it, yet they also know that Mr. Wray will not lay the particulais before the public. * * * The question was not pluralism of livings—f„ this very Bishop of Lincoln has conferred, and will, no doubt, again confer, valu- able livings on those who already possessed valuable livings—but the requisition of double service. If the question had been that no man should hold two, three four, five, or even a dozen of livings, then Manby might have been an argument' so conclusive as to supersede all discussion ; but the bishop being a pluralist him. self, may be supposed to look with a favourable eye on pluracies, and to have no objection to a clergyman holding as many livings as he can obtain by favour or purchase. The beauty of the bishop's rule of double service is, that it leaves untouched pluralism in the rich rectors, and merely prevents pluralisms in starvine vicars and curates; because a rector may hold six livings, and through his curate': have double service regularly performed in each ; but a curate, without he could divide hitnself, cannot perform double service in two churches in one day. The argument of Mr. Wray to the bishop was ad misericordiam ; it was only such an argument as a poor man would have thought of using to another man who was cognizant of tile fact of his being what he represented himself to be. Mr. Wily did not impeach the bishop's right, but he statect what might have moved the bishop's pity. It may be right, or it may be wrong, to buy livings; but it is a fact that they are openly bought and sold, and it is also a fact that the purchasers are always in such abundance in the market that there is not an annuity ofliee in London which will not give a larger return for a given sum than the same sum would yield in the purchase of livings. The last blow to the obsolete doctrine of Simony was given by the bishops themselves, when they supported the bill intro. duced into the House of Lords by the late Archbishop of Canterbury, a little be- fore his death, to make bonds to resign legal ; the effect of which is to give the holder of an advowson as complete a power over it, by ousting the holder of the living, whenever circumstances render it advisable, as any man has over his manor or farm. The bishops, know, therefore, that every thing in the church is bought and sold like cattle at a ftir, to use the well-known expression, They have no hatred towards these things; hut, like all other men, they hate poverty: and consider no indulgence due to those who have the misfortune to be under RS rule, as vicars with large families, and citrates without interest.
THE GLOBE—For the law against Simony, the Chronick is not roiegadhle.terls?; ttiihene..
cisions have tended to increase its rigour, and the act of the
formed as to the facts. So far is it front being obsolete, that alltyheearml
saw much more strict than fifty years ago it was reputed to be.
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