THE WAY TO CHOOSE A DEAN.
IT is a fine thin,* to be the son of a Lord Chancellor of Ireland ; fin: it seems to be considered part of the duty of the Prime Minis- ter of England to take care of his advancement in life. Thus, Mr. LITTLETON stated in the House of Commons, that Earl GREY had appointed the Honourable Thomas PLUNKETT to the Deanery of Down, not solely because he respected his good character, but be- cause " he thought that it was not too much that such preferment should be bestowed on a son of the Lord Chancellor if Ireland.' Mr. PLUNKETT was already in possession of Church preferment to the extent of at least 1200/. a year but that Earl GREY did not think was enough for a son of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Had the Premier selected some clergyman of the Establishment, who had greatly distinguished himself by his learning and theo- logical acquirements, by his pulpit eloquence and parochial ministrations, be might have truly said that the Deanery of Down would not be too high a reward for such a man. But no ; Earl GREY did not search among the pious and low ly and learned men of God, but pitched at once upon Mr. PLUNKETT, because it so happened that the Irish Chancellor was his father. Earl GREY is an earnest stickler foi the union of Church and State. As for the claims of the Dissenters, he is half beside himself when they are urged. But he is unconsciously doing the best he can to dis- gust men with the Establishment, and to multiply Dissenters, when he acknowledges so openly that Church preferment follows political influence—that men who would live under the cold shadow of neglect to the fulness of old age, if destitute of political patrons, get preferred to Deaneries when connected with Chan- cellors and Cabinet Ministers.
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