Nearly simultaneous with the reappearance of PETER PLYMLEY, is the
publication of a Second Letter to Archdeacon Singleton, being the Third of the Cathedral Letters, by the Reverend Svn- NEV Salmi. But " quantum mutatus ab illo Hectore! " The manner of the writer is indeed the same, but there lacks natter; and though be shows, clearly enough, that as between Prebenda- ries and Bishops, the latter, with impudent selfishness, have en- deavoured to get the credit of a small (and useless) reform at the
expense of the former, yet, in the defence of his order and of Churchmen generally, he attributes to them such hard, nieree- nary, grovelling motives, that we question whether any really Christian pastor will thank him for his labours. He appears, too, like other politicians of the quondam Liberal school—half para- lyzed by the position of public men—inwardly despising Minis- ters, yet prevented from speaking out by old party associations, and a desire to preserve the appearance of his consistency : a feeling that has turned his sarcasm into the current of panegyric, avhieli is sometimes of such a nature as to render his meaning doubtful. Several of the hits, however, are very capital,—Ilushes of the old spirit that was wont to set the nation in a roar.
NoN•ii.EsIDENT tmEnENUARIEs—AND cA 1.I.s To PREAcit THE cosrEt. The Non-resident Prebetelaries never come near the Cathedral; they are just like so many country gentlemen; the different* is, that their appoihtments are elective, not hereditary. They have houses, manors, lands, and every appen- dage of territorial wealth and importance. Their value is very different. I have one, Neasann, near Willesdon, which consists of a quarter of an acre of land, worth a few shillings per annum, but animated by the burden of repair- ing a Midge, which sometimes costs the Unfortunate Prehendary fifty or sixty pounds. There are other Non-resident Prehendaiies, however, of great value; and one, I believe, which would be worth, if the >viers or lives welt! rim out, from 40,0001. to 60,0001. per annum. Not only do these Prebetidalies do nothing, and are never seen, but the exist- ence of the preferment is hardly known ; atel the abolition of the preferment, therefore, woubl not in any degree lessen the temptation to enter into the Church, while the mass of these preferments would make an important fund for the improvement of small livings. The Residentiary Prebendaries, on the contrary, pm form all the services of the Cathedral Church ; their existence is known, their preferment coveted, and to get a stall, and to be preceded by men with silver rods, is the bait which the ambitious squire is perpetually holding out to his second 404.
SOURCES OF CLERICAL PROMOTION.
If it were quite certain that ninety persons would be selected the most remarkable for conduct, piety, and learning, ninety (Aces misht be sufficient ; but cut of these ninety are to be taken tutors to Dukes and Marquise% paid in this way by the public ; Bishops' Chaplains, running tame about the palace ; elegant clergymen, of small understanding, who have made themselves accept- able in the drawing-rooms of the mitre; Billingsgate controversialists, who have tossed and gored an Unitarian. So that there remain but a few rewards for men of real merit ; yet these rewards do infinite good ; and in this mixed chequered way human affairs are conducted.
A PREBENDARY ON A BISHOP.
The Bishop of Lincoln has lately published a pamphlet on the Church question. His Lordship is certainly not a man full of felicities anti facilities, imitating none, and inimitable of any ; nor does he work with infinite agitatien of wit. His crea- tion has blood without heat, hones without marrow, eyes without speculation. He has the art of saying nothing in many words beyond any man that ever existed ; and when he seems to have made a proposition, he is so dreadfully :frightened at it, that he proceeds as quickly as possible in the ensuing sentence to disconnect the subject and the predicate, and to avert the dangers he has in- curred : but as he is a Bishop, and will be therefore more read than I at», I .caanot pass him over.
The following character of Lord MELBOURNE illustrates what we have said of the writer's fettered position. The censure of the " wearisome affectation of the political rout "is true in all but .the affectation. We suspect that the Premier is as careless as he seems—a misplaced Epicurean; for the great founder of the sect would have declined an arduous office, or else have left his garden delights. But perhaps, after all, the account of Lord MEL- BOURNE'S nightly labours with "THOMAS YOUNG," on melting and skimming, may be a quiz too refined for common appre- hensions.
Viscount Melbourne declared himself quite satisfied with the Church as it is ; but if the public had any desire to alter it, they might do as they pleased. Ile might have said the same thing of the monarchy, or of any other of cur insti- tutions; and there i8 in the declaration a permissiveness and good tumour which in public men has seldom been exceeded. Carelessness, however, is but a poor imitation of genius, and the formation of a wise and well-reflected plan of Reform, conduces more to the lasting fame of a Minister than that affected contempt of duty which every man ewes to be mere vanity, and a vanity of no very high description. but it the truth must be told, our Viscount is somewhat of an impostor. Every thing about him seems to betoken careless desolation : any one would suppose from his manner that he was playing at chuck-farthing with human happiness; that be was always on the heel of pastime; that he would giggle
away the Great Charter, and decide by the method of teetotum whether e; Lords the Bishops should or should not retain their seas in the House of Lordi. All this is the mere vanity of surprising, and making us believe that he ain play with kingdoms as other men can with norpine. Instead of this lofty nebulo, this miracle of moral and intellectual felicities, ities, he s nothing more then a sensible hottest man, who means to do his duty to the Sovereign and to the country : instead of being the ignorant man he pretends to be, before he :netts the deputation ef tallow-chandlers in the morning, he sits up half the night talking with Thomas Young about melting anti skimming, and then, though he has acquired knowledge enough to work off a whole vat of prime Leicestet tallow, he pretends next morning not to know the difference between a dip and a mould. In the sante way, when he has been employed in reading in adios Parliament, he would persuade yau that he has been reading Cleghorn on the Beatitudes, or Pichler on the Nine Difficult Points. Neither can I allow to this Minister (however he may be irritated by the denial), the extreme merit of indifference to the consequences of his Inert-urea. I believe hint to be made& tiously alive to the good or evil that he is doing, and that his caution has more than once arrested the gigantic projects of the Lyeurgus of the Lower House.
I ittn sorry to hurt any inan's feelings, and to brush away the magnificent fabric of levity and gayety he Las reared, but I accuse our Minister of honesty/tad diligence; I deny that he is careless or rash : he is nothing more than, nun of good understanding and good principle, disguised in the eternal and some. what wearisome affectation of a political roar.
Some of this over-refinement of irony appears also in Lottl JOHN RUSSELL'S character. The " utter ignorance of all moral fear," should probably be read "inordinate self-conceit." LORD JOHN RUSSELL
Is beyond all comparison the ablest man in the whole Administration; amid to ' such a degree is he superior, that the Govetmlient could not exist a moment without him. If the Foreign Secretary were to retire, we should no longer be nibbling ourselves into disgrace on the coast of Spain. If the amiable Lord Glenelg were to leave us, we should feel secure in our colonial possessions. If Mr. Spring Rice were to go into holy orders, great would be the joy of the Three per Cents. A decent good-looking heath of the Government might easily enough be foun in lieu of Viscount Melbourne; but in five minutes after Me departure of Lord John, the whole Whig Government would be dissolved into sparks of libel alit) and spliirters of Reform. There are six remarkable men, who, in differeut methods and in different degrees, are now affecting the ink. rests of tide country—the Duke of Wellington, Lord John Russell, Lan Brougham, Lord Lyndhurst, Sir Robert Peel, and O'Connell. Greater powers than all these are the phlegm of the English people—the great mass of good sense and intelligence diffused among them—and the number of Orme who ham rannetli Mg to lose, and have not the slightest intention of losing it. • • Lord John Russell gives himself great credit for not having euttfrwated Church property, but merely remodelled amid redivided it. I accuse that excellent man not of pluialer, but I accuse hint of taking the Church of England, rolling it about as a ceuk does a pieee of dough with a rolling.pin, cutting a huntlted fercht shapes with all the plastic fertility of a confectioner, and without the most distant suspicion that he can ever be wrong, or ever be mistaken; wita certainty that he can anticipate the consequences of every possible change in human affairs. There is not a more honest nor a better man in England than
Lord John Ruseell ; but his woe et failure iv, that he is utterly ignorant of all moral fear ; there is nothing he would not undertake. I believe he would pa. form the operation for the stone, build St. l'eter's, or assume (with or without ten minutes' notice) the coinniand of the Channel Fleet ; and Ito one would dia. cover by his manner that the patient had died, the church tumbled elnwa, and the Channel Fleet been knocked to atoms. I ton sure his motives are always pure, and his measures often very able ; but they are endless, and never done with that porietentoue pace and pedetentous mind in which it behoves the w.161 and virtuous improver to walk. He alarms the wise Liberals; and it is me possible to sleep soundly while he has the command of the watch.
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