LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
BISHOPS IN THE LORDS.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE " S7ECTATOR:]
Sf.a,—Are we not discussing the advisability of a constitutional change after it has been made, and has come into operation P Forty years ago, every English Bishop sat in the House of Lords, in right of his see. His Peerage was, in ecclesiastical succession, hereditary. When the See of Manchester was founded, this principle was destroyed ; but, practically, the change was not observed, because the single junior Bishop was only subjected to a short period of probationer existence.
Now, however, the change is patent to every one. There are only five prelates who sit in right of their sees. The Bishop of Lichfield, who is, I think, the junior Episcopal Peer, does not sit as Bishop of Lichfield, but as the Bishop twenty-first on the rota of twenty-seven outside the privileged five. It has been found desirable to arrange for priority of consecration in the case of two recently appointed prelates, so that the old see may
-take Parliamentary precedence of the new, just as in old Oxford -days priority in taking the MA. degree was a point of import- ance to junior Fellows.
The Spectator probably would not object to the retention of the whole five ex-officio Episcopal seats in the Haase of Lords, which admit of being filled by translation. The continuance of the present system must either operate against the creation of new sees—and there are claims, such as that of North Warwick- shire, which are making themselves heard—or else postpone, as each new see is founded, the date of admission to the Upper House to a period of more advanced age.—I am, Sir, &c.,
F. SIMCOX LEA.
Tedstone Delamere Rectory, Worcester, March 31st.
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