ACTS AND PROFESSIONS.
THE Honourable and Reverend JoiRrs FORTESCUE, Lord ERRING- Tom's brother, has lately been presented to a stall in Worcester Cathedral. Mr. FoRTEscuE is also Rector of a living in Lincoln- shire, and is therefore now become a pluralist. Pluralities are among the "proved abuses." While Lord BROUGHAM'S bill for abolishing legal sinecures was in progress, he made only provi- sional appointments to those which fell in ; and received, as he de- served, great commendation for acting up to his principles, and -disdaining to enrich his family at the expense of his public cha- racter. But Lord BROUGHAM is the author of another bill, now 'upon the table of the House of Peers, for "preventing spiritual persons from holding more preferments than one;" and the ques- tion arises, is Mr. FORTESCUE pledged to give up, without compen- sation, his Cathedral sinecure, or his Lincolnshire living, in case a bill to abolish pluralities should become law ? It is to be feared that he is under no such engagement; for had that been the case, `the merits of the Government would have been sedulously trum- peted forth by their organs.
It appears, then, that Ministers are doing the very thing which they reprobate in their speeches as being in a high degree injuri- ous to the safety of the Establishment; and they are doing this within a day or two after the Prime Minister has avowed that the principle of his Administration is to reform all "proved abuses," and within a week or two of the introduction of a bill by the Lord Chancellor to prevent the future perpetration of this very species of abuse. Consistent Statesmen ! resolute Reformers !
Previous page
