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1 
 
 R 
 
 EPRESKNTATIVES, 
 
 -\ / .^ I '\ I i^ 
 
 FIMvipi, BY STEWART AND CO, 
 oi n HATrrv. 
 
 Are you not aroused by this appellation to a quick 
 recollection of the obligations by which you, in whom 
 are reposed the interests of a republic of learned men, 
 are on all sides surrounded? — o?i all sides, I say ad- 
 visedly; for, though the protection of our interests is 
 but one gigantic duty, yet, Briareus-like, it hath a 
 hundred hands. 
 
 Boldly I approach the closet-door of your reflec- 
 tions; for truth, however she may be driven to hide 
 her diminished head, is innately bold— perplexed 
 often, but never to be dissolved. She runs throudi 
 the streets ragged and despised, but she has a resting- 
 place at night, amid calm and holy dreams, which 
 pampered luxury desires. The ill-favoured region 
 of truth — 
 
 ** A barren and detested vale, you see it is: 
 The tree, though summer, yet forlorn and lean, 
 Overcome with moss, and baleful misseltoe" — 
 
 but, if ever her turn to speak, now — now, surely, the 
 faction-harassed people of this country are prepared 
 to listen. 
 
It may be called the curse of the days on which 
 we are fallen that, between the two hosts of party- 
 zeal, there is a dreary and uninviting space — a space 
 which no multitude advances to occupy, and where 
 no man is to be found but, now and then, a valorous 
 champion for liberty or right, whose fate is to be gazed 
 at with wonder, pity, or indifference, and then— to 
 pass away forgotten. But, can there be no effort 
 made to render this, instead of '* a wall of separa- 
 tion," a ground of conciliation between the two? 
 Certainly, there can be: and it is the hope of all 
 lionest men that there will be, and this ere long, a 
 strenuous application of energy and talent to the 
 grandest of all human attainables— the pacification of 
 prejudice by the assurance of honest purposes — the 
 winning of partialities which cannot be destroyed. 
 
 Why then do I address you? You know your 
 calling — You will have, during this Parliament, 
 many, perhaps some special, opportunities wherein to 
 serve us — You have already buckled on your armour. 
 You will be present, doubtless, when the battle rao-es. 
 The defenders of absolute, and the advocates of un- 
 tried institutions are gathering; the intoxication of 
 party, the syren-song of the enchantress Power, the 
 shackles of family and connexion, the remembrance 
 of ancestry, will be there; but, may I presume to 
 exhort, be ve there. Holding in your own hands the 
 authority committed to you, *'quit yourselves like 
 men." The statesmen of old have earned our ad- 
 miration or disgust, but they claim not our confidence. 
 Pitt, wrapped in his early shroud — how gloriously 
 he sleeps!— sleeps on: Fox, with all his might, is a 
 name: Burke, Sheridan, — all of them, with all 
 their glitter and renown, took to their graves alono- 
 
 1^ 
 
 T 
 
 with them their times; and it is ye are the men 
 now. 
 
 Without doubt, the most serious of all the ques- 
 tions to be agitated is The Chiireh, Bigots, of each 
 persuasion, say that it is Church or No Church. 
 Moderate men, wise men, Christian men, must con- 
 cur that it is— or, rather, the object of their desires 
 is — The Church without abuses. 
 
 It needs hardly be said that this indicates the 
 subject to which I now beg leave to draw your atten- 
 tion. I weave no apology — too insignificant to Jay 
 one, though I should weave it never so cunningly, on 
 your tables: but, assured that candour is the best 
 road— it is the nearest, surely — to every upright 
 statesman's notice, I am free to confess that, in as- 
 suming the honour of some connexion with the dignity 
 of your office, it is my ambition to pour through this 
 channel a stream of pure intention — unbiassed and 
 (save to God) irresponsible sentiment — into some 
 small portion of the public mind. 
 
 We are a Christian people : we must have a Gospel- 
 church under the protection of the State, or remain 
 the bye-word of the heathen. For it is not possible 
 that, sects though there must ever be, we can go on 
 harmoniously as a nation, and thus avert the taunt of 
 being the most religious and most divided people in the 
 world, until real and acknowledged abuses shall have 
 been (or, at least, shall be in a way to be) sivept out 
 of the Church. We are, moreover, in an age big with 
 the achievements of science — an age of wondrous in- 
 ventions; and men's minds will not more surely bear 
 a physical relation to the advances thus made than 
 they will not be deterred from enquiry; — they will — 
 they do look into the principles of all systems; and 
 
H, 
 
 6 
 
 the best we can hope for, with reference to our reli- 
 gious system, from anything approaching to disregard 
 or indifference, is that they will disscrd from arrange- 
 ments and be disgusted with offences which they 
 have not the power to control. 
 
 But, as we are a Christian people, so the preponder- 
 ance of sentiment must be on the side of Christian 
 principles— I speak of things palpable,— not of doc- 
 trine, tenet, creed, or interpretation ; but of discipline, 
 practice, duty, and example; and we must as clearly 
 have Christianity preferred to all the religions of de- 
 ception and error as a Gospel-church under the pro- 
 tection of the State. 
 
 To come at once to the point,— If we have a church 
 under such government, in such discipline, and sup- 
 plied with such ministers as are in conformity with 
 the divine institution of Christ,— the government 
 exercising such authority, the discipline defined and 
 regulated by such motives, and the ministers endowed 
 with such commission, as may be clearly proved 
 analogous to their correspondents in the same,— no 
 religious man will doubt, for a moment, that we 
 ought to rest satisfied and thankful. That we have 
 this blessing above all blessings to an eminent extent 
 may be unhesitatingly affirmed. That Christianity has 
 a throne in England is a conviction which entwines 
 itself around the heart, bidding it beat with grateful 
 emotions towards the Father of lights. Bu^, shall 
 we, in fond devotion to antiquity, in a culpable love 
 of rest with its kindred aversion from reformation, or 
 in an unwarranted confidence in the One that is 
 mighty, forget that with antiquity we look for rotten- 
 ness and corruption;— that rest is no more necessarily 
 the companion of prosperity — 
 
 f 
 
 >• 
 
 *' Should it be stagnant in its ample seat, 
 The sun would through it spread destructive heat"— 
 
 than reformation the child of folly;— and that there 
 is a criminal confidence, as well as a laudable faith, 
 in our sublunary affinity to the Maker? 
 
 Should temptation bid us linger in debate on the 
 proposition conveyed in these last words, let us call 
 to mind that God's first favoured people experienced 
 the loss of the grace in which they had stood — that, 
 as a nation, they are dispersed as with a whirlwind— 
 as a people, universally left to the hardness of their 
 hearts. The Judge of Israel '' fell from off the seat 
 backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, 
 and he died," 7iot before the messenger *' made men- 
 tion of the ark of God;" and the wife of his son, 
 now a widow and all but a mother, '' named the child 
 I-chabod, saying, the glory is departed from Israel, 
 for the ark of God is taken T 
 
 There are, however, it may be said, in our pre- 
 sent state of the Church of England, no abuses, 
 certainly, which may be compared with the capital 
 offences of that people ; but there are some things, 
 at all events,— you do not pretend to say that this 
 state is as good as it might be— which may easily 
 be made to pass from the corruption which is thrown 
 over them to the life which slumbers— restlessly 
 slumbers beneath. 
 
 " Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more ! " 
 
 The accumulated dust of an age may be swept 
 away in an hour; and, though use and service— and, 
 alas ! neglect— have effaced the splendour of the cupi 
 how readily may it be restored to its pristine glory ! 
 If any profit by the concealment of the mosaic be- 
 
\' ^ 
 
 8 
 
 neath, or if fraud design to exchange the sullied 
 gold for despicable brass, honest and religious men 
 have yet but the one course to pursue. The ne- 
 cessity which impels them, tampers not with the 
 advocates of dust or appropriation— Me abuses must 
 be swept out of the Church— the splendour of existing 
 and inherent worth must be made to shine again ! 
 
 I am a clergyman, proud in disclaiming all partj/, 
 arrogant in the contempt which I bestow on all 
 names by which various opinions are designated, 
 and falling miserably short in obedience to the 
 master whom alo?ie I acknowledge. Shall I not be 
 charged— what matter ?— with ostentation when I 
 add that, next to this ojie master, I reverence the 
 Apostolical authority of the Church to which we 
 belong ; and, in adoring His goodness, would turn 
 aside only to admire this— his workmanship, con- 
 templating the living fact that *^ He gave some, 
 apostles ; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; 
 and some, pastors and teachers ; for the perfecting of 
 the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the 
 edifying of the body of Christ V Yet, I come for- 
 ward, and with the voice of one man declare that 
 there are abuses in the Church, such as may easily, 
 even without detriment to any private interest 
 deserving consideration, be swept ow/— such as ex- 
 perience, not theory, has exposed to me — such as, 
 though commonly overlooked, bring greatest scandal 
 upon it— such as, the removal of which will create 
 no revulsion of opinions — no ground of reo-ret on the 
 score of novelty — no heartburnings to stir up the feel- 
 ings of pious Dissenters; but the reverse of all 
 these. 
 
 There is a word in common parlance, the mention 
 
 \ J 
 
 tv J 
 
 t 
 
 I 
 
 9 
 
 of which will unfold the abuse which I mean to treat 
 of in this letter. Curates— and, from their eminent 
 services in the maintenance of doctrine, discipline, ordi- 
 nances, sacraments, the Church, and all those things 
 which contribute most to the special objects of the Gos- 
 pel, they stand, not undeservedly, first in public esti- 
 mation—have long earned, in their patient forbearance 
 from remonstrance, the neglect of their more wealthy 
 brethren. But, as this designation points to the cure 
 of souls, it is too generic for our purpose— we must 
 have a specific term appropriate to the class, and 
 advance our "curates" to the title of stipendiary 
 clergy, leaving the other class of the genus in posses- 
 sion of their old name of beneficed clergy. 
 
 Now, let me entreat your attention. I have no 
 private rancour, believe me, to gratify at the expense 
 of your indulgence. The subject is not beneath the 
 notice of the wisest Legislature— it is worthy the 
 breathless anxiety of the greatest Christian people. 
 Nor have I the old story of inadequate remuneration 
 to inflict upon you; though that is a story which loses 
 not by the telling. 
 
 What I complain of, is the gradual sinking of 
 Episcopalian into Presbyterian principles— the ces- 
 sion, too general almost to allow the admission of ex- 
 ceptions, of the power of the bishops to i\ie priests; and 
 this sinking— this cession tends— to what ? A sheer 
 absurdity, in one point of view ; an impious profana- 
 tion, in the other— that is, either the paradox of 
 inequality amongst equals, or the unchristian domination 
 of wealth. We must treat of these separately. 
 
 First, inequality amongst equals exists in the as- 
 sumed mastership of the beneficed over the stipen- 
 diary clergy ; for the early admission to the priest- 
 
 a5 
 
y 
 
 10 
 
 hood renders the exception, which might be made 
 in the case of deacom, nugatory. So that a man 
 might almost say— '^ If we have, according to the 
 Gospel, Bishops, Priests, and Deacons— the first 
 only* in authority over the other two, and the second 
 for the guidance and instruction of the third, well ; 
 but what mean these first, second, and third classes 
 of priest^'? This, surely is a superinduction." But, 
 I have to show you that it exists, and that its exist- 
 ence is mischievous. 
 
 It exists, almost universally. A youno- man is 
 ordained a deacon. At the expiration of a year he 
 may become a priest. For reasons, more cogent 
 than becoming, it is generally his wish to obtain 
 another curacy. In order to become fully authorized 
 to serve in his new church, he obtains a licence 
 from the bishop of the diocese, in which licence the 
 bishop '^assigns" to him his stipend, commanding at 
 what instalments it shall be paid, and '' requires" 
 him to reside, (if this be a part of the introductory 
 compact between him and the incumbent) in the 
 parsonage house. Now, all this, I grant, is directly 
 opposed to any undue authority on the part of the 
 rector, or vicar, over his deputy, or assistant. But 
 the practice is tvholij/ at variance with the theory ; 
 and, consult any ten stipendiary clergymen, you will 
 find nine of them unwilling to acknowledge that they 
 have the power of acting as ''ambassadors of Christ." 
 The test, which is commonly applied, of preaching a 
 probationary sermon; the rejection of candidates, 
 
 * They cannot delegate the episcopal power, properly so called, 
 to presbyters, without ^ivirrg them episcopal consecration. * * 
 * * There were no pnests and anti-priests m opposition to one 
 another, ami tlierefore there <'ouk\ be «o schism. —{Lesley.) 
 
 f ■ 
 
 \ 
 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 because they have large families ; the presumptuous 
 enquiry into doctrinal opinions ; the requirement to 
 abstain from taking pupils, or to submit to conditions 
 other than, some subversive of, those imposed by 
 the bishop,— these, things which for the most part 
 may be argued to be even desirable, are proofs of the 
 tone and temper in which the engagement is made 
 and its consequences to be carried out. Then, upon 
 any of those points of practice, in which there is a 
 diversity of performance, the stipendiary must submit 
 to the dictation of the beneficed, or they jar, if 
 nothing worse. If, for instance, the latter hold the 
 necessity of using the burial service, indiscriminately 
 and without enquiry, in the case of infants having 
 been born in the parish; the former must comply, a't 
 the sacrifice of his conscience, or the harmony of 
 their compact will be disturbed. In fact, I know of 
 no more fertile source of diflference than the con- 
 scientious adherence of the one, mixed with the ac- 
 commodating practice of the other, with regard to 
 the rubricks of the various services of the Church. 
 
 The compact was called introductory above. So 
 it is. As soon as ever the bishop's licence is obtained, 
 (without this it is nothing) the incumbent who nomi- 
 nated disappears as a principal, and the *' curate" 
 becomes responsible only to his diocesan. Yet, to see 
 how commonly, not only power to control, but ability 
 to dismiss, is arrogated by the priest holding the 
 benefice, must surely convince any one that our 
 principles of Church Government are lapsing to 
 Presbyterianism. Another consideration will place 
 this truth in a very forcible liglit. Suppose the 
 stipendiary clergyman to stand back upon his licence, 
 and, for conscience' sake, to declare his determina- 
 
12 
 
 tion not to submit to the dictation (I am not using 
 inappropriate words, for any superiority in point of 
 experience is as often as not on the side of the 
 " curate") of one of his own order in the Church — 
 what then ? I beheve the incumbent may forbid the 
 functions, though, surely, he may not withhold the 
 stipend, of his assistant, and thus render the position 
 of the latter one of pain and humiliation— to such a 
 degree that he will at last be driven to resign. The 
 inevitable consequence of this will be extreme diffi- 
 culty in obtaining another nomination ; for the bene- 
 ficed clergy, particularly those in one district, not 
 uiuiaturally hang together, and (with sorrow be it 
 said) have little sympathy with their stipendiary 
 brethren. It is necessary, moreover, that three 
 beneficed clergymen should subscribe to a knowledge 
 of good life and doctrine, before a licence to another 
 cure can be had ; and this will not easily be accom- 
 plished, unless his late anploijer make one. 
 
 It is clear, I think, from this— the mildest view 
 of the circumstances in which '* Curates" are placed, 
 that, practically, there is an inequality amongst equals. 
 Let us proceed, therefore, to the more important 
 consideration which remains— that it is mischievous. 
 
 However rightly we may insist upon the spiritual 
 capacity of the Clergy, their temporal position will 
 never be overlooked by the great mass of the laity. 
 If the stipendiary curate be compelled, by poverty, 
 — and 
 
 " Magnum pauperies opprobrium, jubet 
 Quidvis et facere et pati " — 
 
 by the wants of a family, by the desire to acquire 
 respectability through permanence in one office, or 
 by any other motive, to submit his conscience, or 
 
 '^S .f 
 
 «-^ t 
 
 13 
 
 even his conversation, to the will of the beneficed 
 curate, or absentee, it will soon be seen. Nay, re- 
 presentations from parishioners to the one, of the 
 doctrine, life, errors, or infirmities, of the other, of 
 two equal clergymen will often be answered by for- 
 mal enquiries ; and this cannot fail to open their 
 eyes. Hence, the (imagined) hireling is despised ; 
 his ministrations fail; his former enemies (and the 
 more conscientious will often have most) abuse, in 
 adversity, him whom they dared not assail in pros- 
 perity; even his friends begin to pity him ; and he 
 loses that peace which alone has supported him 
 under all the trials and privations which fall to the 
 lot of the stipendiary clergy, universally. This is 
 highly mischievous. It weakens the attachment to 
 the church, which the laity will always identify with 
 the clergy, and tends to break the zeal of their pas- 
 tors; than which two results combined nothing can 
 more eflfectually war against the Establishment. 
 
 Secondly, The unchristian domination of wealth — 
 who will deny its existence and operation among the 
 inferior clergy ? 
 
 We know that, in all temporal departments, 
 wealth will always command influence ; but it needs 
 not be so among the inferior clergy — as I hope to 
 show in the sequel of these arguments. 
 
 Though the ** curates" are men who, in our popu- 
 lous parishes, live in humble lodgings, and, in our 
 rural districts, board in farm-houses — in the event of 
 the parsonage-house not being assigned to them; 
 though a small room serves them for library, dining- 
 room, and drawing-room ; and the few books which 
 they possess occupy the window-seat, the sofa, or 
 the floor; though they are pale and young, or old 
 
14 
 
 and thin, retired in habits, availing themselves gladly 
 of the occasional invitation, visiting the poorest (if 
 the incumbent reside and relieve him of some part) 
 of the pastoral charge, and living like the honest 
 artizan ; though they have to support the appearance 
 of gentlemen upon the incomes of stud-grooms, 
 valets, or the hack-clerks of our ordinary merchants; 
 though such are their acknowledged circumstances 
 that they have no right to make these foots matter of 
 complaint, and they are not advanced as such on 
 this occasion; though, in fine, they are most of them 
 by birth, all of them by education, gentlemen, with- 
 out the means of giving alms to the poor, — there is 
 no reason, earthly or divine, why the more wealthy 
 clergymen should exercise dominion over them — 
 why, being equals in that view which alone brings 
 them in contact, they should have such uneven jus- 
 tice at the hands of their brethren in the priesthood. 
 Prosperity brings pride ; and is it for this reason that, 
 while WickliftVs poor preachers were venerated in 
 their rags, and defended in their missionary exer- 
 tions by the arms of their countrymen, the well- 
 educated, pious, honourable-minded stipendiaries 
 of this palmy age have not even the sympathy of 
 their brethren? Is it the privilege of the sacred 
 office that a man is to be responsible to his fellow- 
 sinners in the ministry who are his equals in |)ower 
 and authority ; and is it among the ministers of 
 Christ only that power is arrogated for the purpose 
 of oppression? In our glorious Reformation, did we 
 lose that grand and good principle which consti- 
 tuted the priest under no obedience to the priest, 
 and made the bishop, as he alone must be now, the 
 ovLiisEEU of the ** inferior clergy?" Our old 
 
 
 IM 
 
 *«' 
 
 15 
 
 names will tell us that these *' times are out of 
 joint." What is an Arch-deaco7i? An officer ap- 
 pointed to assist the Bishop in the government of his 
 diocese. But they dared not give him even a title 
 which should convey any authority over the priest- 
 hood. Nay, we hold it to be not so absurd for a 
 patron to exercise any after-influence over the man 
 of his choice and nomination — influence of such a 
 sort as forcibly to cramp his sacred functions, or 
 interfere with his private life, — as for the beneficed 
 priest to assume, any other but a parochial prece- 
 dence, over the stipendiary priest who has been 
 licensed by the Bishop to assist in, or supersede him 
 in, his cure. And yet, our modern incumbents talk 
 of 7}ij/ curate, and yoar curate, and, with shocking 
 boasting, of having removed this and that curate, as 
 if they were the oicners, instead of merely the tenants, 
 of the benefices of the Church. 
 
 It is in vain to say that this arrogance is tacitly 
 permitted to them by the Bishops— that cannot be 
 — no power can sanction an absurdity. 
 
 *' Tis not possible for any man in his wits, though 
 never so much addicted to paradoxes, to believe 
 otherwise but that the whole is greater than the 
 part ; that contradictions cannot be both true ; that 
 three and three make six ; that four is more than 
 
 three."* 
 
 It is in vain to ascribe such sentiments as these 
 to the morbid sensibilities of poverty, or the chagrin 
 of disappointment. I am prepared for such easy 
 imputations ; and, though no man shall surpass me 
 in attachment to the Church of England as by law 
 established, I am prepared for the sweeping condem- 
 
 * Wilkins. 
 
 \ 
 
^hSM 
 
 I'rgj 
 
 1T 
 
 V 
 
 I' 
 
 16 
 
 nation of the incumbents of nearly all the parishes in 
 England. Because I advocate principle, not party, 
 the political enemy to the Church will complain that 
 I am orthodox, and perhaps burn the pamphlet ; 
 while the Metropolitan Conservative Journalists will 
 denounce it as ridiculous and absurd, because I 
 acknowledge abuses in that Establishment of which 
 I am much more conservative than they — ipse me- 
 dius et neutrius partis, — I know the rest. 
 
 It is in vain to say that the whole grievance 
 amounts to nothing. It amounts to all which may 
 be considered vital to the interests of the Church — • 
 the good-will of the people. The good people of Eng- 
 land love nothing more than the maintenance of le- 
 gitimate dignities and authorities — nothing less than 
 the arbitrary assumption of them. The Dissenter is 
 confirmed in his dissent, the infidel in his cold con- 
 tempt, the atheist in his sullen hatred, by the sub- 
 jection to which they see one part submitted to the 
 other part of the equal and inferior clergy — equal 
 one to another, inferior to their Bishop ; but they 
 would all approve, and — I speak not without ex- 
 perience — many would join, under the visible exis- 
 tence and eiertion of Episcopal power. Men love 
 good kings, and endure bad ones; but they hate 
 usurpers, for their very names' sake : they respect 
 the magistrate, but they would cuff the ruffian who 
 takes the law in his own hands. 
 
 But, why do not the working clergy come forward, 
 as one man, and, if this be really the case, make one 
 loud representation of their wrongs ? For many 
 reasons: — 
 
 1st, Because they are pledged to Christianity, and 
 
 
 ( 
 
 J 
 
 17 
 
 the doctrines of their faith enjoin patience in tribu- 
 lation, joy in suffering, and hope in affliction. 
 
 2d, Because, individually, they know that loss, 
 not gain, is the fruit of making oneself conspicuous. ' 
 3d, Because they are aware that some would al- 
 ways remain out of the league, and thus defeat the 
 beneficial results of it to themselves. 
 
 -^th. Because they rely upon higher power than 
 human, and are not easily induced, therefore, to make 
 any appeal to human justice or generosity. 
 
 5th, Besides many others, because, '^as the law 
 stands, they are already in subjection, each to the 
 beneficed clergy of his neighbourhood, sufficiently to 
 render their preferment from one cure to another 
 next to an impossibility if they display any tenden- 
 cies to what is called the movement, 
 
 I cannot occupy your time longer with such alle- 
 gations ; for no Englishman can have failed to per- 
 ceive that a petty tyranny— a lording4t-over—^ mas- 
 tery— a power— exists in spiritual places, where no 
 such authority is constitutional, or according to scrip- 
 ture, or favourable to the cause of the Church, or in 
 behalf of the interests of Christianity. 
 
 The fact, that where the beneficed curates alone do 
 the work of the Church is only in some small parishes 
 in rural districts, coupled with the consideration that 
 m our populous towns, collectively, certainly more 
 than half is done by the stipendiary curates, must be 
 decisive of the eminent utility of these; and no one 
 ever yet disputed their respectability in the account 
 of piety and learning. Presuming, then, that the 
 discipline of the Church is, in any degree, amenable 
 to the acts of the legislative assembly, can any 
 
18 
 
 adequate honest reason be given why this portion ol 
 the sacred ministry should be allowed to labour under 
 the thraldom of their equals — luiif superiority beino- 
 visible only in regard to this world's goods? 
 
 But, the remedy. If 1 have proved the existence 
 of an evil, it follows, from what has been advanced, 
 that it is not only a mischievous, but an unnecessary 
 one. Surely, then, it is removeable. 
 
 Let power be lodged in them to whom it belonirs, 
 and in them only. The bishops are our ecclesiastical 
 princes— the King is their sot e re ig?i pri?ice ^nd pro- 
 tector. If any man think this too much power for 
 the prelates of the Church, our own poet shall let 
 him know that time teas when kings might be con- 
 sidered raised by an elevation to the prelacy. 
 
 *' Hear him but reason in divinity, 
 And, all -admiring, with an inward wish 
 You would desire the king were made a prelate." 
 
 Our bishops live in palaces— such is the excellence 
 of the glory which already distinguishes the religion 
 of Christ. To their authority scripture and reason 
 Command obedience. If the priest be permitted to 
 nominate his substitute or assistant, there his power 
 must determine. Beyond this, if not here even, we 
 enter on the region of Presbyterianism, and that is 
 not the religion of the Church of England. We must 
 have bishops (call them apostles, if you will), to be 
 in conformity with the gospel; and to have them, 
 while their power is transferred to inferior hands, in 
 a community which embraces but three (virtually but 
 ttvo) classes,* is a mockery— for it would pretend to 
 be a copy - of our divine original. 
 
 * All deacons soon become priests, but all priests cannot ever 
 become bishops. 
 
 19 
 
 I trust I have taken higher ground than the ques- 
 tion of remuneration; but this, it will be perceived, 
 would be settled also, were the power really in its 
 proper seat. Laws are already in existence;^ but, it 
 must be lamented while it is confessed, they are not 
 in operation,— because the considerations which be- 
 long to what is called real property are allowed to 
 impinge upon the sacred life-interest which, at the 
 most, is invested in spiritual benefices— everything is 
 done as if the temporalities of the Church were the 
 real property of successive generations of men who 
 only hold them during a small portion (commonly) of 
 their lives. The maladministration of good laws is 
 even more to be deprecated than the operation of 
 bad ones— here we have the evil before our eyes; 
 there it steals up behind our backs. 
 
 I shall only trespass upon your patience while I 
 apologize for being anonymous. I know not what is 
 to be gained to any one by the publication of an ob- 
 scure name: but I apprehend wdiat may be lost. 
 Yet, should it appear desirable in any future letters 
 1 may wTite upon this great subject, neither the loss 
 of my little all, nor the temporary drawing-away of 
 false friends, nor the altered countenance of real 
 ones— not any earthly consideration shall induce me 
 to withhold what may be thought the least surety in 
 devoting myself, my talents, and my time, to a cause 
 which I have learned by experience and mature re- 
 flection to consider sacred. 
 
 I have the honour to be, &c. &c. 
 
 A Member of the Senate. 
 
 t'AMBRiDfiE, Feb. lOlIi, 1837. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 rnivTr.D by stew art and co. 
 
 OLD BAIIEY. 
 
 P