be fully understood by all, from its being never used except where you really esteem, then, and then only, you will deserve and obtain the full reliance of the worthy. They will feel certain that they possess your esteem, and that if they do anything by which it may be forfeited, it will be lost for ever. To establish such a belief is the best means of preserving the peace and purity of your circle, and it is worth while risking some enmity to effect so desirable an object.

"It must, however, be observed, that it is equally politic and Christianlike to avoid breaking with anybody. While you purchase no man's forbearance by false hopes of his regaining your esteem, you must not drive him into hostility through fear of your doing him a mischief."

Episcopal Expenditure." The necessities for caution may be supposed incident to every station which confers rank and power; but there are some peculiarities in the position of a bishop which demand separate investigation. His income is always exaggerated, and the capabilities of his income still more monstrously overrated. Men either cannot or will not see that large revenues are, in proportion, more frequently embarrassed than smaller properties, just as the debts of wealthy states are more onerous than those of poor communities. This does not arise merely from the temptation to large expenditure arising from the possession of great wealth; it appears to result more frequently from the influence which the law of opinion exercises over all. The rich man, and particularly the man raised to a well paid-office, knows that much is expected of him, indeed far more than he can with prudence attempt to accomplish, and he feels that he will lower both himself and his station, unless he makes some effort to realize this expectation.

"Though all property, beyond that immediately produced by industry, is but an institution of society, and consequently subject to duties as well as invested with rights, yet public opinion has made the duties heavier, and the rights weaker, in all cases of life income connected with the profession. A bishop, whose revenues terminate with his life, is expected to give away more than a person who has an inherited income of double the amount, descending to his children. His diocese imposes on him a far heavier expenditure of money and labour than a landed estate does on a nobleman; the latter

may do what he will with his own,' at least within very wide limits; the

former is scarcely permitted to look upon his income as ' his own,' in the full sense of property. Besides the responsibility to God which all posses sion of property involves, the bishop or rector is supposed to incur a heavy responsibility to his country, for the fulfilment of which credit is rarely given.

What an easy life the parsons have!' is the common phrase of every clown; but he never dreams of asking himself, 'What do I think of the life of the squire ?'

"Into the justice or injustice of such opinions it is not necessary to inquire; but their prevalence is a fact of sufficient notoriety, and they impose on persons of clerical rank a moral necessity for regulating their expenditure, not according to their individual feeling,scarcely even according to the strict requisites of their station,-but according to the vague responsibilities which public opinion has associated with church endowments. I need hardly say, my Lord, that we live in times when that opinion cannot be safely de

fied.

"Great as is the evil of having your expenditure of money and time measured by the imaginations of persons who do not trouble themselves to investigate realities, the evil is fearfully aggravated by the diversity of objects to which each set of imaginings refers. Those who surround a bishop seem to act literally on Swift's advice to servants, each of whom is recommended to do his best in his own particular department, to spend the whole of his master's property. Thus it is with a prelate's money and time; every person seems to expect that both should be bestowed on his fa vourite project to their extreme amount, and no one is disposed to take into account that there are other claims and demands which should not be abridged in their fair proportions."

Recommendations and Patronage.— "Recommendations are an important species of patronage, but unfortunately they are not so regarded by the generality of mankind. Suppose that you, my Lord, want a good servant, and apply to some friend to recommend you one. He sends you a man, honest, sober, and well conducted, but pos sessing no special qualifications for the precise situation in which you are desirous to employ him, or, at least, one whose qualifications are far inferior to those of many others. You soon find that you are miserably attended: your furniture is injured, your horses suffer, your comforts are diminished, your visitors complain, and your household is thrown into disorder. You go to

your friend, justly indignant, and ask how he could think of selecting such a person for your service? He tells you that the man was one of his dependants, or in some way had a claim upon him, and that he was anxious to get the poor fellow into so good a place: he then shelters himself behind the plea of general character, about which you have not said one word, because it is manifestly beside the question; he tells you that he would not send you a man given to pilfering or drunkenness, or in any other respect morally bad; and he either cannot or will not comprehend that a very good man may be a very bad servant. This is no mere sketch of fancy; it is a matter of every-day occurrence. They tell a story in Nottingham of a man recommended to a lace factory as an excellent workman ; some valuable materials were entrusted to him, which he completely spoiled; the employer went to the person by whom the operative had been recommended, and made a bitter complaint. Dear me!' replied the other, I thought he would have proved an excellent workman; I employed him as a blacksmith, and no one ever made better horse-shoes!' The inference from horse-shoes to lace is not one whit more absurd than that from general integrity to special qualification for office; the only difference between them is, that the latter is the more mischievous and the more general.

"It is not easy to account for the very low standard of morals by which men regulate their conduct in the disposal of patronage, and in recommendations. Special fitness, not general character, should obviously guide our choice in making an appointment; yet for the most part, we find that this most important consideration is ostentatiously neglected, or at best, that it is postponed to other considerations, not merely of inferior moment, but quite irrelevant to the question of qualifications for office; and so far is this delinquency from being visited with the reprobation it merits, that it is not unfrequently sanctioned by the tacit approval of those who mean well and judge ill; that is to say, far the larger portion of those whose aggravated sentiments form what is called the public opinion of a country.

"The lay patron of a benefice bestows the living (which in his view is merely a living benefice) on his brother, his friend, or his friend's friend. We may suppose, what indeed is now generally the case, that the person presented has a fair moral reputation, that he is a respectable, well-meaning man. But infinitely more may be re

quired in his relations to his parish, and the qualifications wanting may leave room for the growth and development of very dangerous evils. Though negative merit is worth very little, negative demerit is frequently as mischievous as positive vice. Under the administration of a quiet, every-day character, the spiritual affaits of the parish stagnate; the church is deserted, the conventicles are crowded; many of the congregation join the ranks of dissent; others become careless and irreligious: not a few, perhaps, may fall into avowed infidelity, especially if the parish be in a large town where infidel clubs are established.

"To the excuse of the patron, and the plea with which the world sanctions it, we may reply, All that you say is indifferent to the issue ;-you forget the real question; you talk of the worldly benefit of your brother, we speak of the everlasting salvation or perdition of the souls of parishioners depending on the exercise of your patronage. Tell us not of compassion; it is no compassion to nurture one body at the expense of a thousand souls ;boast not of your fraternal affection; you have set your brother on the watch tower, aware that he knows not the cognizance of the advancing enemy, and that he wants energy to give warn ing of their approach; his charge will perish, but their blood will be required at his hand;-you talk of what the world expects of you, we are talking of what he to whom souls belong demands;-you refer to the judgment of the world, we to the judgment by which the world shall be judged ;your plea is a paltry concern of time, ours is the overwhelming interest of measureless eternity;-you allege that you have been generous to a relative; we, that you have been unjust to your fellows, your country, and your God. You have betrayed your trust, you have weakened the post confided to your charge, and the unhappy sentinel will be among the earliest victims, when the adversaries enter through the unprotected position.

"It is unfortunately too common to find the abuse of patronage, and especially that form of it called nepotism, regarded not merely as a venial offence, but even as a praiseworthy action. Responsibility scarcely ever attaches to a lay patron, and even a bishop has rarely to encounter a strong check from public opinion. He has, however, a warning voice within his own breast, which should be heard the more clearly, because all around is silent."

Burrs and Limpets.-"It would be

unwise policy to refuse deserters from the enemy's camp, but it would be equally unwise to place them immediately in your most important posts. Sudden converts are the most to be suspected; rubbish and mud portend a flood.' When a stream grows fonl it is a sign that it is rising, and thus a strengthening party always gains adherents of the most worthless cha

racter.

It is the bright sun that brings forth the adder,

And that craves wary walking.

"The founder of our religion alone refused the enlistment of such adherents; he knew what was in man,' and when followed by the adherents, not of him but of his success, gave them the cutting rebuke, 'Verily I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled.' Every other leader, every sect, and every party, has accepted these auxiliaries of triumph, being well aware that such men are the most unscrupulous partisans. Whenever the sun comes to your side of the hedge, you must expect these flies to gather about you; they will sting if you brush them away too roughly, but if you allow them to settle on you, they will suck your blood. Treat them as Hamlet did the courtiers,' Have an eye upon them.'

"In this and in many other cases you will find yourself supported by adherents who are no ornament and very little use to your cause; accept their services such as they are. It will not do to throw away everything which is not shapely; as Harlequin said of a man with ugly features, 'It must be confessed that his nose was no great ornament while he had it, yet you cannot conceive how very awkward his face looked when it was amputated."

seen

Leading on the Clergy."Your duties do not cease when you have conferred orders; you have that the candidates have been trained in your diocesan college, or under your chaplains; you have required and received a test of their fitness in solemn examination; but you have, over and above, to watch diligently that they should improve what they have acquired, for, in the ministerial career, non progredi est regredi.' Your difficulties in such a task are incalculably increased by the impossibility of establishing any formal plan for such a purpose. Clerical societies for mutual improvement so soon degenerate into debating societies or conventicles, that I should hesitate about giving them much encouragement; but I have

found that, in general, the clergyman who bestows most instruction on his flock, is also the clergyman who acquires most information for himself. Thus the aphorism of Dr. Chalmers, a house-going minister makes a church-going people,' seems to receive a confirmation from the fact, that knowledge is suggested in the house which may be most valuable in the church."

Professional Education.-"I feel very deeply that clerical education, training expressly directed to the profession which young men are to pursue through an arduous career, at the peril of salvation and the hazard of immortal souls, has been strangely neglected at a time when every other profession is shewing itself more and more eager to have special and practical instruction for probationers. It is painful to think that the clerical profession may, from this cause, in a very short time find itself below the level of all the other professions in this country; for the world will not estimate its value by general scholarship, even though the church may long possess more than its average share; it will judge clergymen, as it does lawyers and physicians, by professional activity, and by nothing else. And the world is right in so doing; a church is not established to be an ornament only, it is a means to an end. If a clergyman knows not how to lead his flock in the right way, it is no compensation for those who go astray that he knows more Hebrew than a Jewish rabbi, or can solve mathematical problems which would have perplexed Newton. Such was the opinion of our early reformers, and it would be well if some of our most vehement sticklers for antiquity could be brought to see that in nine cases out of ten they are contending for modern corruptions."

Confirmation."Visitations bring you into contact with your clergy, public meetings with the laity; but there is an ordinance of the church which enables you, in a very important way, to bring both the clergy and the laity together, and to explain to both their mutual relations and their mutual duties. Of course you know that I allude to the rite of confirmation. It is reported that whole generations have been suffered to grow up without an opportunity of receiving this rite; indeed, I once lived in a diocese where it had not been administered for more than thirty years, and when I received it, a grandfather and a grandson were kneeling with me at the same table. In such a case the rite becomes a mere

form; if the form be deemed worthless by the recipients, it is useless; if they attach a superstitious value to it, different from its real object and intention, it becomes pernicious. If you regard the ordinance as a valuable institution, which gives the clergy an opportunity of coming into close contact with their flocks at a most important and interesting age, you will confirm frequently and sedulously. If you disapprove the rite, you should strive to get it abolished, and not of your own authority legislate for the church by consigning one of its positive institutions to desuetude. There are, unfortunately, some persons most anxious to prevent any change in our formularies and institutions, who are yet quite content to let them lie in abeyance, like the gudewife' in the Cottagers of Glenburnie,' who took such care of her napery,' that she had whole presses full of tablecloths ten years old, which she was nae sic a fule as to think of using.'

Prospects of Bishops' children. "The younger children of the less wealthy peers, and all the children of a bishop, are brought up in a style from which they must expect in after life to descend. Your station imposes upon you the necessity of living in a lordly mansion, keeping a rich table, supporting an expensive equipage and establishment of servants, procuring such masters for your children as consist with your dignity, and mixing with the company suited to your rank. These things end with your life; the change is a great trial, and feeling that it awaits your children, you should carefully train them so that these externals should sit loose upon their minds, and that they should feel within themselves internal resources, both moral and intellectual, of which no change can deprive them

"In effecting the mental discipline necessary to fortify them for this trial, you will derive great assistance from associating with those who have won their way to distinction in other professions by their merits and their exertions. Your children will be the more animated to vigour, perseverance, and self-dependence, the more they witness your exertions to provide for their future welfare.

"The dread of nepotism must not lead you into the opposite extreme; I have already said that your most pregnant function lies in the choice of instruments, and assuredly you are likely to work best with those instruments of which you have the most intimate knowledge, and over which you

can exercise the most efficient control. All other circumstances being equal, qualities resulting from the relationship, though not the relationship itself, render your son or nephew more eli. gible than a stranger, especially for a situation to which you must occasionally delegate a portion of your authority.

Without concurring in all the author's opinions or reasonings, and seeing strong cause to dissent from some of them, we consider the above series of passages as conveying much important truth. There is however, on the very face of the volume, a serious defect, which, though the author states it to be intentional, is not the less serious on that account. He says:

"It was far from the writer's purpose to draw the ideal character of a perfect prelate, for he never was able to discover any utility in such portraitures; but he thought it no unnecessary task to take such a practical view of Taylor has of that of a statesman, and the position of a bishop as Mr. H. to apply to his peculiar circumstances

the same sense.

lessons of plain common

Now we do not forget the fair maxim, in every composition to "regard the writer's end;" but then we may justly cogitate whether that end is the end which he ought to have chosen. Our author had no intention of drawing "the ideal character of a perfect prelate," nor can he "discover any utility in such portraitures;" he therefore addresses himself to the task of giving "such a practical view of the position of a bishop as Mr. Taylor has of that of a Statesman; and to apply to his peculiar circumstances the same lessons of plain common sense." But the " ресиliar circumstances" of a bishop's position are very different from those of a "statesman ;" that which is "peculiar" to him is that he is a bishop; secular rank, wealth, or power, are merely ad

ventitious "circumstances;" they happen to be connected with our own, and some other, portions of Christ's holy Catholic Church, as national and well endowed institutions; but the barony is not the episcopate and to the extent in which our author's exhortations and descriptions would be inapplicable to a bishop in the woods or swamps of America, they refer to something more than is included in his announcement, "The Bishop," upon the title page. So far as the adviser intended to specify certain duties and difficulties, advantages and disadvantages, of an English or Irish prelate, he should have restricted his nomenclature to his object. For want of this he has written over his sketch (he admits that it is not a "portraiture") a title which includes all that St. Paul specifies in the epistles to Timothy and Titus, and our own church in the service for the Consecration of Bishops; and which "common sense, to say the least, could not have discovered. St. Paul certainly does, with much minuteness, draw the character, and exhibit the portraiture," of a perfect prelate," in which our author doubtless sees some "utility," though his inadvertent words would exclude even these. Now our feeling in reading his book is, that in urging so largely what " common sense suggests, but omitting some essential lineaments of the true "man of God," as described in holy Writ; and in regarding a bishop too much in the analogy which he bears to a "statesman," he conveys to the reader not only inadequate but incorrect views of the episcopal character. He makes him throughout a sort of ecclesiastical diplomatist instead of an ambassador from God." We do not wish to write unfairly; and we have shewn by the preceding ex

tracts that he gives much valuable and religious advice to his right reverend friend; and we also admit that many of the lessons of prudence and propriety, in regard to men and manners, apply in degree and measure to all who have to exercise episcopal -or indeed any other-influence or authority, be it in a log-house or in a palace. But the volume, as a whole, places much that is second and subordinate first; whereas much that is paramount is either omitted, or only incidentally implied. And, besides this, he sometimes leaves on the mind an impression as if the episcopal office were a professional burden, to be borne like any other professional burden, carefully and diligently at business hours, but with much modification of St. Paul's rule of "Give thyself wholly to these things," and always subject to the good taste with which a lawyer forgets that he is a lawyer in his social conversation. Archbishop Leighton was just one of those pedantic bishops which our author would not wish his bishop to be. "He had," says Bishop Burnet, "the greatest elevation of soul, the largest compass of knowledge, the most mortified and most heavenly disposition that I ever saw in mortal:"“ and I can say in truth that in a free and frequent conversation with him for above two-and-twenty years, I never knew him speak an idle word, (or one) that had not a direct tendency to edifica. tion; and I never once saw him in any other temper but that which I wished to be in the last minutes of my life." How many a clergyman has wished that this could be justly said of himself! How many have lamented, that they have not the "elevation of soul" and heavenly disposition" which would make this sit