The Express.
London, England, 1847-11-11 00:00:00

deduced from hereditary right. The late Archbishop
was a not unfavourable specimen of the great cede-
siastica_.,l nobleman. An aristocrat by descent, be
occuplZil his high position naturally and easily, and
never embarrassed himself by affecting a rigour
and austerity which were foreign to his character, and
which would certainly not have obtained for him the
promotion, for which he was indebted to his family

In choosing a successor we hope the government
will exercise discretion and judgment. Slime the days
when bishoprics ceased to serve as appanages for the
cadets of noble families, it has been too much the
habit of ministers to select for the episcopal bench
those who are pre-eminently called safe men; pru-
dent committee-men of church societies, who, without
entangling themselves in theological controversies,
have indicated a slight leaning to the popular side of
most questions, " decorous heads of colleges ;' and
others who are supposed unlikely, either from enthu-
siasm or from ambition, to interrupt the progress of
public business. Even in a political point of view, this
principle of selection is not so safe as it seems. Medio-
"crity is good in its place, but its place is in the middle
and not in the hi.thest rank ;even if governments were
secured against the development of latent tendencies to
restiveness under the genial warmth of the episcopal
purple, it is inconvenient to them to have to dial with
ecclesiastical leaders who cannot influence or control
the body which they represent.
Some of the episcopal appointments of late years
have, it must be confessed, been of a very different
character. The Bishop of Sr. DAVID'S and the Bishop
of OXFORD are among the ablest members of the
House of Lords ; and the recent choice of Mr. LEE to
preside ever the new see of Manchester must have
been suggested entirely by a confidence, which
we believe to be well founded, in his ability and energy.
After early distinguishing himself at Cambridge
as a classical scholar, and serving an apprenticeship
to the business of teaching under Dr. ARNOLD, at
Rugby, Mr. LEE, as principal of the great foundation
of King EDWARD, at Birmingham, has displayed not
only the scholastic attainments which might have
been expected of him, but a remarkable amount cf
vigour and discretion in dealing with the bugbear of
religious difference which has so often proved an ef-
fectu'il obstacle to education. We have said a hun-
dred times that the difficulty of educating children of
different persuasions under the same roof is founded
neither on experience nor on observation, but upon
the clamour and perversity of those who are deter-
mined that there shall be a difficulty. All the
cunning rules and contrivances which have been
devised for accomplishing this simple and desirable
end are quite supererogatory. Children of protestant
dissenters, of unitarians, of catholics, and of Jews,
were brought up under Mr. LEE'S superintendence
to their own benefit, and the satisfaction of thtir
parents, without interfering either with the instruc-
tion or with the religious observances which, as a
clergyman of the church of England, he thought
necessary for pupils of his own persuasion. His
address consisted simply in looking the alleged
difficulty in the face; courage, clearsightedness,
and the practical tact which is best proved by success,
are the qualities most essential to those who exercise
either civil or ecclesiastical authority. Mr. LEE also,
we believe, avoided the error of many well-meaning
clergymen, who shut themselves up entirely
in their professional interests and occupations.
He remembered that he was not only a clergyman
and a schoolmaster, but one of the leading citizens of
a great town ; and his influence was in many ways
successfully exerted for the promotion of local public
interests. As Bishop of MANCHESTER he will have a
difficult task, which will require some qualities which
he may not yet have had an opportunity of display-
ing : but in selecting him, the government has at least
done its duty, by choosing a person who has given
strong reason for supposing that lie will be equal to
his new position.
We hope that the vacancy in the Archbishopric of
YORK may be filled up on similar grounds, though
the qualifications required may be somewhat differ-
ent. There is no danger that a disreputable or
grossly ignorant prelate will be selected. We may
fairly assume, that the new primate will possess a
reasonable amount of learning, abundance of ortho-
doxy, and a respectable private character. We shall
be glad to be equally certain that he is neither a
bigot, nor, which is more probable, a crotchetty pre-
tender to bigotry, nor, which is far from impossible,
a decent nonentity. Ile will probably not be a
Puseyite : we hope he may not be a fidgetty anti-
Puseyite alarmist. It would be most unfair to the
church to impose upon it a worldly archbishop; bat it
is due to the church and the state, that he should be in
one sense a man of the world, a character which need
not imply worldliness in his case any more than in
that of ST. PAUL. The crown has a singular good
fortune in the power of appointing bishops. The
heads of all sects have in their sectarian capacity a
disposition to throw obstacles in the way of govern-
ment. In the cane of the English church, sectarian per-
versity may be provided against before-hand. Assuming
that the new archbishop will possess the fitting
spiritual qualifications, the duty and interest of the
government is to take care that he is a man of liberal
and statesmanlike mind. His opinions on general
politics are of minor importance ; but in the con-
stantly increasing number of points in which reli-
gions opinions come in contact with politics,
in education, in questions concerning catholics or
protestant dissenters, in arrangements regarding the
church itself, it is most important that so high an
ecclesiastical functionary should possess candour,
courage, and common sense. The habitual deference
of the clergy to their superiors, and the great influence
of both with the Anglican laity, would give to an
able prelate a power too considerable to be conferred
carelessly. The courtesy and liberality which
SIDNEY SMITH described in his ideal bishop might be
combined with a zeal for religion exempt both from
fanaticism and from the affectation of fanaticism.
There can be no reason why a saint should not be a
man of sense. If the characters are separated, we
suspect that the man of sense would make the better
bishop of the two.
Whether the qualities which we desire to find
united in the new archbishop are to be found united
in any actual member of the episcopal bench, is apoint
on which we express no opinion. If such is not the
case, we hope that government will not be prevented
by any ancient etiquette from extending the field of
choice to the inferior clergy. Of those who have been
mentioned for the office, one is too old for a change,
and the other is not remarkably eminent in any capa-
city. We are not, however, desirous of incurring the
responsibility of recommendation without the power
to follow it up. Of all the objectionable characters
which we have denounced, that of a Nonentity is per-
haps most harmless. Such a King Stork as troubles
the repose of some dioceses would soon make the pro-
vince of York regret its time-honoured worthy, King
Log.

ONE of our contemporaries, who has attained, in an
eminent degree, that peculiar species of distinction
which awaits on conspicuous eccentricity, is furnishing
at the present moment a very instructive illustration
of the mishaps and the recantations, which so dis-
agreeably diversify the career of persons who dispense
dogmatical decisions upon the strength of a very slen-
der stock of knowledge and discretion. Nothing. in
the opinion of the Times, could be more transparently
absurd, than to expect relief from any act of the
government, which should attempt the restoration of
confidence by placing the credit of the Bank of Eng-
land
to a certain extent at the command of the
mercantile community. The proposal in his estima-
tion was, moreover, as pernicious as it was prepos-
terous. It had not the advantage of a single decent
pretext, nor the support of a single argument worth
the trouble of refutation. It will be in the re-
membrance of many people with what prolixity of
repetition this solitary and dismal idea was presented
to the attention of the public.
Everything was represented on the high road to
ruin : we had spent almost our last penny in a riotous
extravagance of railway construction. The capital of
the country was utteriy, and without a figure, ex-
hausted. The allegation that it was not the meany,
but the confidence to Else them, which was wanting,
was scouted as the shallow cry of a repudiatory
party, more considerate of their own convenience,
than of the morality of fulfilling their obligations.
But the government gave way; and, bad as the pre-
sent evil may be, that evil, it was declared, will be
desperately aggravated by an unbridled license of
adventure, shortly to be followed by an extremity of
collapse greater than any that has yet occurred. This
Was the burden of sorrows with which this desponding
personage was afflicted. By some peculiar conjunc-
ture of misfortunes, his good taste appears to have
forsaken him with his good spirits. And when he