The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-06 00:00:00

The New Bishop of Peterborough.

Yesterday the Very Rev. Francis Jenne, D.C.L.,
Doan of Lincoln, accepted the Bishopric of Peter-
borough, which had been offered to him by Lord
Palmerston on Tuesday.

The Very Rev, Dr. Jenne is a Jersey man, and is
about 60 years of age. Having entered on one of
the Jersey foundations at Pembroke, he took a first
class in classics in 1827, and of course was elected
fellow of his college, then a college of small repute.
For four years (1830-4) he earned a high reputation
as a college tutor, and was examiner in 1834. In
that year he was appointed head master of King
Edward's School, Birmingham, and took his D.C.L.
degree. It is said that in this capacity he was
eminent. He was removed from this post on hih
his election in 1843 to the mastership of his college.
The master of Pembroke is ex officio canon of Glou-
cester, and the rev, canon and master presented
himself to the living of Taynton, worth about £4OO
41 43 I I a year.
450 170

Dr. Jenne owe§ probably his rapid elevation to
a deanery and a bishopric to his connection with
Oxford University Reform. He was a leading
Liberal—a pioneer of Liberal opinions at a time
when to be anything else than a Tory was virtually
ostrecism. Naturally, in 1850, he was appointed
one of the commissioners to inquire into the state
of the University of Oxford. With him were asso-
ciated the leading Liberals of Oxford—the Bishop
of London (Tait), the Dean of Wells (Johnson), the
Dean of Christ Church (Liddell), Professor Baden
Powell, &c. Dr. Jeune was one of the most active,
energetic, and persevering members of the commis-
sion. How it ended we all know. Dissenters are
allowed the privilege of a B.A. degree, and they
can, as undergraduates, be admitted into the
colleges.

As head of his college Dr. Jenne earned a higher
reputation than he earned as an academical politi-
cian. He found Pembroke College unpopular; he
made it one of the best colleges in the university, so
that public schoolmen of the highest reputation
were induced to put their names on its books. Dr.
Jenne reduced the expenses of the undergraduates,
gave them more accommodation,- offered induce-
ments to eminent public schoolmen, and by their
reputation raised the name of his college to a height
astonishing to any one who knew the Pembroke of
1840, He was always, it must be confessed, liberal
to poor students, end he was by no means a mar.
tinet in point of discipline.
In 1859 he was appointed Vice-Chancellor of
Oxford, and for the next three years he fulfilled
the arduous duties of that office with zeal and
energy. He was a very able man of business, and
on secular matters he was one of the most trust-
worthy authorities in the university. As a most
active member of all sorts of committees, as a uni-
versity official who did all he could to reconcile the
university and the city, Dr. Jeune deserves the
highest praise; and his graceful and dignified
treatment of the Prince of Wales, when an under-
graduate of Christ Church, has obtained a proper
recognition from that illustrious personage. To-
wards the close of last year Dr. Jeune was appointed
dean of Lincoln, lin the room of the lamented
Thomas Garnier. He voted against the increase of
Professor Jowett's salary (£4O) to the extreme
astonishment of his liberal pupils of more advanced
opinions, and he preached a sermon from the uni-
versity pulpit in which he administered a severe
and well-deserved castigation to his former friends.
Ho earned the highest praise for this sermon from
"Evangelical" newspapers, and incurred a vast
amount of unpopularity among the Liberals of Ox-
ford. The clergy of the diocese of Peterborough
are likely to find in him a thoroughly able ad-
ministrator of the affairs of the diocese,