The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-16 00:00:00

THE BISHOP OF EXETER.
(From the Western Times.)
The exigencies of political events have compelled us
to postpone a notice of Mr. Shore's case, and also that of
Mr. Bowden, who has been shut out from Plymouth be-
cause he wont preach baptismal regeneration. The ec-
centricities of our Right Rev. diocesan have added
i a
new feature to the former case—by the light7he h the
new debate throws upon the grounds of his displeasure
with Mr. Shore. The Bishop has been the instrument
up to a
pleasnre
i
for closing the chapel at Plymouth, in w
few weeks since, a minister of the Established Church
was wont to discharge the important functions of his sa-
cred calling. It is now some eight or nine years since.
we first heard the Bishop lament the great spiritual des-
titution of Plymouth. He had then just discovered, or but
just proclaimed, the " astounding fact" that thereiea
were
t
80,000 souls perishing for lack of spiritual nourishment
in the Plymouth district. He was then moved with a new-
born zeal, and determined, by the celerity with which
delay. he
prepared to repair the defect, to make some amends
for his extraordinary oversight and We
thought it extremely strange, to use the mildest term, to
see the Bishop only then making the discovery of all
this spiritual destitution. He had come to the diocese
some years before, and received, from the very day of
his taking possession, some two hundred pounds per
week, as his wages for discharging the important duties
which he took upon himself as the Bishop of the diocese.
He had to conciliate the opposition, and overcome the
contempt, which naturally followed his recent conversion
to the measure of Catholic Emancipation ; which in
spite of his pamphlets, he had just then helped to carry,
by his vote for Sir Robert Peel at Oxford. We will
suppose that the first hours of his official life were spent
in prayer to a higher power to smooth the way for his
ministry, and to overcome the prejudices which English-
men naturally feel against rats, one of which the per-
verse people of the diocese persisted in calling him.
After having, as it were, adjusted the cushion
of his episcopal throne, so that he might occupy
his seat with ease and comfort, there arose the
care of providing for his family. It took some time
to quarter that son of his in Worcestershire. There
was a squabble with the Chapter, who refused to
appoint the young man Precentor. Then there was
the time spent in thinking about the appointing
of old Luxmoore, who helot the living of Bridestowe,
which it was thought he would have to vacate into the
hands of the Bishop, supposing that the Bishop should
nominate him to the office of Precentor. Whatever was
thought, (and something was said about it), no arrange-
ment took place in this quarter. The affairs of the young
man were quite at sea, till the Rev. Thomas Hill Lowe
turned up. This gentleman was the holder of a brace of
fat livings in Worcestershire, Hollow-cum- Grimley.
Him did the Bishop nominate for Precentor, and him
did the Chapter accept, and the young man was hence-
forth transferred to Worcestershire, where as the rector
of the united parishes of Hollow-cum- Grimley, he showed
to an admiring world, how soon the merits of a young
divine are seen, when his father happens to be a
bishop. We cannot follow the Old Gentleman
through all his arrangements, but there were
some very clever. The Government were deprived
of their patronage of the Deanery, after having
possessed it for some 300 years, the Precentor Lowe
became Dean. Then we have young Mr. Phillpotts
made Precentor, and " our son-in-law," Mr. Stephens,
made Sub-Dean, and since r, joicing with the substantial
seal of the episcopal approbation set upon his labours, in
the shape of the goodly living of Dunsford, which is
situate within an easy walk of his commodious and
beautiful residence at Culver—a location in short, worthy
in every respect of the dignity and piety of one who
has had the grace to woo and win the heart of a Bishop's
daughter. Then there was our other son-in-law,
De Bouilli. This reverend gentleman was for some
years unprovided for. He was Bishop's son-in-law,
without any consolation made to him in the shape of
preferment for the sacrifice of that supreme fitness for
the ministerial duties which celibacy imparts, save the
barren business of Bishop's curate. He was the curate
of the Bishop's own living at Shobrooke. How this
young man came to be ransomed from that " inferior
clergy" state of slavery—that was a clever affair !
The Chapter, on the death of Dean Landon, acting
under the advice of the Bishop, resisted the
Government in the exercise of /their patronage,
which for 300 years they had enjoyed. Those
honest gentlemen claimed by virtue of the Popish statutes,
the right to administer the patronage themselves. By
these statutes they were required to live in common—to
preserve themselves chaste, and to keep their vows of
celibacy. They permitted a Protestant Government to
absolve them from those galling regulations, and as
jolly priests who had passed many years in the solace of
holy wedlock, they must have laughed at the folly of
their predecessors, who had in their monkish nonsense,
foregone the substantial blessings of matrimony. But
notwithstanding that they have been well content to
receive and enjoy the immunity from monkish slavery.
which Protestant institutions gave them, they still fell
back on the popish statutes, in resistance of the Queen's
" authority spiritual" over all orders, civil and ecclesiasti-
cal, and refused to take the nominee of the Crown for their
Dean. The old gentleman, who then as now enacted the
part of Bishop of the diocese, patted them on the back,
pre them council to prolong the litigation ; so they held
the Crown at arm's length, and succeeded in carrying
the election of their Precentor, by which Bishop Phill-
potts secured the appointment of a very good-natured
man, much given up to the promotion of the Bishop's
interests, to be their chief—and thus was Mr. Precentor
Low now elected in secret conclave to the office of Dean
of Exeter. What passed in the solemn conclaves of the
reverend body at that time will probably never be re-
vealed to the present generation; but we will just glance
at what took place out of doors. The dignitaries of the
Chapter held in rotation certain pieces of patronage ;
by virtue of their appointments, it is just as much theirs
as any private property, subject to the conditions under
which they are entitled to share their patronage. This
patronage consists of certain livings, which are none of
the worst ; and as the incumbents of these livings die
off the patronage is distributed to the dignitaries in
turn. During this contest, which was maintained with
the Bishop's approbation and by his help, the living of
Thorverton became vacant. It fell to the " ball" of
the Reverend Chancellor Martin —(e Ball " is
the technical phrase used by members of the
Chapter). By the conditions annexed to the
patronage, the patron dignitary is compelled to
nominate his proteg6 within the space of six months.
The Worshipful Chancellor Martin received his piece of
patronage, and proceeded in due course to nominate his
friend. The Bishop reminded him that the body was
not yet complete, and therefore no nomination could be
exercised till the Dean was appointed. The litigation
proceeded—six months are soon passed over in law pro-
ceedings, much sooner than the suit is settled ; and
when the Reverend Chancellor next proceeded to nomi-
nate, he was told that the living had lapsed to the
Bishop by law. The Bishop by this chance came into
the possession of the living of Thorverton, and all the
world thought the reverend dignitaries had been " jolly
green" to have played his game, which ran the Bishop's
chance against their patronage, without taking secu-
rity from him that he would not avail himself of any
windfall which lapse of time might place in his way.
For, be it observed, they made the lapse in fighting off
the Government appointment, in which the Bishop was
as much (if not more) interested as they were. They
ought certainly to have stipulated with the Bishop that he
should not take advantage of any lapse which might
arise, through the want of a Dean, which want they
had incurred in the pursuit of an interest common to
both of them. But how did the Bishop act, having thus
got the living through negligence of the "jolly green"
Chapter? Why, he gave it to the Rev. Dr. Coleridge,
of Lawhitton. Dr. Coleridge vacated Lawhitton, which
by the vacation f« 11 into the hands of the Bishop, who
Do Bouilli, and the Bishop's
gave it to his son-in-law,
living at Shobrooke was thus unencumbered of the pre-
sence of the son-in-law—for we may suppose that
though the son-in-law had only a curacy there, yet as
curate to his father-in-law, the Bishop, he got more for
it than the old gentleman would give to an ordinary
curate, But it must be observed here that the old gen-
tleman did not take advantage of Chancellor Martin's
lapse, as he might have (lone, by giving the living to his
own son-in-law. No—in order that he might be above
suspicion, he gave it to that most exemplary divine and
tolerably sound Tractarian, the Rev. Dr. Coleridge.
Nothing can be clearer than that it was not till he got the
lsaecwo,nadndliveixnagltoefdlOwhitten that he thought of his son-in-
lanl;vl',Viiho can blame him for possessing
natural affection ?
baptismal regeneration but this time, where was
te
80 fast. A man's mission is Softly,tw goodfld reader,
as not
him-
self and his natural affections ° to the outer
world of mankind at large. lie; who neglects as
his own
family is worse than a heathen, and the'Bishop_deid not
commit this unheathenish sinn, of neglect. w. pass
over " one" nephew, then at Pinhoe, Jrawkina by
name, and who is now settled in some other part of
England, but whether by some secret swop, or by virtue
of his own merits, we will not say, though we will as'
• shtam.e thew olartter., and therefore say nothing more about
meritoriom will we enlarge upon the case of that
Young man, who, albeit he is nephew
Y.'. T 1
nßishop, is now enjoying a comfortable living
tut 'wl4:
reighbourhood of Falmouth. Well, next we
_son
.John, appointed Bishop's chaplain and
h=oz..bitokeinteignhead. There was a swop here,
h,T;72_4.cutgtht, but that was a mistake. Dr. Col-
tute7,7_l,l 't for Farringdon, in order to get nearer
the char he had passed some pleasant days in
Grinnn, A? of instructor of the youth in the Free
But been eh °l, as many of them probably recollect.
his Right Rev, sonc John ' was comfortably located, near
pleasant father his guide and comforter, whose
Stokeinteigribud LiNkrhopstoe is within easy access of
elevation of young Mr shall pass over in silence the
some living of Kingst-eiWoolcombe to the very hand-
existed here on the sudden elevation
48 a
since evation of this young man,
popular delusion
which delusion has been
marriage; and we shall not dwaeoanaryadoef
ell the transfer of " our
manifest by his
son " to the Archde
position to the Bishop's hasty Cornwall, in op-
before the vacancy occurred, at the
anci
unripe conclusion,
for one man's talents. This William
post was too great
sion of the good living of St. G is
also
in
posses-
round sum, as the clergy of CsrniwuviallaB know.w worth han
Thereannaurael
some minor affairs of a family nature, which it is not
worth while to go into but eve have given these details
because the Bishop, h; lately doctrines with great awllhenaof, pushed Tractarian
andt having backed up
8.11 those ministers
,1,3 m
the
ee
introduction themselves
obnoxious to their parishiobneeirnasvge
of obsolete customs, and
worthy task of endeavouring to extrudwe as schismatical,
in the
those ministers who will not preach the doctrine of the
baptismal regeneration, it appears to us that this doe-
irine, by the Bishop's own showing, is of very secondary
importance, and certainly net of importance enough to
warrant him in thrusting out from the ministry any
man who by his self-denying character, his practical be-
nevolence and his piety, has rendered himself acceptable
to a wilted parish. For it is manifest, on tho face of