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 a
uew feature to the former case—by the light which the
new debate throws upon the grounds of his displeasure
with Mr. Shore. The Bishop has been the instrument
for closing the chapel at Plymouth, in which, up to a
few weeks since, a minister of the Established Church
was wont to discharge the important functions of his sa-
cred calling. Uis 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 there were
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 he
prepared to repair the defect, to make some amends
for his extraordinary oversight and delay. We
thought it extremely strange, to use the mildest term, to
see the Bishop only then making the discovery of all
this spiritual destitution. Ile 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 held the living of Bridestowe,
which it was thought he would have to vacate into the
hands of the Bishop, supposing that the t ishop should
nominate hien to the office of Precentor. Whatever was
thought, (and something was said about it), no arrange.
went 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, ho 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 rejoicing 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 uhprovided 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 comnieu—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
holly priests who had passed many years in the solace of
oly 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,
gave 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 IA 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
tarn. 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 proteg‘ within the space of six ninths.
The Worshipful Chancellor Martin received his piece of
patronage, and proceeded in due course to nominate his
irierld- 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.
Fur, he 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 the 3,
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 cave it to the Rev. Dr. Coleridge,
of Lawhitton. Dr. Coleridge vacated Lawhitton, which
by the vacation fell into the hands of the Bishop, who
gave it to his son-in-law, De Bouilli, and the Bishop's
living at Shobrooke was thus unencumbered of the pre-
senoa 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 done, 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
second living of Lawhitton that be thought of his son-in-
law, and exalted him. Who can blame him for
natural affection ? Well, but all this time, possessingwhere
baptismal regeneration ? Softly, good reader, not was
.te
So fast. A man's mission is two-fold—first, as to him-
self and his natural affections ; next, as to the outer
world of mankind at large. He who neglects his own
family is worse than a heathen, and the Bishop did not
commit this unheathenish sin of neglect. We pass
over " our" nephew, then at Pinhoe, Hawkins 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-
sume she latter, and therefore say nothing more about
him. Nor will we enlarge upon the case of that
meritorions young man, who, albeit he is nephew
of the Bishop, is now enjoying a comfortable living
in the neighourhood of Falmouth. Well, next we
have our son John, appointed Bishop's chaplain
and
e
rector of StokeinWignhead. There was a swop here,
it was thought, but that was a mistake. Dr.Col-
lyns vacated it for Fassingdon, in order to getnearer
Exeter, where he had
cussed some pleasant days in
the character of instructor of the youth in theFreen
Grammar School, as many of them probably recollect.
But here " our sun John " was cotefortably located, near
his Right Rev. father, his guide and comforter, whose
pleasant palace of Bishopstoe is within easy access of
Btokeinteignhead. We shall pass over in silence the
elevation of young Mr. Woolcombe to the very hand-
some living of Yingsteignton, as a popular delusion
existed here on the sudden elevation of this young man,
which delusion has been since made manifest by his
marriage; and we shall not dwell on the transfer of " our
son William " to the Archdeaconry of Cornwall, in op-
position to the Bishop's hasty and unripe conclusion,
before the vacancy occurred, the'. the post was too great
for one man's talents. This William is also in posses-
sion of the good living of St. Gluvias, worth an annual
round sum, as the clergy of Cornwall know. There are
some minor affairs of a family nature, which it is not
worth while to go into ; but we have given these details
because the Bishop, having lately pushed Tractarian
doctrines with great zeal, and having backed up
all those ministers who have made themselves
obnoxious to their parishioners by the introduction
of obsolete customs, and being now engaged in the
worthy task of endeavouring to extrude as schismatical,
those ministers who will not preach the doctrine of the
baptismal regeneration, it appears to us that this doc-
trine, 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-
has rendered himself acceptable
ne—volenco and his piety,
so g• waikd parish, For it jis manifest, on the face of