The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-08 00:00:00

TIE ECCLESIASTICAL APPOINTMENTS

The new ecclesiastical appointments have been
.renounced. The Dean of Cork is to be Bishop
of Peterborough ; Professor Mansel is to be Dean
of St. Paul's ; the deanery of Cork has yet to be filled up,
though Dr. Alfred Lee is not unlikely to get it. The
first-named appointment will excite a good deal of com-
ment. The nomination of an Irish dignitary to an English
tee is a very rare event ; we do not, indeed, remember
any recent instance. If any objection is made on this
ground, the Irish will certainly retort that Irish deans
have as much right to an English bishopric as English
deans to an Irish archbishopric ; and that if it was fair to
appoint Dr. Trench, the Dean of Westminster, to Dublin,
it must be right to appoint Dr. Magee, the Dean of Cork,
to Peterborough. On no other ground can any objection
be taken to Dr. Magee, except, indeed, by those who
think that all the ecclesiastical appointments should be
given to one party in the Church, and by those who look
upon Church preferment as the reward of political support.
Dr. Magee is one of the most eloquent, if not quite the most
eloquent preacher of the day. Although the grandson of
an archbishop (whose work on the Atonement is still a
theological text-book), he has risen from the lowest to all
but the highest rank in the Church by his own exertions.
He began his career as curate of St. Saviour's, Bath,
on a stipend of about ESO a year. His eloquence
soon caused him to be sought out by the proprietors of the
Octagon Chapel in the same city, and there he ministered
for several years to a fashionable congregation, who en-
joyed his oratory at ease as they sat with feet before the fires
in the cosy pews with which that most unecclesiastical of
buildings is furnished. It was in this chapel that he
preached a sermon in reply to Mr. Kinglake's remarkable
discourse on "Christian Socialism." From Bath he went to
the Quebec Chapel, London, on the appointment of Dr.
Alford to the deanery of Canterbury. Dr. Magee did not
remain there, but returned to his native country, having
been , appointed to the rectory of Enniskillen.
In 1864 he was appointed by Lord Palmerston to
the deanery of Cork, a preferment of no great pecuniary
value, but one which had before led to a mitre. Recently
Dean Magee has spent much of his time in England, andhas
repeatedly preached at Whitehall, St. Paul's, and other
well-known places. He preached the British Association
sermon at Norwich, and last week preached the Church
Congress sermon at St. Patrick's, Dublin. Both were
masterpieces of eloquence, and of the second, the Bishop of
Derry (who shares the prize of eloquence with Dean
Magee) said that he never expected to hear it surpassed
this side of Heaven. Dr. Magee is a moderate Low
Churchman. It is possible that in this appointment Mr.
Disraeli intended to accentuate the union between the
two branches of the Established Church.
The new Dean of St. Paul's is one of the most learner
men in the English Church, and though of a very different
school from that to which Dean Milman belonged, having
none of his broad sympathies and general accomplish-
ments, is a man who clearly deserved preferment. Henry
Longueville Mansel was born October 6, 1820, at Cos-
grove, Northamptonshire, and is, therefore, exactly 48
years old. His father was rector of Cosgrove. The son
was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and at St.
John's College, Oxford. He took a double first in 1843,
was elected Fellow of his College, and was ordainej deacon
in 1844 and priest in 1845. He became tutor of his
college, but subsequently removed to Magdalen, where he
was appointed Reader in Moral and Metaphysical Philo-
sophy. In 1858 he was named Bampton Lecturer, and
these discourses are even now a memorable event iu the
history of Oxford. The subject of them was " The Limits
of Religious Thought," a somewhat tough subject ; yet
'such was the fame of the preacher that St. Mary's Church
was every Sunday thronged by an overflowing audience,
and the very scouts and " gyps " were seen listen-
ing to the Professor's ahstiuse remarks upon the condi-
tioned and the unconditioned, the relative and
the absolute. The fundamental idea of these
lectures was, that God had not revealed himself to
man absolutely, but only relatively, and that man's con-
ception of the Deity was not a true conception, but only
such as the Deity wished him to have. This somewhat
startling theory drew forth a very severe attack from
Professor Maurice, and a fierce pen-and-ink war was the
result. In 1859 these lectures obtained for Mr. hlansel
the Waynflete Professorship of Philosophy. He also became
chaplain to the late Bishop of Peterborough, Dr. Jeune, and
an honorary canon of Peterborough Cathedral. Recently
he was appointed Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History
on the premature death of his predecessor. The appoint-
ment was not considered a particularly suitable one, as
Mr. Mansel's line was purely philosophical and metaphy-
sical. He has written several works, among which the
best known are the Bampton Lectures above mentioned
and an edition of Sir William Hamilton's works. At the
Oxford University election of 1865 he was one of Mr.
Hardy's most strenuous supporters.
The preferment of Dean Magee and Professor Mansel
leaves two other appointments in the hands of the Pre-
mier: that to the deanery of Cork, which rumour assigns
to Dr. Lee, and that to the Professorship of Ecclesiastical
History, which it is not improbable will be conferred upon
Mr. William Bright, a first-class man, the winner of
several prizes, and the author of a " History of the
Church, from the Edict of Milan to the Council of Chalce-
don." Mr. Bright is, we believe, engaged at the present
time upon a life of St. Athanasius.

THE DERWENTWAT ER ESTATES.—There is no
change in the position of affairs at Dilston. The self-
styled Countess of Derwentwater occupies her little tent
on the side of the road leading up to the castle, and de-
clares that she will not move from there until her " claim"
is settled. On the opposite side of the same road is a tent
occupied by four men whom the authorities have in-
structed to watch the " Countess." Numbers of people,
many of them persons of considerable position in the dis-
trict, visit the place, to have a look at the claimant to the
Derwentwater estates.

IRISH LAW APPOINTMENTS.—The Freeman's
Journal, under the heading of " Clearing the Decks,"
mentions a rumour that the Attorney-General, Mr.
Warren, is to become judge of the Probate Court, in the
room of Judge Keatinge, who retires; that Mr. Harrison,
the present Solicitor-General, takes the late Judge
Berwick's place in the Bankruptcy Court ; and that Mr.
Ball, the Church Commissioner, will be Attorney-General,
and will seek Mr. Warren's scat for the University of
Dublin. No name is mentioned for the Solicitor-
GeneralshiP•

Sheridan had a great dislike of anything like
metaphysical discussions, whereas Tom, his son, had a
liking for them. Tom tried one day to discuss with his
father the doctrine of necessity. " Pray, my dear father
(said he), did you ever do anything in a state of perfect in•
difference ; without motive, I mean, of some kind or
other?" Sheridan, who perceived what was coming, and
by no means relished such subjects, from Tom or from auy
one else, replied, " Yes, certainly." " Well, then, my dear
father, tell me what it is that you can do with—mind—
total, entire, thorough indifference?" "Why listen to
you, Tom !" The rebuff so disconcerted the querist, it is
Eaid, that he never troubled his father again with any of
WELMokiglysjcs!.