The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-02-15 00:00:00

DEATH OF THE ARCItBISHOP OF CANTER-

BURY]

This announcement will surprise none; but it will
grieve many. The tenor of the bulletins which have been
issued since the middle of last week were too evidently
indicative of the event which has taken place. His grace
expired a little after two o'clock on Friday morning at
Lambeth Palace, surrounded by the members of his
family, and in full and perfect consciousness of his ap-
proaching end, which was most calm and tranquil.
The public career of the venerable deceased has been a
very simple, though a very splendid one. He was the only
son of the Rev. Dr. William Howley, Vicar of Bishop's
Sutton and Ropley, in Hampshire. He was born on the
12th of February, 1766, and under his father's hand re-
ceived his father's Christian name. Early in life he
entered the old school at Winchester, where he pursued
his studies in conjunction with Mr. Addington, afterwards
Lord Sidmouth ; Mr. Burgess, late Bishop of Salisbury ;
Mr. Huntingford, late Bishop of Hereford, and other
youths, whose learning and abilities subsequently raised
them to great eminence. _ _ -

Mr. Howley, having completed his studies at Winches-
ter, proceeded in the year 1783 to New College, Oxford,
and, after remaining for two years a scholar on the
Wykeham foundation, he was elected to a fellowship.
His degree of. Bachelor of Arts he took in 1787, and that
of Master of Arts in 1791. Within three years from that
date he was chosen a Fellow of Winchester College, and
in 1804 appointed a Canon of Christ Church. In the
course of the next year he took the degrees of 8.D., and
su:mequently of D.D. In 1809, Dr. Hall was advanced
to the Deanery of Christ Church, when Dr. Howley suc-
ceeded him as Regius Professor of Divinity. The manner
in which he discharged his duties as principal tutor of
New College, the fame of his learning, the purity of his
life, and the acknowledged piety of his character, obtained
for him the cordial patronage of George 111. It will, of
course, be recollected that the Prince of Orange, now
King of Holland, was an Oxford man. It was equally
well-known that at a very early age it was proposed to
form a matrimonial alliance between that illustrious
personage and the late Princess Charlotte, so that his
Royal Highness was regarded as likely to occupy in this
country the position of Prince Consort. The care of his
education was given to Dr. Howley—a trust of no ordi-
nary importance, and which evidently augured his
advancement to the episcopal bench. It is scarcely ne-
cessary to add that he discharged this as he did every
other trust most conscientiously. That the learned Pro-
fessor of Divinity stood high in the estimation of his
royal pupil there can be no doubt ; it is well known that
the last time the King of Holland was in this country'he
paid a visit at Lambeth Palace, and took especial pains to
mark the high esteem with which, after the lapse of many
years, he continued to regard his quondam preceptor.
Dr. Howley was also tutor to the Marquess of Abercorn.
On the 4th of October, 1813, Dr. Howley was appointed
Bishop of London, and he discharged the duties of that
sacred office with ease and success. The deceased pre-
late was consecrated at Lambeth Palace, and it so hap-
pened that Queen Charlotte, the consort of George 111.,
though upwards of 70 years of age, had never witnessed
the consecration of a bishop. Her majesty, accompanied
by two of the princesses, was present at the ceremony
that placed Dr. Howley on the Episcopal Bench. In the
following year our new bishop made his primary visitation ;
and the charge which his lordship delivered on that occa-
sion was afterwards published, at the request of the learned
and reverend body to whom it had been addressed. It
was written with moderation, but with too much ability
not to produce some excitement in one or two quarters,
especially amongst that which is now a declining sect, the
Unitarians, whom he described as "loving to question
rather than learn." Mr. Belsham, the champion of the
Unitarians, accordingly attacked the diocesan of London,
and a controversy ensued, into the merits of which it is
altogether unnecessary now to examine. He assisted at
all those marriages of the Royal Family which followed
close upon the death of the Princess Charlotte, the bap-
tisms of the several issue of those unions, the funeral of
George 111., and the coronation as well as the funeral of
George IV.—a monarch into whose good opinion he had
ingratiated himself as successfully as into that of his
father.

In the year 1828, the Archbishop of Canterbury,
Charles Manners Sutton, dying, Dr. Howley was elevated
by the King, upon the recommendation of the Duke of
Wellington, then prime minister, to the vacant arch-
bishopric. His character rose with his position ; he evi-
dently felt safe and at ease in his new dignity ; for, know-
ing his countrymen, he entertained a strong conviction
that they would never allow hereditary wealth and titles,
or " any other species of proud pretension, to look down
with scorn upon an office which they look up to with
reverence, nor presume to trample on that acquired per-
sonal nobility which they intend always to be, and which
often is the fruit, not the reward ( for what can be the re-
ward ?) of learning, piety, and virtue." When the de-
ceased prelate was raised to the primacy of all England,
the Duke of Wellington stood at the head of the Govern-
ment, but no compact involving political subserviency was
" concluded between the high contracting parties." The
new archbishop entered the upper house as free a lord of
firliament as if an hereditary peerage bad descended to
him through a line of twenty generations. Within eight
months of his elevation to the chair of St. Austin, he pro-
tested against the policy of the minister from whom he
had received his appointment; and when the principle of
the great government measure of that year ( the Roman
Catholic Relief Bill of 1829) came under discussion in the
House of Lords, he moved that the bill be read a second
time that day six months. Such a step may have been
called personally and politically ungrateful, but our pri-
mate said that at his consecration he had sworn to stand
by the Church of England. His post as ecclesiastical
leader required that he should exalt his "mitred front in
courts and parliaments," indifferent to the power of minis-
ter or monarch. And he did it.

But he had other difficulties with which to contend,
and other painful duties to perform. He had baptized
the Queen ; he had solemnized her marriage : he had
placed the Crown upon her head ; he was the first eccle-
siastic in the realm ; and when it appeared to him, as well
as to other distinguished members of the Hierarchy, that
in the Palace of the Sovereign Sunday was observed in a
manner rather in accordance with the gaitey of continental
tastes, than with the quiet reserve of English and Pro-
testant habits, he did not hesitate to call her Majesty's
attention to the subject; and it has been stated more
than once during the Melbourne ministry he respectfully
tendered to the crown advice not quite in accordance with
the wishes of those who at that time surrounded our then
youthful and inexperienced sovereign.
Of his public or his private life little more remains to
be related. Before he became Bishop of London he
married Mary Frances, eldest daughter of John Belli,
Esq., of Southampton. The issue of that marriage were
two sons and three daughters. One of the archbishop's
sons was for a short time an officer in the Guards, but he
died of consumption at the age of 20. His other son
only lived to be 12 years of age. The archbishop's eldest
daughter married, in the year 1825, Sir George Beaumont,
Bart., and died in ten years after her marriage. Another
of his daughters was married to a Mr. Wright, and a
third to a Mr. Kingsmill. The latter years of the de-
ceased prelate were not much distinguished from the gene-
ral tenour of his life. The extreme quietude of his
character induced some of his acquaintance to say that
he had never been young, therefore, when he was really
overtaken by old age, his habits underwent little change.
Even within a year of his decease, he appeared in public
almost as frequently as usual, though, of course, he gra-
dually ceased to preach, and very rarely during the last
four or five years addressed the House of Lords. Had
he lived to see Saturday (the 12th of February), his Grace
would have completed the 82d year of his age.
Nearly two months since the Archbishop was attacked
with influenza in its severest form. The most acute
symptoms of the disorder, however, subsided sufficiently
to induce a belief that his Grace was convalescent. But
the epidemic left him in a condition so debilitated that at
length it was found his naturally strong constitution must
give way. On Monday last, Dr. Ferguson and Mr. Col-
lambell intimated that there existed no hopes, as the rev.
patient exhibited the greatest exhaustion. In the course
of the night he had deep slumber, and at intervals it was
thought his Grace had ceased to exist, his breathing being
scarcely perceptible. On Tuesday morning, to the sur-
prise of his physicians. he awoke apparently refreshed,
and although seemingly aware of the change which would
shortly ensue, he was cheerful and his flow of spirits were
as usual. His last moments were tranquil, and to within
a short period of his decease he was in full possession of
his faculties.

The deceased was Primate of All England and Metro-
politan ; a Governor of the Charter House, Visitor of All.
Souls. Ballo!, and_._Merton Colleges, Oxford; and of
King's College, London ; of Harrow School and Dulwich
College. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
in Nov. 1796 ; aas Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries,
and a member of the Royal Society of Literature. His
Grace was also President of many of our charitable insti-
tutions, to the funds of which he was a munificent con-
tributor. The Church has lost a devout and sincere
member in his Grace, who, since he occupied the exalted
station of Primate, had the fortune to gain the esteem
and regard of all classes. It was said of him that he had
as much piety as Bishop Porteus, and more learning.
Munificence was a resplendent feature in his character.
His gifts were princely ; but these constituted a small part
of his liberality. Probably no prelate since the Reforma-
tion has been so eminent a re-edificator--if we may coin
such a word. London House was built by him ; Lambeth
Palace was rebuilt ; and Canterbury Cathedral has scarcely
known the absence of the restorer's hand since Dr.
Howley took his seat upon its throne. In these great
works, we should say, on a very rough estimate, that more
than '200,000 must have been expended. This sort of
munificence is becoming fashionable now, but the late
archbishop began the work when no other person in the
kingdom besides himself dreamt of such doings.
The remains of the lamented deceased are to be interred
in the vault, built by the orders of his grace, at Addington
Church, and not at the Cathedral at Canterbury, as
imagined by many persons. Cardinal Pole w'is the last
Archbishop of Canterbury interred in that sacred edifice,
just three centuries back.

SECOND NORTH 'UNION BUILDING SOCIETY. —The
first sale of shares in this society takes place to-morrow
evening, at Mr. Whiteman's, Brunswick Hotel. It is
established on a principle combining all the advantages
of clubs that have been previously originated.
POST-OFFICE ORDER CASE.—Yesterday, at the Police-
court, two men, John Melville and Martin Hunt, were
charged by Sarah Narey with having obtained from her,
by a false showing, the sum of eight shillings. It ap-
peared that one of the prisoners had gone to the com-
plainant, and presented a post-office order, purporting,
(as she was led to believe) for £4 4s.,—upon which he
succeeded in borrowing eight shillings. One of the ac-
cused had, so far as could be inferred, altered the order
which was for only 4s. to £4 45., by prefacing the £4 in
writing. One of the clerks from the post-office -order
office stated that the order was genuine (having been
advised) for 4s. only ; and the act of fraud not being dis-
tinctly provable, the accused were dismissed,