24.2 
_ CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
The Bishop of Llandaff (Dr. Watson) 
proposes an equalization of bishoprics, 
and large church livings or vacancies, 
as agreat benefit to the establishment, 
in his letier tothe Archbishop of Can- 
terbury. This would tend, he thinks, 
1. By preventing translations, to ren- 
der the prelacy more independent in 
the House of Lords; to render their 
residence in their respective dioceses 
more constant, and their habitations 
more comfortable: while the whole 
body of the clergy would be then more 
suitably provided for, in sixty or se- 
venty years, than by waiting for the 
slow operation of Queen’ Anne’s 
Bounty, which will not operate in Icss 
than 2 or 300: (100,000/. per annum has 
siace been granted in aid of this 
bounty.) 
The church has been gradually 
increasing since the reign of Henry 
VIil. Bishop Kennet quotes a peti- 
tion to Queen Elizabeth, sanctioned by 
Archbishop Whitgift, in the forty-third 
of her reign, stating, “that of eight 
thousand eight hundred and odd bene- 
fiecs, there are not six hundred sufli- 
cient for learned men.” — 
Dr. Warner, in the, Appendix to his 
“ Ecclesiastical History,” published in 
, 1757, observes as follows :—‘‘ Of the 
nine thousand and some hundred 
churches and chapels which we have 
in England and Wales, 6000—I speak 
from the last authority—are not above 
the value of 40/. a-year.” 
Dr. Bum, in his ‘ Ecclesiastical 
Law, observes, “that the number of 
small livings capable of angmeiitation 
has been certified as follows :—-1071 
small livings not exceeding 101. a-year; 
1467 livings above 10. aud not ex- 
ceeding 20/. a-year ; 1126 livings above 
201. and not exceeding 350/. a-year; 
1049 livings above 30/. and not exceed- 
ing 40/. a-year ; 884 livings above 40/. 
and not exceeding 50/ a-year: so that 
in the whole there are 5597 livings 
certified under 50/. a-year.” 
Dr. Watson, late Bishop of Llan- 
daff, proposes,—1. Nearly to equalise 
the bishoprics, as vacancies occur, 
both in respect to revenue and patro- 
nage; 2..To preclude translations; 
3. To render the prelacy more inde- 
pendent in the House of Lords; and. 
4thly. That they might be enabled to 
Keep their residencés in good order, 
by dwelling for tife in one piace. 
He also wishes to appropriate, as 
they become vacant, one-third of the 
Stephensiana, No. ¥XH. ; 
[ Oct. 1,. 
income of every deanery, prebend, or 
canonry, of the churches of Westmin- 
ster, Windsor, Christ Church, Canter- 
bury, &c., for the same purpose, mu- 
tatis mutadis, as the first fruits and 
births were appropriated by the fifth 
of Queen Anne. Dr. W. maintains, 
that the whole revenue of the church 
of England, including dignities and 
benefices of all kinds, and even the 
two universities, did not amount, 
when he wrote, upon the mast fiberal 
calculation, to 1,500,000/. a-year. 
“The whole provision for the church 
is as low as it can be (adds ~he), unless 
the state will be contented with a beg- 
garly and illiterate clergy, too mean 
and contemptible to do any good, 
either by precept or example, unless 
it will condescend to have tailors and 
cobbiers its pastors and teachers.” He 
is adverse to pluralities, commendams, 
&c. and praises the dissenting clergy. 
SQLICITING JUDGES. 
“Lindsey (says Clarendon,) was 
so solicitous in person with all the 
judges, (in the ship-money cause,) 
both privately at their chambers, and 
publicly in the court at Westminster, 
that he was very generous to them.”— 
Fist. of Rep, ook ili. p. 182, octavo 
edition, 
DR. JOHNSON. 
On entering Mr. Burke’s park at 
Beaconsfield,—to which he was con- 
ducted by the author,—whom he knew 
in great penury, the ponderous lexico- 
grapher, first eyeing the owner, and 
then the house and grounds, thus 
exclaimed from the line of the first 
eclocue of the “ Bucolica” of Virgil:— 
Non equidem invideo, miror magnus, 
CREBILLON. 
When the Muses crowned his long 
and great success on the stage by 
opening their sanctuary to him, the 
Parisian public, who had long desired 
to see him a member of the Academy, 
“harmed to hear the father of “Electra” 
and . ‘‘ Rhadamistus” speak the lan- 
guage in it that was worthy of him,* 
evidenced their approbation, ,by the 
flaitering applauses they are accus- 
tomed to give at the playhouse. Itis 
remembered how sensibly they were 
affected to hear him say, ‘I never 
dipped my pen in gall,’—a thought 
that does as much honour to his heart 
as to his understanding. How happy 
is 
* M. Crebillon returned. his thanks tu 
verse, ‘ 
\ 
