1829. J Affairs in General. 435 



flock." With those perfections for chusing the future ornaments of 

 Episcopacy, we must lament that the spirit of the Cabinet did not abide 

 in the bosom of its predecessors. The following little circumstance is 

 worthy of a niche in the history of a rising church. 



A vulgar fellow in Yarmouth having thought proper to publish himself 

 an ass, and Unitarian, and thinking it also proper to make a Protestant 

 Bishop equally ridiculous, wrote such a letter as such a fellow might be 

 expected to write, if he could write at all ; and calling the Established 

 Church a worshipper of three Gods together, added to this atrocious 

 calumny the lesser but higlily offensive insult, of abusing the Liturgy. 

 Now we have in the Church a Bishop, the fervent lover of all sorts 

 of liberalitif — an ancient receiver of some five or six thousands a-year 

 from the Church, but who, notwithstanding, is a personage of a remark- 

 able euUghtened turn. To this old receiver of rents and renewals, this 

 Yarmouth cobler and controversialist bent his steps, and having depo- 

 sited his opinion on Church and State in the trust of the venerable 

 friend of Coke, Cobbett, O'ConneU, et si qiice aliunde queer anhir, 

 received from the venerable stipendiary the following answer : — 



" Sir, — Your remarks upon the ' form of solemnization of matrimony' in the 

 Liturgy of the Established Church appear to me very xatitfactory, and I would 

 gladly undertake to give my reasons for thinking so, in the House of Lords, did 

 not the infirmities of age remind me, in a manner not to be mistaken, that I 

 am near the end of my journey to that country where ' they neither marry nor 

 are given in marriage.' — I am, Sir, &c. " Henry Norwich." 



On this expressive evidence of the natural connection of sound the- 

 ology and common sense with the lawn sleeves, we leave the clergy to 

 make their own comment. " It is melancholy," says the narrator of this 

 satisfactory affair, " to see such a letter addressed by a Protestant Bishop 

 to a ' Freethinking Christian,' or find the arguments of an obscure layman 

 against the Liturgy of the Established Church, proclaimed as verij salis~ 

 factory, by one of its Fathers and pillars. The Bishop of Norwich was 

 one of the voters for popery, last session, in the House of Lords ; to which 

 place he went, in spite of the infirmities of which he speaks — it is a pity 

 he should be prevented from giving the Liturgy of the Established 

 Church a hit, in the ensuing session." 



We think it melancholy too, but perfectly natural, that men, promoted 

 like this weak brother, should act precisely as he has done. For what 

 was this man set over his diocese? Was he an able writer, an able 

 preacher, a distinguished scholar, or even a passable divine ? Let those 

 who ever heard that he was any one of the whole four tell. Is there a line 

 from his pen, or a word from his lips that any man on earth remembers, 

 or is the wiser or the better for ? Let those who know tell. What made 

 him a Bishop? — The system of patronage. Miserable system. Base and 

 odious distributors of honours and offices. The back-stairs of the Cabinet 

 are worth all the steps of the Temple. We throw no blame on tliis 

 decrepit pensioner, for he is probably as virtuous as lie knows how to be, 

 and as wise as ever he was. The criminals are of another cloth ; and 

 until we gather grapes of thorns, and figs of thistles, the meddling of 

 tliose men with the Church will be its corruption. 



When the " Chapter of Accidents" of last year comes into plain prose, 

 one of its most curious p.'iges will be our management of Portugal. We 

 first capture Don Miguel, tear him away crying from his crying grand- 

 mother's arms, and send him in the hold of a frigate to durance vile in 

 Austria. We keep liim there two years, every morning of whicli he 

 feels his head, to know whether Prince Metternich has left it on Jiis 



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