different from the conduct of the Duke himself!) regarded this positive agreement with the Bishop of Exeter only as one they ought to break through; they recommended to the King, therefore, that the commendam, which had been already granted, should be withheld, and thus commenced the Ministry of the Whigs,-refusing, for the first time on record, but with the proverbial mala fides of the party, to carry out an agreement made on the faith of a formal and official intimation of the Royal promise. Could any set of gentlemen, untainted by the principles of modern Liberalism, have acted in this manner? How was Sir Robert Peel assailed when appointing to the vacant living of St. Bride's, on the recommendation of the Bishop of London, overlooking some implied and prospective promise on the part of Lord Brougham, who was out of office, ere the appointment was possible. We might easily strengthen our case by comparing the parties concerned, but we forbear. Whig faith and Whig appointments are remarkably well understood.

The Bishop of Exeter had now attained the position for which, by his great talents, he was eminently qualified. To his own loss, but to his country's gain, did Henry Philpotts take his seat in the House of Lords in the year 1831, when, indeed, considerable moral courage was necessary to the task. The occasion of his Lordship's first speech exhibits the character of the moment. The Peerage, in the persons of the Duke of Newcastle, the Earl of Winchelsea, and the Marquis of Londonderry, had been absolutely attacked by the mob, and one of these noblemen publicly declared in his seat in the House of Lords, that he bore fire-arms about his person, and would use them if again found necessary to self-defence. The Episcopal Bench was insulted, not merely by a provincial mob, who, it was boasted, having surrounded the carriage of a Bishop, allowed him to escape because he was a liberal; not merely had the Episcopal palace at Bristol been burned, and sacked, and plundered, but acts of violence committed by the insensate vulgar were justified and stimulated by the writings of able, but wicked men; by the projects of enlightened, but bold and reckless adventurers; and, with what pain do we add, by noblemen of high rank and by gentlemen of unblemished fame, who were, it is vain to deny it, maddened for the moment, by the intoxication of popular applause and excited by the feverish influence of French example.

The grand secretary of a Metropolitan Union, since dead, sketched the plan of a republic-an Italian refugee invented weapons and published a plan for arming mobs against the soldiery-a member of the present House of Commons organized an army-a gallant officer since distinguished (we hope to his own content) by his achievements in Spain, and by especial honours (how merited!) from the Queen of England, stood up in the House of Commons, and declared himself ready to lead against that House a body of 50,000 men, who would "gently coerce" its deliberations. A noble lord, since elevated to a higher rank in the peerage, declared his determination to withhold by force his quota towards the expenses of the state, and to resist any attempt to levy it. The then Secretary of State for the Home Department was a man who has since declared his readiness to forward what he knew would prove a heavy blow and great discouragement" to the Church of Ireland; and the noble Earl at the head of the Government, solemnly addressing the Episcopal bench, advised the venerable body to set their House in order f" What but the natural effect

r

of such speeches were the fires of Bristol and Nottingham, the riots of Derby, and the general ferment of the public mind? In 1830 the address of Lord Brougham to the freeholders of Yorkshire, memorable for the solemn promise so soon broken, was surrounded with a border of tricolour; and in 1831, under the especial approval of Lord Althorp, the tricoloured flag waved over the heads of a procession advancing to petition the King! Thank God, we have a House of Lords! for, but for the unexampled firmness of that illustrious body, these fearful portents would have been terribly fulfilled, and the calm which now so happily pervades society, and from which we look back upon those scenes with surprise and doubt, must have yielded to the natural sequel of that alarming prologue.

Among the gallant minds who won this victory for the people against the people, whose confidence in the sound heart of England was not shaken by the evident signs of her disturbed brain, who dared to appeal from the people in their state of excitement to the people in their restored reason, was the Bishop of Exeter. His first address in the House was a remonstrance to Earl Grey against his language above alluded to, and a glorious refutation of the charge brought against the Bishops of having factiously opposed the Government,-a charge singularly at variance with another accusation put forth by the same party, that the Bishops were world-seeking temporal-minded men, who always truckled to power, and made themselves the servile tools of tyranny and oppression.

As a Statesman the questions on which the public have derived the greatest benefits from the Bishop of Exeter are those of the so called "National Education System" for Ireland, and the Act "to amend the laws for the support of the Poor in England and Wales." As a Peer of

Parliament, the whole range of his capacious mind has been brought to bear on the thorough understanding of these questions, and his enlightening eloquence, as it blazes on their most abstruse points in succession, conveys the clearest and most forcible views of their intent and bearing, so that to have heard the Right Rev. Prelate deliver one of those splendid speeches, which have been read with delight wherever the English language is understood, is to have attained the best instruction on these subjects. He never speaks but when called on by some important question. The Bishops having, with few exceptions, arrayed themselves against the madness of Reform as it was at first wildly and impracticably proposed, were exposed to the rancour of the Whigs in Parliament as well as to the violence of their partizans out of doors. It was in defence of his order, therefore, that the Bishop of Exeter remonstrated with Earl Grey in the first instance, as the head and front of this offending.

It was not till March, 1832, that the Bishop of Exeter' delivered a formal address, and in this his first speech he raised himself at once to the highest rank among the eloquent. The crushing power of his eloquence may be judged of by such passages as the following:-The "Act for the better regulation of Ecclesiastical Revenues, and the promotion of Religious and Moral Instruction in Ireland," he described as "a bill seizing on the revenues of the Protestant Church in Ireland, and applying them to some undefined purpose of teaching a morality without religion, and religion without a creed." This was plain English, and told with terrible force against the advocates of such a measure,

The Earl of Wicklow moved a vote of disapprobation of the Government scheme for "educating" the people of Ireland, by excluding from

their schools the fountain of all knowledge, the Holy Scriptures. "We should recollect," said the Bishop of Exeter, "that the preservation of a free access to the Scriptures, is a duty imposed upon us by the law of God:" and again, "a Protestant legislature is bound to see that neither directly nor indirectly does it make itself a party to any measures adverse to Protestant principles." We cannot find space to weave into our text the fine and impassioned conclusion to that splendid speech; but that the reader may not lose the delight of reading, or forfeit the benefit to be derived from it, we have added the passage in a note at the foot of the page." It was in opposing this measure, that the Bishop of Exeter took occasion to denounce as treachery, aggravated by perjury, such an exercise of rights-the votes of the Roman Catholic members-acquired under an oath not to do anything to weaken or disturb the Protestant religion. This distinct charge of perjury the Right Rev. Prelate brought with the solemnity of a moral impeachment, and he has since by irrefragable proof established the accusation, that the conduct of those who demanded this bill, which its best adviser declared to be a serious discouragement, a heavy blow to the Protestant religion, and a triumph to its enemies, was "treachery aggravated by perjury."

No obloquy," said the Bishop, "however it may be attempted to heap obloquy on all who thus feel, and thus proclaim their feelings,-no violence of invective from whatever quarter, and in whatever place, high or low, it may be uttered, shall deter me from giving expression to similar indignation so often as it shall be called forth by similar perfidy, exhibited in such a cause."

The accusation was first urged by the Bishop in his triennial charge in 1836, and repeated boldly in the House of Lords. A very littleminded Secretary of State threatened the Bishop with a parliamentary enquiry, but the threat, which was brought forward to cover the best and worst supporter of the Ministry, proved abortive, and was condemned even by Lord Melbeurne, when the Bishop, with the dignity of offended honour, had amply justified his charge.

*"My Lords, I have no right to speak to you of my own feelings—if I had, I would entreat, I would beseech you I would not indeed imitate the action of the most eloquent of living men-I would not indeed bend my knee in prayer to you, for I pray not to mortal man-but if reverence did not forbid me to mingle the attitude and the words of prayer in the excitement of this debate, I would humbly pray to Him, whose poor and worthless creatures we all are-aye, my Lords, the highest and the proudest, no less than the lowliest and the meekest-that He would bow the hearts of all here as the heart of one man, 'to put away the accursed thing from among you'-to disclaim all part in this most unhallowed work, even though the name and the seal of our most Gracious Sovereign be upon it. My Lords, that name and that seal affixed to such a commission-in execution of such purposes--by such instruments-fills the mind with strange musings; awakens affecting recollections; invites, perhaps, to some comparisons. But I forbear-I will not be further stirred by them, than to warn the councillors of a gracious Prince,—all whose thoughts and wishes, and intentions, are, we know, for the good and happiness of his people-to warn them ere it be too late-while thrones are tottering, crowns are falling around us-while they themselves are reminding us most properly and most wisely-I thank them for it-while they are reminding us that, even now, God's judgments are on the earth to warn them, I say, that He, by whom kings reign, may be provoked to say again what He once said to a monarch whom He had placed over His own chosen people-Because thou hast rejected the Word of the Lord, He also hath rejected thee from being king over Israel,'

On every subsequent occasion, his Lordship has spoken with great power and conviction on this very important subject. The danger that threatened the Church of Ireland from the Reform Bill, was the main ground of his opposition to that measure. How justly we have praised the independence of the Bishop may be seen from his parliamentary course in 1833-1834, when he opposed not only the Ministry, but the Duke of Wellington, against the Irish Church Temporalities Bill, and certain clauses of the Poor Law Bill. "The poorest and meanest of these unhappy persons," said the Prelate, "ought to stand in the eye of the law, as he undoubtedly does stand in the eye of God, upon an equality with the highest and proudest peer in your Lordships' house." Even so late as on the 14th of the past month, in a discussion introduced by Lord Stanhope, on the presentation of a petition from a labourer in Southampton, which petition it was proposed to reject, the Bishop of Exeter said that either House of Parliament ought to open its doors to the complaints of any class of the people, especially if any particular class were suffering from such a law as the New Poor Law; and he must protest against the notice, that a contrary practice should be observed. This is the Christian Prelate, the English orator-such are the men these times require, and, wonderful workings of Providence, such are the men these times will create. There is no calculating the ultimate effect of these noble and just sentiments.

No less eloquent, and no less English, were his speeches in opposition to the measure for degrading marriage, and the marriage service of the Church of England. With an extract from this speech, a fine specimen of the style of eloquence which distinguishes this exalted orator, we will condense our brief notes of his Lordship's career

"The feelings and principles of Englishmen (let us humbly thank God for it!) are not yet brought down so low as this degrading and corrupting law would seem to contemplate. They will spurn the boon thus thrust upon them. All honest persons, certainly all honest women, will avail themselves of the option which is yet left to them, and will adhere to the religious rite. They will refuse to become parties to the desecration of that holy ordinance on which all the sanctity of our homes and hearths, all the charities, and even the decencies of domestic life depend; -that ordinance which, alone, under God, has rescued man from the brutal state to which his appetites would otherwise reduce him; alone has given to woman her true rank and dignity in life, as the help-mate of man, the soother of his sorrows, the partner of his joys, the chastener of his earthly affections, the fellow-heir of his hopes of heaven."

The speeches of this Prelate on the Ecclesiastical Commission, and, above all, his demonstrations of Roman Catholic perfidy on the Cork petition, must be fresh in the memory of our readers; but we are to remember that this year is but the seventh of the Bishop of Exeter's parliamentary experience. Let us look back with wonder and gratitude on what he has effected, with hope and confidence, under the blessing of divine Providence, to what he may yet accomplish. Hear of him from the enemies of religion and the disaffected to the State-take the character of his power from the mouths of those who have quailed under it. In his Diocese, justice and mercy-in his Home, domestic and parental affection-end in Parliament, an eloquence of the first order, applied to the most exalted purpose. Such are the brief characteristics of the BISHOP OF EXETER.

A .B. W.

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THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND INDEPENDENT OF THE CHURCH OF ROME IN ALL AGES.

[Continued from page 191.]

WE shall here briefly examine how far the ancient British Church in Wales kept clear of the absurdities and errors of Romanism, during the time she laboured under "great and sore troubles."

Although the veneration and worship of relics formed a part of the Roman creed, as early as the fourth or fifth century, we have no evidence that the Church of Britain paid to them any kind of respect, previous to the twelfth century. From henceforward, our Welsh ancestors regarded them as sacred, and ascribed to them healing virtues; but it does not appear that they ever went so far as to offer to them divine adoration. This their practice too originated in their hatred of which was popery, as follows." After that the Romanists had usurped to themselves the Church of Llandaff, the Welsh were not so inclined to frequent it as before. On seeing this, the papal advocates determined upon conveying into it the relics of some of the British Saints, with the hope that such a proceeding would have the effect of producing in the hearts of the people feelings of stronger attachment towards the place. Accordingly, in the year 1120, the teeth of St. Elgar, and twelve years later, the relics of St. Dubricius, were translated thither from their burial place in the isle of Bardsey. So quiet and undisturbed had the remains of these Saints hitherto reposed there, that few only recollected the exact spot of their interment, for to ascertain it, recourse was had to the reports of old people, and search was made into old documents. So common and worthless also were their relics esteemed by the natives, that Griffith ap Cynan, King of Gwynedd, and David, Bishop of Bangor, gave the papists permission to take them away. This circumstance had the desired effect, and drove the Welsh to adopt a similar plan to counteract it. Jealous for the honour of their own metropolitical see, and anxious to keep the people in their own communion, they set up their own St. David in opposition to the adopted Saints of the Roman Catholics, and attributed to him miraculous powers. This naturally generated in the minds of the people sentiments of peculiar veneration for every thing connected with St. David and their other most eminent Saints."

*

The foregoing statement of the origin of the custom, is corroberated by a passage in the poem of Gwynfardd Brycheiniog, which he composed in honour of St. David, about the end of the twelfth century. The author having warned his readers to adhere to St. David, on the other hand cautions them to

"Flee from the golden-headed crozier,

As if from intense fire."

This "golden-headed crozier," no doubt, belonged to the Roman Church, and was placed in the Church of Llandaff, either as a badge of its union with Rome, or with a view to gain the respect and admiration of the populace. The original object of the Welsh ecclesiastics in their adoption of relics, cannot here be mistaken.

The Church of Rome anathematizes whoever believes not that traditions are of equal authority with the holy Scriptures, and so contain *Collect, Cambr. App. p 338. † Ibid, p. 342. Myf. Arch. vol. i, p. 272.