Wellington and the Bishop of London upon the union of the sees of Gloucester and Bristol, with the list of the clergy by whom it is subscribed. Whatever were the words spoken by these personages on the occasion referred to, in neither case did they originate in any communication from me. As, therefore, I am not personally involved in the question, it may, perhaps, be superfluous in me to do more than return my cordial thanks for the kind and favourable expression regarding myself which this paper contains. Of the good opinion here expressed by so many of my clergy I earnestly wish that I were more worthy. I can only say that I will, with the blessing of Providence, labour to deserve such approbation by the discharge of my diocesan duties in the best way that my ability admits. Under these circumstances, since you allow me an option, I had rather decline being the channel to convey their sentiments to the Duke of Wellington and the Bishop of London. I believe that the clergy are all aware of the fact, that the union in question was far from being a measure sought or desired from me. After an Act of Parliament, passed about seven years ago (without any expression of dissent or remonstrance that I know of), had legalized that union, circumstances over which I could have no control, led to an application being made to me to undertake the care of the united diocese. At that time I apprehended greater inconvenience from the union than has actually been experienced, though I did not anticipate the affliction of impaired vision, which befel me in the following year. But when it is considered that my refusal to undertake the charge would have postponed for an indefinite time, what is, I believe, admitted to be a most beneficial measure to the Church, the erection of the see of Ripon, and that it would have subjected me to great suspicion and censure, I cannot believe that any one of my clergy would have advised or wished me to act differently. Believe me to be, with the greatest respect, Copy of a Letter from the Rev. R. W. HUNTLEY, to the My Lord, I have the honour, with the consent of the Bishop of the dioceses of Gloucester and Bristol, to beg permission to place the enclosed paper in your lordship's hands. It relates to certain words said by the Newspapers to have been used by your lordship, in the debate on Lord Powis's motion, relative to the Sees of St. Asaph and Bangor. The paper has received 129 signatures in addition to those of the requisitionists, and I am daily receiving more; while of the clergy who have by letter declined signing the document, all, with the exception, I believe, of three only, agree in considering the union of the two sees as disadvantageous. So that already, as I am informed, more than half of the clergy of the dioceses have pronounced against the measure. The clergy are fully prepared to hear that your lordship's language has been misreported; because it is notorious to the kingdom at large that the consent of the Church has never been asked, either to this, or to any of the measures of the Church Commissions, except, in a general way, in Convocation in 1841, on which occasion it was withheld. As regards the present arrangement of these dioceses, I believe I am correct when I say that the whole of that part of the Diocese of Salisbury, which the state has placed under the guidance of the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, protested against the transference. As regards the deanery adjoining myself, and lately under the Bishop of Salisbury, I have a correspondence which then passed between the Rural Dean, the Bishop of Salisbury, and the present Archbishop of Canterbury, in which the then Bishop considers the transference "an innovation without an improvement;" and the Archbishop kindly promises to lay the case before the commission, and leaves the Rural Dean in the impression that that part of the measure would be reconsidered, so that neither in the lawful way in convocation, nor in any particular manner in these dioceses, does the consent of the Church appear ever to have been obtained. I have the honour to be, My Lord, Boxwell Court, Dunkirk, Gloucestershire, Your most obedient servant, R. W. HUNTLEY. August 22, 1843. Copy of a Letter from the LORD BISHOP OF LONDON to the Tunbridge Wells, 4th September, 1843. Rev. Sir, I have to acknowledge the favour of your letter, and the paper by which it was accompanied. Upon referring to Hansard's Debates, I find that I am reported to have said, on the occasion of the Earl of Powis's motion, "The principle of the scheme now proposed in respect to these Bishoprics was one which had already been adopted in respect to other Bishoprics, with success and general approval. The Commission had recommended that the Bishoprics of Gloucester and Bristol should be united, and they were united by general consent." Not having any notes of my speech, I cannot speak positively to the precise expressions which I employed, except that I am sure I said nothing about "the consent of the Church.' If, however, I had used those words, no person hearing me would have understood me to mean anything more than that tacit acquiescence, which was to be inferred from the absence of objection at the time, it being, as you observe, notorious to the kingdom at large that the consent of the Church had never been formally asked to the measure in question. Permit me to remark, that the transfer of a Deanery from the Diocese of Salisbury to that of Gloucester, is a question quite distinct from that of the union of the Sees of Gloucester and Bristol. The Rev. R. W. HUNTLEY. I have the honour to be, Rev. Sir, Copy of a Letter from the Rev. R. W. HUNTLEY to the DUKE OF WELLINGTON. My Lord Duke,-I have the honour, with the consent of the Lord Bishop of the Dioceses of Gloucester and Bristol, to ask permission to lay the enclosed paper before your Grace. It has been lately circulated in the above-mentioned Diocese, and has already obtained 168 signatures; while of those clergy who have by letter to myself declined signing it, from various reasons, the whole, with the exception of about three, consider the present union of the two Dioceses to be disadvantageous to the Church. So that more than half of the clergy of the Dioceses have now pronounced against the measure, while I am yet receiving additional signatures. The clergy of those Dioceses can readily understand that your Grace "had never heard of any complaint," and that, therefore, your Grace would naturally infer that the union was generally satisfactory, because we feel ourselves under no common obligations to our Bishop. He is a Prelate who, in addition to an administration of his Sees marked by great kindness and judgment, in times not unembarrassing, has also, by increased personal exertions on many most important points, and in sacrifice of income to a large and unusual annual amount, claimed from us great personal gratitude to himself, and thank fulness to that Divine Power who has set him over us. These feelings have kept us silent under an arrangement which has always vexed us, lest we should appear in any, even the slightest, manner to cast a reflection on our Bishop, whom we so highly reverence and value. But we feel sure that your Grace's sense of justice will permit us to apprize you that this silence on our part does not arise from acquiescence in the union. It is our wish, as the Church feels great grief at the result of Lord Powis's motion, to avoid any course on this occasion which shall, in any way, create agitation; therefore this paper has been delayed till its present date; and I am requested to place the enclosed in the hands only of your Grace, the Lord Bishop of London, and the Earl of Powis, with such a short and general notice of it in some of the papers as may suffice to inform the clergy of these Dioceses, that their feelings have been forwarded to the parties interested. I have the honour to be, Your Grace's most obedient servant, Boxwell Court, Dunkirk, Gloucestershire, Copy of a Letter from the DUKE OF WELLINGTON to the Rev. R. W. HUNTLEY. London, August 24, 1843. F. M. the Duke of Wellington presents his compliments to Mr. Huntley. The Duke mentioned, in debate in the House of Lords, a fact of which he could himself alone have a knowledge: viz. that he had never heard of dissatisfaction with a particular arrangement. The paper transmitted by Mr. Huntley gives no contradiction to that fact as stated. He is now informed of the dissatisfaction therein stated. But, having no control over the arrangement in question, which is in truth beyond that of the signers of the paper as well as of himself, the question requires no further attention from him. The Rev. R. W. HUNTLEY. Boxwell Court, Dunkirk, Gloucestershire. REVIVAL OF CONVENTUAL INSTITUTIONS.-No. IV. (Testimonies continued.) TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER. SIR, Will you do me the favour to insert, by way of Appendix to the authorities in behalf of the modified revival of Conventual Institutions, the following account of the present state of Mary Wandesford's Charity, (see CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER, Feb. 1844, p. 260,) with which the kindness of a distinguished correspondent in the north has supplied me; and also another communication with which I have been favoured, as well as additional testimonies from writers of the day. “ April 11, 1844. "The Charity of Mary Wandesford is still prospering under the trusteeship of the Archbishop and a select number of the Chapter of York. A convenient house, without Botham Bar, is assigned for the residence of the ten single women, as described by her will, which commonly goes by the name of the Old Maids' Hospital. It seems to be a valuable institution, which might advan tageously be enlarged, as there are said to be always a number of candidates for the vacancies. They have a Chaplain, a respectable old Clergyman, who is one of the Minor Canons of the Minster; but, whether from the smallness of the endowment, 10l. per annum, being insufficient to secure the object of daily service, or from any other cause, it is said that the service is now performed only on Sundays at the hospital. The Chaplain has enough to do with his other preferments, a populous parochial cure in York, and a distant chapelry in a village a few miles off, besides the Cathedral service; so that it would be scarcely possible for him to officiate daily at the hospital. The endowment being so small is probably the reason why the trustees have found this impracticable. In other respects the Charity appears to be faithfully administered; and care is taken to secure the appointments to persons of that class who are designed by the terms of the will.' I would fain hope that the time is drawing on when, from deeper and more enlightened views of Christian charity, an increase of such foundations, both for men and women, and especially for the aged and infirm Clergy, may be looked for; and I would trust, that in the settlement of such institutions, effectual provision may be made, by suitable liberality of endowment, to secure for the inmates the services of a resident Chaplain, and the daily offices of the Church. I am, Sir, your obedient Servant, THE COLLECTOR OF AUTHORITIES, &c. 16, Lansdown Place East, Bath, May 15th, 1844. SIR,-I beg to send you an extract from the preface to the 2nd part of "The Reformed Monastery," a small 18mo, bearing the following on its title page-"The Reformed Monastery, or the Love of Jesus; a sure and short, pleasant and easie way to Heaven; in Meditations, Directions and Resolutions to love and obey Jesus unto death. In two parts. The 4th edition, revised and enlarged. London: printed for Charles Brome, at the Gun, in St. Paul's Churchyard, the west end, 1649." It is dedicated to the Rt. Rev. Father in God, John, Lord Bishop of Oxford, and is signed L. B. I have no idea myself who is the author in question, and should be glad to know. The following remarks, however, are very much to the purpose; and, perhaps you may think them worthy of being introduced into any future catena on the monastic system and institutions. I am, Sir, Your very obedient Servant, WILLIAM LONG. "Not that I would deny that places for religious retirement might afford many great advantages, in order to greater devotion and heavenly-mindedness; for I bewail their loss, and heartily wish that the piety and charity of the present age might, in a first and primitive measure, restore to this nation the useful conveniency of them. Necessary reformations might have repurged monasteries as well as the Church, without abolishing of them; and they might have been still houses of religion without having any dependence upon Rome. All men are not inclining to, nor fitted for, an active life. Some would be glad to find a place of rest and retirement for contemplation: some, who by melancholy, or by the terrors of the Lord,' are frighted from their sins, and from the civilized world, into Quakerism, into an unhappy sullenness and apostasy, would perhaps exchange their silks and laces for the coarser garments of mortified professors of a monastic life; and find among them that happiness and peace of the soul, which they vainly seek for in their wretched and deluded brotherhood. Some, who, upon great afflictions and sudden changes of fortune, fall into a state of sorrow and tedious sadness, and are left in the world to struggle with the temptations of a discontented mind, would perhaps take sanctuary in a religious house; and give themselves up wholly to Jesus; and forget their temporal sorrow by heavenly joys and meditations; and, at last, bless that storm and shipwreck which cast them into that unknown land of rest and safety. Some, that are forward, and ready to promise well, and take good resolutions, have not strength enough to keep them; but are prevailed upon by the importunity of those temptations they meet withal in the converse of men; they, perhaps, being fled from those occasions of sin, might, by the good example and good instructions of a religious society, secure themselves, and stand to their holy engagements. Some, who never loved the world, or that are grown weary of it, or have passionate longings for Heaven, would willingly free themselves of the cumbrances and distractions of worldly business, to enjoy the leisure and opportunities of meditations, devotion, and other spiritual exercises. And some, that are much taken with the strict lives, and beads, and orisons of Papist friars, would look home, and spend their commendations on the purer religion, and better ordered lives and devotions of those, in this Church, that should wholly devote themselves to God. However, 'tis not to be denied, but that men are much affected and influenced by the place, the company, the way of living, and the outward circumstances wherein they are engaged; and I believe it might be now as true a proverb as ever-Benè vixit, qui benè latuit; He lives best and most safe who is least acquainted with the world, and lives farthest from it. "I might add further, that such pious foundations or restitutions might be so ordered as to afford a very great advantage to our Church and religion. For thence, persons of good parts and great piety, devoted to the advancement of the true Christian faith, and free from those cares and cumbrances that are upon others, might be sent as missionaries, to make it their business to reclaim persons of all sorts from schism, errors, and heresies, and even from looseness and irreligion. "Not but that we have an abundant supply of persons, very well fitted for that blessed employment, from our great seminaries of learning. But their necessary attendance upon their ministry, and particular cures, besides other avocations, deprive them of the leisure and opportunities of running after their strayed sheep. They can well guide and feed such as duly keep within their folds; but such as break out and wander, they have not time to seek after. And yet great is the number of these, especially about great towns; where small encouragements and stiff opposition are a great hindrance to the gaining of converts. This excellent and charitable work could be best done by them that should have nothing else to do." "We are, perhaps, too apt to judge of these (Monastic) Institutions by their issue, and by the aspect they wore when in their decline, they were brought into contact with an increase of knowledge, and under a searching and no friendly inquisition. But it is impossible to overrate the blessed effects which, under the special guidance of God, they were the means of producing, in keeping alive and diffusing the light of Christian truth during these (the middle) ages of ignorance and social disorder. For they presented to the eyes of men the Kingdom of Christ as a visible body and form of society;-they exhibited that society held together by a spiritual rule;-men's hearts and consciences controlled by an invisible influence, and by faith in an unseen power, which enabled them to overcome themselves, live in obedience and peace, and be active in religious service. They at once asserted and embodied the existence of a spiritual authority apart from, and fur above the reach of temporal power. Within them Christians of more pious and thoughtful hearts sought a home, secure |