BISHOPS IN LONDON. [To rns Eorron or THE " ElpserATos."1
Sta,—Your article on Mr. Willis's motion is too forcible and thoughtful to need the aid of fiction for its support. Bishops who "live half the year in London" are, in the present day, imaginary persons. Leaving out the Bishop of London, and a few others who have homes or duties there, I do not know any Bishops who live a quarter of the year in town. Many of them do not live there at all. Some of them could not count more than half-a-dozen Parliamentary attendances in the Session. Indeed, they have been urged by those who are anxious about the general welfare of the Church to appear in London more frequently than, of late years, has been their wont. After " disestablishment" (which, of course, is the meaning of Mr. Willis's motion), they would probably be obliged, by the pressure of general ecclesiastical requirements, to go to London more often than they are in the habit of going now.
Perhaps you are not quite consistent with yourself in the remark on which I have ventured to comment. For you com- plain in a previous paragraph that certain Bishops are so" con- spicuous by their absence" as not to discharge the duties of their Peerage properly. I need not quote the fable of .sop which naturally occurs to me, as I compare the two ways of finding fault. My only purpose, however, in writing to you was to ask for accuracy in a matter of fact. Bishops have sat in the House of Lords for a good many centuries, and it may possibly be time for them—not to say the House itself—to dis- appear. We are tired of most persons and things which have gone on a long time, and get rid of them, if we can. Meanwhile, let the truth, especially in your generally truthful columns, be spoken. It is premature in this case to exemplify the adage,
Les absent( oft toujours tort.—I am, Sir, &c., OXONIENSIS.
[Does not frank inconsistency like ours explain itself, except when a reader is very anxious to find fault ? Of course, Bishops who never vote can hardly complain of being refused the right to sit in the House of Lords. And, of course, so far as they are unable to vote or speak, so far they are unfitted for their legislative duties. But should not a Bishop who really fulfilled his duties as a Peer, live nearly six months in London P —En. Spectator.]
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