THE INCREASE OF THE EPISCOPATE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Your article, which you describe as " communicated," upon the increase of the Episcopate will, I think, excite a widely spread interest. For it is necessary to consider such a question as the increase of the Episcopate not only in itself, but in relation to the actual circumstances of the Church at the present time. There is much to be said, on the score alike of ecclesiastical history and of practical utility, for the theory that a Bishop should be a real father in God to all the Church- men and Churchwomen within Isis diocese. But that theory postulates a number of comparatively small dioceses. The diffi- culty, however, of raising sufficient funds as well as'of finding well-equipped clergymen for a greatly augmented Episcopate must be confessed to be now almost insuperable. It seems to follow that any large scheme for the multiplication of Episcopal Sees would and must fail at a time when the relief of clerical poverty is a first claim, far above all others, upon the financial resources of the Church. It is, I am afraid, true that in some parts of the country, especially in the North, where the per- sonal touch counts for much more than rank or office, and where a great majority of the people cannot be reached except in the evenings, the successful administration of a huge over- grown diocese is a practical impossibility. But a good mony of the new Sees now contemplated would be luxuries; and the Church simply cannot afford them. Neither bishoprics nor parishes ought to be unreasonably multiplied to-day. The due spiritual provision for a town, or a great part of a town, can sometimes, if not often, be most effectively made by a central church with a large staff of curates attached to it; and for a diocese by a Bishop having leisure to consider and determine the most weighty problems of diocesan life, and—may I not add?—to spend an adequate time in the preparation of his sermons, while a great deal of the routine, which is an in- evitable part of episcopal duty, will be devolved upon the Suffragan Bishop or Bishops who may assist him.—I am, Sir,
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