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ART. VI.-Memoir of Edward Copleston, D.D., Bishop of Llandaff. With Selections from his Diary and Correspondence, &c. By W. T. COPLESTON, M.A. Parker. 1851.

A BISHOP in these last days, for the efficient discharge of his duties, ought to combine, in well-balanced proportions, the best characteristics of the Christian, the scholar, and the theologian. As a man, his natural disposition should be kindly without degenerating into weakness-charity and piety being united with vigorous common sense. As a scholar, he should be learned, without pedantry or ostentation. And these qualities, which well become the layman, and may earn for such an one distinction and fame, should be subordinated in the bishop to his higher calling, and will render him efficient and useful only according as they are kept as ancillary to his sacred duties. But when thus regarded, as subservient to his place in the Church, will render him the most efficient bishop who is the most largely endowed with these fundamental qualities—that is, where sound divinity rests upon sound scholarship, and both are based upon vigorous common sense and natural kindliness of disposition, or accompanied by general benevolence and courtesy.

Among the providential circumstances which tend towards the formation of a good natural disposition we reckon the coming of a good stock to be not among the least for not to insist on the fact as universal that moral qualities are hereditary, though there are instances enough to show that it is very generally the case; and not to lessen in the least degree the personal responsibility which rests upon each man to form his own character by watching against all that is evil and cherishing all that is good; there is, notwithstanding, sufficient evidence of the palpable collateral advantages of a good and pious parentage to serve our present purpose: bearing in mind that St. Paul, in writing to Timothy, thought it not beneath the dignity of the sacred subjects he was discussing to call to remembrance, not only the unfeigned faith of him whom he called his dearly beloved son, but that which dwelt also in his grandmother Lois and in his mother Eunice. (2 Tim. i. 5).

The example set by pious parents tells on the children from their earliest years, and good principles are thus implanted before the work of education properly begins; and these principles shape the character in the rough, and continue to have their influence during the whole course of after

life, so that the child becomes parent of the man. And such an one will feel honest pride in remembering whence he springs, and will do nothing which may seem inconsistent with the name he bears or tarnish the fair fame of his ancestors, or raise a blush on the cheek of any who come of the same stock or who are called by the same name.

In all these points the subject of this "Memoir" was well furnished. The Coplestons of Copleston are among the most respectable of the Devonshire families. His parents were exemplary in honour, affection, and piety, and both lived to a venerable age. The Provost of Oriel was unanimously chosen by his college to that highest office, and his reputation for learning was such that the choice may be regarded as sanctioned by the general acclamation of the University of Oxford. And his appointment to the bishopric was on the ground of merit alone-not of favour or interest-the propriety of which appeared in so efficient a discharge of the duties of oversight as to produce a very marked improvement in the diocese. His patronage was bestowed, not upon relations, but upon the fittest men that were to be found; pecuniary aid to the utmost of his ability was ready for every public occasion; and the generous sympathy shown towards the necessitous, the private and delicate way in which it was manifested, and the kind and courteous demeanour manifested on all occasions both public and private, won the hearts of all with whom he came in contact, and tended to silence the clamour against the Church which is too often raised inconsiderately, if not maliciously, in manufacturing districts, where the population outruns the means which the Church has at her disposal for caring as efficiently as she ought for the education of the young, and the religious training of all classes, old and young, rich and poor, alike.

An anecdote, characteristic of the man, is related by Mr. Hughes, an old Orielite. They were engaged in conversation when a note was brought in. Copleston having opened and read it, tossed it indignantly to Mr. Hughes, pointing to the address:

"Now, look there-as if that man who ought to know better, and has called here half-a-dozen times, could not recollect that my name is Cop-les-ton, as you may see it over my door, and that I was baptised Edward, which he must know also, or might have found out. "H. He indulges you, I see, sir, with two superfluous letters. "C.-Yes: the Rev. Mr. Copplestone! Now, I cannot recommend a better habit to a young man, like yourself, entering the world in good society, than to ascertain the exact prefix, spelling, and pro

nunciation, of every man's name with whom you have intercoursesuch, I mean, as he and his family choose habitually to adopt. Depend upon it, that people in general infer a sort of oxyw pia (paucity) from such lapses; as if you took so little interest in their identity as to forget the minor characteristics of it" (35).

And there is even more in it than this-it not only shows want of attention, it denotes inaccuracy; and a man who is inaccurate in one way will be suspected of inaccuracy in everything--nay, will become so, if he do not correct the propensity and prevent it from growing into a habit. The whole business of education may, in fact, be regarded as forming good habits and eradicating those that are bad. It is the formation of a character which shall prepare the man for availing himself of all the opportunities which may be presented in the course of life, so as adequately to discharge all his duties towards God and man. The mind may be regarded as the instrument by which this end of our being is to be accomplished, and the first thing is putting the instrument in order that it may perform its operations with regularity and precision; and, when this is accomplished, we may safely try its strength, and shall increase that strength by vigorous and judicious exertions:

“The more I think on it, the more I am convinced that to exercise the mind of the student is the business of education rather than to pour in knowledge. Hence, things made easy appear to me to defeat the end of education-especially if a living instructor is at hand to explain away the little difficulties which the student's efforts are unable to conquer. It is also the business of education to make young men read over and over the same things, multum, non multa” (38). To the same effect we must also cite the following judicious remarks of Lord Grenville :

"If my wishes do not deceive me, your perspicuous statement of the course and direction of the studies pursued at Oxford is likely to be of permanent and extensive benefit in the elucidation of a subject very generally misapprehended. The Edinburgh reviewers would think me quite hardened in the prejudices of my youth if they heard me avow that even you have allowed more weight than is, in my judgment, due to the popular objections against cultivating with increasing assiduity the habit of composition, and particularly in Latin verse. Language, as is now well understood, is the best instrument, not of reasoning only, but of thought. The strength and health, therefore, of the mind must, as you have well illustrated it by the case of bodily exercises, be best promoted by that practice which gives most facility, grace, and precision, in the use of that instrument; nor would it be difficult to show, either by the same analogies of bodily exercise or by close and philosophical reasoning, that such faculties

are more readily and more certainly improved by composition in verse than in prose, and in a dead language delivered down to us in models of classic excellence rather than in that which is of daily and familiar use......And, instead of regretting the prevalence, I lament the comparative disuse of those very things which these critics consider as most evidently superfluous" (40).

This was written at the time when Professor Copleston had replied to an attack made in the Edinburgh Review on the system of education pursued at Oxford. It was probably one of the most unfortunate of the many attempts of that journal to be smart against venerable institutions, which others esteem "time-honoured," but which it has been pleased to regard as sunk into decrepitude or quite worn out. An Oxford edition of "Strabo" was made the ground of the attack, and the ignorance evinced in their remarks supplied a complete antidote to the censure cast upon Oxford for its attention to classical studies. A single instance of this ignorance will suffice. The editor of "Strabo" had remarked, of the tropical summer, that, when the heat was greater than usual, the rainy season set in sooner than usual. "Quo major est ardor solis, eo citius fieri pluvias." The reviewer fancied that he meant to say it would rain the faster; and was exceedingly facetious on the vulgarity of the idea-all which recoiled upon himself when such a blunder was pointed out in such an Aristarchus -a blunder which not one who had taken a degree in the much calumniated university would ever perpetrate.

These things not only served to convince the public that Latin might be, after all, of more use to young men in the course of education than these critics would allow, but it forced the reviewers to bestir themselves in an unusual manner to repair their damaged credit. Three of their ablest hands accordingly combined their efforts in one article against Mr. Copleston, and they employed a Cambridge man to write an article in Latin-a most extraordinary way of showing that too much attention was bestowed on the dead languages in modern education!

Soon after this the agitation for "Catholic Emancipation," as it was called, began; and Mr. Copleston favoured their claims, and opposed a petition against the Catholics proposed in Convocation, November, 1812. This, we believe, is the only point on which we entertain an opposite opinion; and think that both at Oxford at this early period, and in the House of Lords in 1829, the Bishop of Llandaff was in error. And it is instructive to trace that error to its source and point out wherein its fallacy lies. The fallacy consisted in supposing

that "emancipation" was merely a political question, and that it had nothing to do with Roman Catholicism as a religion; so that the political and the religious parts of the question might be kept quite distinct; and, in the former sense, Romanism might be received into communion while rejected in the latter sense-thus regarding it as a question of mere expediency, not of religious obligation.

The Dissenters who disclaim all connection with the State, and such of the Liberals as make no profession of religion, or such as are avowed Infidels, may not be able to perceive how inseparable are the religious and political parts of the question in the Roman Catholic mind. But we are surprised that such a man as Copleston did not perceive it; for supremacy, in every sense of the word, is an integral part of the Roman system, as plainly legible in the history of the Papal dealings with States and Sovereigns as in acts of councils or decretals. And it was the conviction that such is the case which led our ancestors to make religion the sole ground for excluding the Stuarts and for prohibiting any one professing the Roman Catholic faith from becoming King of England. The bull in Coena Domini, and the other documents of the same class, are all so many proofs of the utter incompatibility of the Roman faith with liberty of conscience or religious toleration; and serve to demonstrate that, in proportion as Rome obtains political power, it will always be employed to give that Church the ascendancy, and to put down every form of religion or government which opposes her entire supremacy.

As Dean of Chester, in 1826, the bishop had preached against the Roman Catholic errors in doctrine; and when his vote was given in the House of Lords, in 1829, in favour of emancipation, this was imputed to inconsistency. His justification was undertaken by the Rev. J. M. Traherne, and a letter of thanks from the bishop contains in a few words the grounds or principles on which he acted:

"If there had been a single sentiment or position in my sermon, or its notes, at variance with my parliamentary conduct, I should deservedly sink in the estimation of my friends as well as of indifferent people. But, unless a man who held the opinions contained in that publication of 1826 had supported the present measure, it must have been an inconsistency as great as any which has been imputed to me for defending it. Having always placed the question upon the issue of expediency, and having denied that it was one of religious belief or religious obligation, surely the case laid before Parliament by the King's Government ought to determine it that way.