I

MY LORD,

Would not thus have addrefs'd your Lordship in public, but that in thefe our Days the Prefs is the only Method by which I could gain Admisfion to you, or have the Opportunity, to use our old College Phrafe, of a little CONFAB: Bishops and Curates are, I believe, at present seldom seen together, except in the Prayer for the Clergy. Fortune, my Lord, who brought us fo close together at the University, where, you may remember, we were Chums, has at Length

Sævo læta negotio,

as the old Bard fings, in one of her strange Freaks, thrown us from the most intimate Connection into Stations of Life at the utmost Distance from each other, by making your Lordship a Bishop, and me an-Affiftant-Curate. I think, my Lord, I have

fomewhere

fomewhere read, that in the Roman Triumphs a Perfon was always appointed to attend the Conqueror, and as he paffed along to repeat to him

Thou art a Man, The following Pages may be confidered as a falutary Hint of the fame Nature, and were only meant to lay on your Lordfhip's Table, and as you flip on your Lawn, to whisper to you--- Thou art a Clergyman.'

Though I do not (to use the Phrase of a certain Right Reverend) bask in the Sunshine of the Gospel, you will perceive, notwithstanding, in the Course of this Letter, I am not fo much hurt by Difappointments, but that I can laugh at a proper Opportunity; at prefent, however, I am perfectly serious, and do from my Heart think and declare, that the leaft grateful Acknowledgement which our dignified Clergy can make, for the Honours and Rewards conferred on them, is to affift their diftreffed Brethren; to make use of their beft Endeavours to fupport the Dignity of the minifterial Office; and to gain them fome Deference and Respect, if they can, or will, procure them nothing else: and yet this, my Lord, I will not fay wherefore, or by whom, is of late Years, most shamefully neglected.

Your Lordship, I am convinced by Experience, is not without Humanity; I have known fome Bihops, (formerly I mean) who had not a Grain of it in their whole Compofition; but that is not your Cafe; I have therefore taken the Liberty to appeal to you, in Behalf of the inferior Clergy of these Kingdoms, who, I believe, are the moft diftreffed, deferted, and defpifed Body of Men, at prefent, on the Face of the Earth: into the Causes of this, I propofe cooly and candidly to examine, and to confult with your Lordship concerning the moft probable Method of removing them. R

VOL. II.

I have

I have a thousand Things to fay to your Lordfhip, on this copious Head, which I fhall reserve for fome future Occafion, and for the Sake of Method, confine myself at present (though I hate Confinement of every Kind) to a particular Branch of our fcanty Revenue, commonly known by the Name of LECTURESHIPS.

Your Lordship being much better acquainted with ecclefiaftical Hiftory than myfelf, could probably acquaint me with the Origin and Rife of thefe PAUPERTATIS SUBSIDIA: as I am not, however, very ambitious of tracing the Source of this muddy Spring, I fhall defer the Search to another Opportunity, and content myself with obferving (a Truth which I am every Day more and more convinced of) that the Establishment of Lectureships, in and about London, has been extremely prejudicial to the inferior Clergy of this Kingdom, and contributed, in a great Meafure, to bring upon the whole Body that Poverty and Contempt into which they are now fallen; that the Methods by which they are obtained are highly unbecoming our Character, and the Means made Ufe of to fupport them inadequate to the Duty performed; that they are acquired, in short, with Difficulty, loft with Eafe, and very few of them worth the keeping: which I will endeavour to prove to your Lordship in as few Words as pof

fible.

It may not, perhaps, be improper, when I talk of SERMONISERS, to follow the ufual SERMON Method, and divide my Subject into three or four general Heads; and though I would not, as Lord Shaftsbury fays, Bring my Two's and Three's be• fore a fashionable Congregation,' yet, as I am talking only to your Lordship, and what paffes may never go much further than ourselves, I may as well adopt the TEXTUAL Manner; (there, my Lord, is a new Word for Johnson's Dictionary).

I fhall

I fhall proceed therefore,

FIRST,

To confider how LECTURESHIPS are can vaffed for.

SECONDLY,

What is expected from them, And

THIRDLY and LASTLY,

How they are paid, and what Emoluments ufually arise to the Poffeffors of them.

First therefore, my Lord, with Regard to the canvaffing for Lectureships, as ufually practifed amongst us, I will venture to affert, it is an Employment utterly inconfiftent with the Character, and unbecoming the Dignity of a Clergyman, an Office greatly beneath the Attention of Genius and Learning, and highly unfuitable to all the Notions of Life imbibed in the Courfe of a genteel and liberal Education.

The Choice of a LECTURER in this Metropolis is generally vefted in the whole Body of the Parish, confifting, for the most Part, of ordinary Tradefmen, fometimes very low Mechanics, Perfons not always of the most refined Manners, or delicate Senfations. Your Lordship, I am fure, muft remember, how cavalierly, when we were at Cambridge, (for which by the bye, we deferved to be horfe-whipped) we used to treat the CANAILLE; if an honeft Tradefman came dunning to our Room of a Morning before Lecture, we tipped the NON DOMI upon him; or if by Chance he gained Admittance, and grew importunate in his Solicitations, without further Ceremony fhewed him the nearest Way down Stairs. Little did fome of us think

R 2

think what a different Behaviour we fhould one. Day be obliged to affume towards fome of their illuftrious Brethren in this Metropolis.

The common People, my Lord, in this Kingdom of Liberty, are of fo combustible a Nature, that the least Point of Dispute blows them up into a Flame: a Contest about Church-Wardens, the Choice of a félect Veftry-Man, or a paltry Lectureship, shall fet as many fober Ciizens together by the Ears as a County Election. To fay the Truth, there is now-a-days almost as much dirty Work practifed in the canvaffing for one as for the other. The Parfon, as well as the Candidate, muft play over, if he hopes for Succefs, all the little low Tricks of bribing the Indigent, flattering the Proud, cajoling the Rich, abufing and calumniating his Antagonist, buying, making, splitting, hiding Votes; the whole Catalogue, in fhort, of minifterial Artifices must be practifed in the Veftry with as little Confcience as on the Hustings; and a Candidate for St. A's Church has almost as much Mire to wade through, as a Candidate for St. S-'s Chapel.

But, as I have heard fay in Weftminster-Hall, there is nothing like a CASE IN POINT; I will therefore treat your Lordship with one, to illustrate the Subject under Confideration, and that Case, to prevent any Mistakes, fhall be MY OWN.

Your Lordship I believe may remember the Time when my poor Uncle died, which obliged me to quit the University and feek my Fortune in Town, where I had not been above three Weeks before I ftrolled on Sunday Afternoon into a Church in the City, and, after Service, heard the Clerk, by Order of the Veftry, declare the Lectureship of the Parish vacant, and invite the Clergy, however dignified or distinguished, to be Candidates for it, and to give in their Names by the enfuing Sunday. No

fooner