hard work of their profession. There has of late prevailed a taste for the appointment of young bishops, produced, no doubt, by a feeling that bishops should be men fitted to get through really hard work; but we have never heard that young prebendaries were considered desirable. A clergyman selected for such a position should, we have always thought, have earned an evening of ease by a long day of work, and should, above all things, be one whose life has been, and therefore, in human probability, will be, so decorous as to be honorable to the cathedral of his adoption.
"We were, however, the other day given to understand that one of these luxurious benefices, belonging to the cathedral of Barchester, had been bestowed on the Rev. Mark Robarts, the vicar of a neighboring parish, on the understanding that he should hold the living and the stall together; and, on making farther inquiry, we were surprised to learn that this fortunate gentleman is as yet considerably under thirty years of age. We were desirous, however, of believing that his learning, his piety, and his conduct might be of a nature to add peculiar grace to his chapter, and therefore, though almost unwillingly, we were silent. But now it has come to our ears, and, indeed, to the ears of all the world, that this piety and conduct are sadly wanting; and, judging of Mr. Robarts by his life and associates, we are inclined to doubt even the learning. He has at this moment, or, at any rate, had but a few days since, an execution in his parsonage house at Framley, on the suit of certain most disreputable bill-discounters in London, and probably would have another execution in his other house in Barchester Close but for the fact that he has never thought it necessary to go into residence."
Then followed some very stringent, and, no doubt, much needed advice to those clerical members of the Church of England who are supposed to be mainly responsible for the conduct of their brethren; and the article ended as follows:
"Many of these stalls are in the gift of the respective deans and chapters, and in such cases the dean and chapters are bound to see that proper persons are appointed; but in other instances the power of selection is vested in the crown, and then an equal responsibility rests on the government of the day. Mr. Robarts, we learn, was appointed to the stall of Barchester by the late prime minister, and we really think that a grave censure rests on him for the manner in which his patronage has been exercised. It may be impossible that he should himself, in all such cases, satisfy himself by personal inquiry. But our government is altogether conducted on the footing of vicarial responsibility. Quod facit per alium, facit per se, is in a special manner true of our ministers, and any man who rises to high position among them must abide by the danger thereby incurred. In this peculiar case we are informed that the recommendation was made by a very recently admitted member of the cabinet, to whose appointment we alluded at the time as a great mistake. The gentleman in question held no high individual office of his own; but evil such as this which has now been done at Barchester is exactly the sort of mischief which follows the exaltation of unfit men to high positions, even though no great scope for executive failure may be placed within their reach.
