Memoir of THE MOST REV. CHARLES MANNERS SUTTON, Late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. (With a Portrait.) THE moderation of the Church of England is generally acknowledged, even by those who are farthest removed from the Establishment, in doctrine and discipline. Ever since the Revolution, when the constitution first assumed a settled form, the metropolitical chair has been uniformly filled by men of liberal principles and mild deportment, acting upon the sound maxim, that in mediocrity is security. Such was the character of the late primate; the history of whose public life is rendered deserving of particular record, by the consummation, under his auspices, of an object which, for a century or more, had been attempted in vain, the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts. This accomplished and amiable prelate was of noble origin; his father, Lord George Manners Sutton, being the third son of John the third Duke of Rutland, who died at the age of eighty-three, in 1779. Lord George, and his elder brother Robert, added the name of Sutton to that of Manners, in compliance with the will of their maternal uncle Lord Lexington, who divided his estates between them. Lord George married Diana, daughter of Thomas Chaplin, Esq. of Blankney, in the county of Lincoln; by whom he had four sons: 1. George Manners Sutton, who died unmarried in 1804; 2. John Manners Sutton, who, on the death of his father in 1783, succeeded him in the representation of Newark. He died in 1826, at the age of seventy-three, leaving several children. 3. Thomas Manners Sutton, late chancellor of Ireland, and now Lord Manners. 4. CHARLES MANNERS SUTTON, the late archbishop, who was born at his father's seat in Northamptonshire, Feb. 17, 1755. The two youngest of these sons of Lord George being intended for learned professions, were placed at an early age in the Charter-house school, where they both distinguished themselves by their talents, and propriety of 117.-VOL. X. [1828. conduct. From that celebrated seminary they went to Emanuel college, Cambridge, and had the late excellent Dr. Bennet, bishop of Cloyne, for their tutor. In 1777, the two brothers took the degree of bachelor of arts at the same time, and with equal honour, both standing high among the wranglers of their year. Previous to this, Mr. Charles Sutton had become a member of the Hyson club, a social institution, consisting only of fellows and students, of correct deportment and eminent abilities. In allusion to this period of the Archbishop's history, a learned divine, now living, thus addressed him some years since :- You, my Lord, were fortunate enough to possess all the precious advantages of a classical education at one of our best schools. You afterwards prosecuted your studies at a college, which, within your own memory, or that of your contemporaries, could recount amongst its members, the venerable Mr. Henry Hubbard, the learned Dr. Anthony Askew, the ingenious Dr. Richard Farmer, the celebrated bishop Hurd, the accomplished and amiable Dr. Bennet, bishop of Cloyne, and the well-known Dr. Samuel Parr. For the various and arduous duties of the exalted station which your Grace now fills, you were qualified not only by the aid of books, and the conversation of scholars, but by numerous opportunities for acquiring an extensive knowledge of human life, and by the familiar intercourse of men, whose well-regulated, and I had almost said hereditary politeness, is worthy of their exalted situations."* Soon after taking his bachelor's degree, Mr. Charles Sutton entered into holy orders, and about the same time formed a matrimonial connexion with his cousin, Miss Mary Thoroton, of an ancient family in Nottinghamshire. In 1780, the two brothers took the degree of master of arts together, and with the same honour as before. Their pursuits, however, were now different, the one being at the bar, and the other settled on a country living, with an increasing family. Here he remained sta Dedication of a Visitation Sermon, preached at Stamford, in 1816, by S. T. Bloomfield, A.M. vicar of Bisbrooke, in Rutland. 3 с 779 Memoir of the Most Reverend Charles Manners Sutton. tionary until the year 1790, when he succeeded Dr. Tarrant in the deanery of Peterborough. This was a prelusive step to the episcopal dignity; and accordingly, on the death of that most exemplary divine, Dr. George Horne, he was consecrated Bishop of Norwich. However acceptable this preferment might be, it added little to the ease, and none to the fortune, of Dr. Sutton, whose paternal property was small, that of his lady insignificant, and the provision he had obtained hitherto in the church very inadequate to the support of thirteen children, the eldest of whom was little more than twelve years old. Under such circumstances, it is not to be wondered that the bishop was embarrassed with debt at the time of his promotion; nor is it more surprising, that he should have continued in the same unpleasant condition after his elevation. It is a mistaken notion, but one which too many well-meaning persons are apt to take up, that a mitre and independence are necessarily connected. Whatever might have been the case in remote ages, when bishops, by being obliged to lead a life of celibacy, were not only unencumbered with domestic cares, but enjoyed large domains, and by residing most of the year in their own mansions, incurred little expense, since even in the exercise of hospitality the episcopal lands furnished a superabundant supply of all the necessaries of life; the circumstances of the venerable order are now widely different. With the exception of a very few dioceses; the Reformation despoiled many of the sees of their best manors; and those estates which the piety of older times set apart for the support of the church, the maintenance of the poor, and the furtherance of education, were sacrilegiously seized by a rapacious tyrant, and lavished upon a set of hungry sycophants, who humoured his vices, and pretended conscientious motives for aiding him in all his ambitious designs. In subsequent reigns, fresh encroachments were made upon the ecclesiastical property; so that in a number of cases, promotion became an injury rather than a benefit, to the dignitary. Matters have not much changed for the better in our enlightened times, and under a legislative system professedly directed to the redress of grievances, and the correction of abuses. The episcopal order, it is true, has a splendid appearance, and, in the opinion of the multitude, is possessed of great power; but it is merely nominal, for the bishops are restricted by so many statutes, and laid under such heavy responsibilities, that their usefulness becomes contracted, while their labours are multiplied. 780 The duty of attending parliament, besides subjecting them to much personal inconvenience, imposes upon them the necessity of having a town residence, which brings with it a train of heavy charges. On returning to their respective dioceses, the bishops find little difference in regard to expense, especially where the episcopal seats happen to be in small cities; as in such cases, an extent of hospitality is required, which cannot be maintained without a considerable charge. Norwich is of this description, and therefore, to a warm-hearted man like Dr Sutton, such a preferment was not likely to prove of lucrative advantage. In fact, his circumstances became more involved; on which account, the king, who valued him much, gave him spontaneously, in 1794, the deanery of Windsor, on the removal of bishop Cornwallis to that of Durham. In that year the Bishop of Norwich was selected to preach the Fast Sermon before the House of Lords; on which occasion he took care to steer a very even course, and had the good fortune to please all parties, without any compromise of principle. This sermon was printed as a matter of course; and the next and last appearance of the bishop as an author, in the publication of his sermon preached at the anniversary meeting of the Society for the propagation of the Gospel, in 1797. The Bishop of Norwich was now in such favour with the king, who had a peculiar tact in discovering the characters of men, that many persons about the court predicted his elevation to a higher dignity. Among these observers was the author of the "Pursuits of Literature," who, for once, deviated from the violence of satire, to bestow this meed of praise upon the Bishop of Norwich: "He is a prelate, whose amiable demeanour, useful learning, and conciliating habits of life, particularly recommend his episcopal character. man appears to me so peculiarly marked out for the highest dignity of the church, sede vacante, as Dr. Sutton." was No The time of the Bishop of Norwich was now divided between his see and the deanery; but the greatest portion of the year was spent at Windsor, where he conducted the services of the chapel in a manner that gave peculiar satisfaction to the king, whose attendance at public worship was as constant as it was devout. length, after a residence of ten years in this agreeable situation, the pinnacle of ecclesiastical preferment became vacant by the death of Dr. John Moore, archbishop of Canterbury, in 1805; immediately on which, the king sent for the Dean of Wind At sor, and gave him the appointment. It has been lately said, but very untruly, that Mr. Pitt sought to obtain the metropolitan dignity for his old tutor the Bishop of Lincoln. No such application was ever made, for it was a settled point, long before this vacancy occurred, that Dr. Pretyman should take either Winchester or London, according as the circumstance might happen. But though this story is apocryphal, another of more certainty remains to be told. On the expected demise of the primate, Bishop Barrington offered to resign the valuable see of Durham in favour of Dr. Sutton, for the sake of a town residence, and to avoid the trouble of so long a journey to the north. The king, who had given his word to the Bishop of Norwich, left the matter entirely to him; and considering the circumstances of that prelate, the rejection of the proposal was a great sacrifice on his part. Had he accepted it, he would, in the course of three or four years, have received, by the falling in of leases, above sixty thousand pounds, which, as Dr. Barrington did not want, he applied wholly to charitable uses; but which would have been of immense consequence to Dr. Sutton, and especially to his children, eleven of whom were females. Two years after his translation, however, the Archbishop obtained an important acquisition by the sale of the old palace and estate of Croydon, under the sanction of a special act of parliament in 1807. By virtue of that authority, a purchase of Addington park, in the county of Surrey, was made, in the autumn of the same year, of Mr. Cole, who had bought it of the heirs of alderman Trecothick, for the sum of £25,000. Here the Archbishop built an elegant mansion for his summer residence, and he also beautified the parish church, in which he caused a vault to be constructed for himself and his family. The palace of Lambeth, though much improved in the time of his predecessor, now underwent some internal alterations for the better, and particularly the library, which, by the admirable management of Mr. Todd, was put in a state of complete order. The books and manuscripts were classified anew; considerable additions were made to the collection by purchases at home and abroad. A catalogue of the manuscripts was also printed in an elegant folio volume, at the expense of the Archbishop, for private circulation. It may here be proper to observe, that though his Grace never courted literary reputation, by any other productions of his own, than the two occasional discourses already mentioned, he was a good judge, and a liberal encourager, of talent and learning. His selection of domestic chaplains is a proof of this; and the manner in which they were rewarded, reflected honour upon their patron. Instead of keeping an active and meritorious divine about his person for years, and then dismissing him when old and infirm to a living, the Archbishop took care to settle his chaplains while yet in the vigour of their faculties and capacity of usefulness. One of these, Dr. Mant, is now an ornament of the Irish church; while Dr. Wordsworth, another of his Grace's chaplains, was advanced to the deanery of Bocking, and the mastership of Trinity college, Cambridge, and Dr. D'Ôyly was presented to the valuable rectory of Lambeth. In addition to these instances of munificence, we may mention two great living prelates, who owe their rise in the church entirely to the unsolicited patronage of the late illustrious prelate. These are, Dr. Richard Lawrence, the profoundly learned archbishop of Cashel in Ireland, and Dr. William Van Mildert, the exemplary bishop of Durham. The former, on publishing his powerful Bampton Lectures, in which he vindicated the Anglican church from the charge of Calvinism, was immediately presented by his Grace of Canterbury to the valuable rectory of Mersham, in Kent. This preferment was followed soon after, through the same interest, by a nomination to the regius professorship of divinity at Oxford, from whence, in no long time after, he was transferred to the archiepiscopal dignity. The advancement of the other eminent prelate was somewhat similar in origin and circumstance. Dr. Van Mildert, while rector of St. Mary-le-Bow, was appointed to preach the lecture founded by Mr. Boyle. On completing the course, he published the whole, with illustrations, in two volumes, under the title of "A Historical View of the Rise and Progress of Infidelity;" and dedicated the same to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who, as a testimony of his approbation, gave the author a valuable rectory in the county of Surrey, afterwards recommended him as a proper person to succeed Dr. Howley in the divinity chair at Oxford, and next procured his nomination to the bishopric of Llandaff, with the deanery of St. Paul's, from whence, on the death of Bishop Barrington, he was translated to Durham. A long list of other names might have been adduced in evidence of the late Archbishop's liberality and discernment; but we must here close the account with stating, that to him the infant church of India is indebted |