Surtees.
"And how is the bishop governed in his choice? As far as I can
learn the stipends are absurdly various, one man getting 100
pounds a year for working like a horse in a big town, and another
1000 pounds for living an idle life in a luxurious country house.
But the bishop of course gives the bigger plums to the best men.
How is it then that the big plums find their way so often to the
sons and sons-in-law and nephews of the bishops?"
"Because the bishop has looked after their education and
principles," said the rector.
"And taught them how to choose their wives," said the Senator with
imperturbable gravity.
"I am not the son of a bishop, sir," exclaimed the rector.
"I wish you had been, sir, if it would have done you any good. A
general can't make his son a colonel at the age of twenty-five, or
an admiral his son a first lieutenant, or a judge his a Queen's
Counsellor,--nor can the head of an office promote his to be a
chief secretary. It is only a bishop can do this;--I suppose
because a cure of souls is so much less important than the charge
of a ship or the discipline of twenty or thirty clerks."
"The bishops don't do it," said the rector fiercely.
"Then the statistics which have been put into my hands belie them.
But how is it with those the bishops don't appoint? There seems to
me to be such a complication of absurdities as to defy
explanation.
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