Public clocks occasionally become objects of considerable interest, as at Berne, &c., not to mention the monster of Strasbourg, which all the world has heard of.

Quaint allegorising on such subjects as the foregoing, as presenting different stages in the life of man and the fleeting nature of times and things, were not unusual among our old Scotch divines, as in the subsequent quotation from The Last Battell of the Soule in Death, by Mr. Zachary Boyd, Glasgow, 1629:—

"Men's dayes are distributed vnto them like houres upon the Horologe: some must liue but till one; another vnto two; another vnto three. The Palme turneth about, and with its finger pointeth at the houre. So soone as man's appointed houre is come, whether it bee the first, second, or third, there is no more biding (abiding) for him. Nec prece nec precio, neither by pryce nor prayer can Death be moued to spare him but an houre; no, not, As the sound of the clocke bell ringing, his last houre passeth away with all speede, and turneth not againe, so must the poor man at death packe him out of sight, and no more be seene upon the land of the living."

NIGEL.

Glasgow.

CAN BISHOPS VACATE THEIR SEES?
(Vol. iv., p. 293.)

In answer to your correspondent K. S.'s Query, "Can bishops vacate their sees?" I have little hesitation in saying that they can; though I know of no instance (in modern times) of such an occurrence (except colonial bishops); nor have I ever heard of any one but Dr. Pearce who wished so to do. Lord Dover is, however, mistaken in supposing that "his resignation could not be received, on the ground that a bishopric, as being a peerage, is inalienable." The bishop's own account of the matter (see his Life, prefixed to his Commentary on the Gospels and Acts) is as follows:—Feeling himself unable, from his age and other infirmities, to perform any longer his duties as Bishop of Rochester, and wishing like Charles V. to retire from the world, he requested his friend Lord Bath to apply to the king for permission to resign. He was soon after sent for by the king, who told him that he had consulted Lord Mansfield and Lord Northington, and that neither of them saw any objection. In the mean time, however, Lord Bath asked the king to appoint, as his successor in the see of Rochester, Dr. Newton, then Bishop of Bristol. On this the ministry, not wishing any ecclesiastical dignities to be granted except through their hands, interfered so as to prevent the resignation from being effected; Dr. Pearce being told by the king that his resignation could not be accepted, but that he should have all the credit of it.

Lord Dover's mistake is, I think, to be attributed to his assumption that bishops are peers of the realm. This is, however, by no means the case. A bishop is simply a Lord of Parliament, and possesses none of the privileges of the peerage; not those, among others, of freedom from arrest, and trial by their peers. A peer can only be deprived of his peerage by a special act of parliament, and after a trial by the House of Lords; while a bishop can be deprived of his see, and, of consequence, of his seat in the House of Lords, by the sentence of the archbishop of the province, assisted by such of his suffragans as he may summon. The two last instances of deprivation were those of Bishop Watson, of St. David's, by Archbishop Tenison, and of the Bishop of Clogher, in 1822.

A bishop so deprived does not cease to be a bishop, but only ceases from having jurisdiction over a diocese. Whether a bishop can be deposed from his episcopal office altogether is a matter of doubt, though it is held by most of those who are learned in the canon law, that there is not sufficient authority in any ecclesiastical person, or body of persons, to degrade from the office of bishop any one who has once received episcopal consecration.

R. C. C.