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he could sate that so far from that being the case, he had
taken the utmost pains to inform himself. He had received
written letters, it was true, and if they were not attended to,
it was because that with only one exception, the writers were
all unknown to him. He had received other letters from those
he did know, which corroborated what had been stated to him
by laymen – and it was a remarkable fact, that the three
clergymen who had signed the testimonials assured him afterwards
that they had no knowledge of the matter when they
affixed their signatures, and that they were now desirous to
withdraw them; so that the testimonials would have fallen
to the ground at any rate. The Noble Lord seemed to regard the
signing of the testimonials a mere formality; but his idea
was, that those who signed them must do it in the belief
that the individual was a proper person to fill the situation,
and that if he did not entertain that believe, he became
a party to an act of which in his conscience he could not
approve. It had been stated that the party, if unjustly
dealt with had no means of redress – but he would beg to say,
that he had his remedy in the Courts below. Those who knew
the forms, would state them more to the satisfaction of the
House; but he believed it to be the fact. The Noble Lord has
thought it strange that after what he was pleased to term
this harsh conduct, the Petitioner should have been allowed to
retain his curacy; but that was from a matter of feeling
towards the man. The Petitioner had stated that he (the
Bishop of Exeter) informed him that he might refuse to
countersign the testimonials without adopting an inquiry –
to that he would reply, that he had never said any such thing,
directly or indirectly. – Had he been absurd enough to say
so, his conduct would prove that he felt the reverse – for he
did proceed to inquiry, and it was not too much to assert, that
the investigation had occupied him three weeks. The result
of the investigation having confirmed the first accounts he
had heard, it was in the exercise of a painful duty that he
refused the application, and adopted that course which formed
the subject of the Petition now before their Lordships.
Lord Erskine gave credit to the Right Reverend Lord for
the purity of his intentions, though he thought his conduct
in the present instance was properly brought under the view
of the House. The manner in which those testimonials were
conducted was familiar to all. He believed no one would contradict
him, when he stated that they were of this kind. They generally
ran in the following words:—"We, the undersigned,
do testify that we personally know — for the last 3 years,
that we believe him to be a person of moral conduct, and that
he does not maintain any doctrines contrary to those of
of the Church of England." But it frequently happened that a
cel clre clergyman was promoted, who did not know 3 Clergymen
in the diocese. A Son of his own had been in that
situation, but the signature of one being procured, the Archbishop
of Canterbury signified that he was worthy of credit;
the Bishop of Chichester did the same, though they knew
nothing of his Son and thus the difficult was got over. He
would admit, that if a Right Reverend Prelate knew any
thing disadvantageous to the personal character of the individual,
he was not only justified in not signing the
testimonial, but bound not to sign it. Every man had a
right so to conduct himself in this world, as to preserve
his general character, and if he lost it he must take the
consequence. Such was the rule of Law. If a person was
examined as a witness, and that another swore he did not
believe his oath, because he was a man of bad character,
the Court could not go into the inquiry. But if as in
the present case an inquiry was set on foot, not as to
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Identifier: | JB/109/149/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 109.
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149 |
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35804 |
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