Lexington, who divided his estates between them; and the former died in 1779, at the age of eighty-three. He His Grace was born on the 14th of February, 1755. received his education with his brother, Lord Manners, at the Charter House, and thence removed to Emanuel College, Cambridge, where the brothers had the late excellent Dr. Bennet, Bishop of Cloyne, for their tutor. In 1777, on taking the degree of B. A., Mr. Charles Manners Sutton was the fifteenth wrangler, his brother Thomas, at the same time, being fifth wrangler. Previous to this he 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. Sutton entered into holy orders. He proceeded M.A. 1780, D.D. 1792. In 1785 he succeeded Richard Sutton, D.D. in the rectory of Averham with Kelham (at which place is the family seat of the Suttons), in Nottinghamshire, and in that of Whitwell, in * Dedication of a Visitation Sermon, preached at Stamford, in 1816, by the Rev. S. T. Bloomfield, A. M. vicar of Bisbrooke, in Rutland. Derbyshire; his brother being the patron of the former, and the Duke of Rutland of the latter. In 1791, on the death of Dr. Tarrant, he was appointed Dean of Peterborough; and in the following year, on the decease of Bishop Horne, he was elevated to the see of Norwich, then resigning all his other preferments. The Deanery of Windsor was, however, conferred on him in commendam in 1794, on the resignation of Bishop Cornwallis, who then obtained, in exchange, the Deanery of Durham, vacant by the death of Bishop Hinchcliffe. The Deanery of Windsor of course rendered Dr. Manners Sutton well known to the Royal Family, with whom both he and his lady were great favourites; and it was accordingly to be expected that further preferment was in store for him. The author of the "Pursuits of Literature" appears, indeed, to have been so well persuaded of the fact, that he actually anticipated for him the honours of archiepiscopacy as early as 1797. To these lines, Nay, if you feed on this celestial strain, You may with gods hold converse, not with men; His polish'd mind and reconciling face he appended the following note: "Dr. Charles Manners Sutton, Bishop of Norwich; a prelate whose amiable demeanour, useful learning, and conciliating habits of life, particularly recommend his episcopal character. No man appears to me so peculiarly marked out for the HIGHEST DIGNITY of the Church, sede vacante, as Dr. Manners Sutton." This prophecy (as it may almost be termed) was fulfilled, eight years after, on the death of Archbishop Moore in 1805. His Majesty's congé d'élire having been issued, Dr. Sutton was duly elected on the 12th of February, and confirmed on the 21st, when he was also nominated a member of the King's Most Honourable Privy Council. It was probably an un precedented circumstance, that, having been ordained both deacon and priest by Archbishop Markham, he should for three years sit with him as a brother Archbishop. In the expensive and but ill-paid see of Norwich we believe that the liberality of Dr. Sutton's disposition, the claims of a numerous family, and perhaps the habits of high life, involved him in some embarrassments; these must have been painful to one who knew that it was the duty of a Christian, and much more of a Christian Bishop, "to owe no man any thing;" and, on his subsequent promotion to Canterbury, he adopted, with a becoming energy of character, a system which enabled him to discharge all his incumbrances. We find it stated, in 1809, that his Grace had already greatly raised the revenues of the see, so that they were then said to be upwards of 20,000l. a year. At his accession to the see, they had been estimated at 12,000l. Two years after his translation, 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 William Cole, Esq., who had bought it of the heirs of Alderman Trecothick, for the sum of 25,000l. 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; and 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. Blessed with general good health, the Archbishop was scarcely ever absent when important occasions required his high official functions. He performed the ceremony at the marriage of the Duke of Cumberland, in 1815, the Princess Charlotte of Wales, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, in 1816; and the Princess Elizabeth, the Duke of Cambridge, and the Duke of Clarence, in 1818; and he placed the crown on the head of his present Majesty, in 1821. He was also constantly present at the royal funerals; but, on those occasions, attended only in the character of a mourner. His fine dignified person at all times elicited admiration; and it is remarkable, that the two Archbishops were, at the same time, the most exalted and the tallest prelates of the Church of England. Dr. Manners Sutton appeared little as an author. In two instances, publication was demanded by the general usage on similar occasions. Both these happened whilst he was Bishop of Norwich; and produced "A Sermon preached before the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, at the Abbey Church of St. Peter, Westminster, on the Fast Day, 1794," 4to.; and "A Sermon before the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 1797," 4to. In the latter In the latter year he contributed to the Linnean Transactions, "A Description of Five British Species of Orabanche." (Vol. iv. p. 173.) But, although his Grace never courted literary reputation, 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'Oyly 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 be adduced in evidence of the late Archbishop's liberality and discernment; but we must not omit to state, that to him the infant Church of India is indebted for the inestimable benefit derived from the spiritual administration of the late zealous and accomplished Reginald Heber. His Grace did not hesitate to speak in the House of Lords, whenever ecclesiastical subjects formed an appropriate topic for the delivery of his opinion; but he followed the laudable rule of abstaining from debate on ordinary questions of secular policy. He was a steady and consistent opponent of the demands of the Roman Catholics. In the debate on the 13th of May 1805, on Lord Grenville's motion for a Committee on 11 |