e
small share in the advancement of rents; although it be notorious that
they do not receive the third penny (fines included) of the real value
of their lands throughout the kingdom.

[Footnote 3: Dr. Evans, a Welchman. [Faulkner, 1735.]]

I was never able to imagine what inconvenience could accrue to the
public, by one or two thousand pounds a year, in the hands of a
Protestant bishop, any more than of a lay person.[4] The former,
generally speaking, liveth as piously and hospitably as the other; pays
his debts as honestly, and spends as much of his revenue among his
tenants: Besides, if they be his immediate tenants, you may distinguish
them, at first sight, by their habits and horses; or if you go to their
houses, by their comfortable way of living. But the misfortune is, that
such immediate tenants, generally speaking, have others under them, and
so a third and fourth in subordination, till it comes to the welder (as
they call him) who sits at a rack-rent, and lives as miserably as an
Irish farmer upon a new lease from a lay landlord. But suppose a bishop
happens to be avaricious, (as being composed of the same stuff with
other men) the consequence to the public is no worse than if he were a
squire; for he leaves his fortune to his son, or near relation, who, if
he be rich enough, will never think of entering into the Church.

[Footnote 4: This part of the paragraph is to be applied to the period
when the whole was written, which was in 1723, when several of Queen
Anne's bishops were living. [Note in edition of 1761, as amended from
the edition of 1735. T.S.]]

And, as there can be no disadvantage to the public, in a Protestant
country, that a man should hold lands as a bishop, any more than if he
were a temporal person; so it is of great advantage to the community,
where a bishop lives as he ought to do. He is bound, in conscience, to
reside in his diocese, and, by a solemn promise, to keep hospitality;
his estate is spent in the kingdom, not remitted to England; he keeps
the clergy to their duty, and is an example of virtue both to them and
the people. Suppose him an ill man; yet his very character will withhold
him from any great or open exorbitancies. But, in fact, it must be
allowed, that some bishops of this kingdom, within twenty years past,
have done very signal and lasting acts of public charity; great
instances whereof, are the late[5] and present[6] Primate, the Lord
Archbishop of Dublin[7] that now i