ect. With kindest
remembrances, in which unite Mrs. W., my sister, and Dora, I remain,
dear Mrs. Hemans,

Your much obliged friend,
WM. WORDSWORTH.

I have written very hastily to spare my eyes; a liberty which you will
excuse.[149]

[148] This hope, alas! was not realised. Mrs. Hemans died in the
following year, May 16, 1835.

[149] _Memoirs_, ii. 291-2.

95. _Of the Church of England, &c._

LETTER TO THE VENERABLE ARCHDEACON WRANGHAM.

Rydal Mount, Feb. 2. 1835.

MY DEAR WRANGHAM,

Sincere thanks are due from me for the attention you paid to Mrs. W.'s
letter, written during my absence. You know the favourable opinion I
entertain of Mr. Graves; and I was under a promise to let him know, if
any vacancy occurred in the neighbourhood, and to do all I could,
without infringing upon prior or stronger claims, to promote the
attainment of his wishes.

* * * * *

The mind of every thinking man who is attached to the Church of England
must at this time be especially turned to reflections upon all points of
ecclesiastical polity, government, and management, which may tend to
strengthen the Establishment in the affections of the people, and
enlarge the sphere of its efficiency. It cannot, then, I feel, be
impertinent in me, though a layman, to express upon this occasion my
satisfaction, qualified as it is by what has been said above, in
finding from this instance that our diocesan is unwilling to station
clergymen in cures with which they are locally connected. Some years
ago, when the present Bishop of London, then of Chester, was residing in
this neighbourhood, I took the liberty of strenuously recommending to
him not to ordain young men to curacies where they had been brought up,
or in the midst of their own relatives. I had seen too much of the
mischief of this, especially as affecting the functions and characters
of ministers born and bred up in the lower classes of society. It has
been painful to me to observe the false position, as the French would
call it, in which men so placed are. Their habits, their manners, and
their talk, their acquaintanceships, their friendships, and, let me say,
their domestic affections, naturally and properly draw them one way,
while their professional obligations point out another; and,
accordingly, if they are sensible of both, they live in a perpetual
conflict, and are liable to be ta