Whig party, should never have offered what he declared he should
have rejected, a bishopric, when they were constantly bestowing such
promotions on persons of mediocre talent and claims. Waiving the point,
whether it is right or wrong to make men bishops because they have been
political partizans, the cause of this alleged injustice may be found in
the tone of the times, which was eminently tinctured with cant. The
Clapham sect were in the ascendancy; and Ministers scarcely dared to
offend so influential a body. Even the gentle Sir James Mackintosh
refers, in his Journal, with disgust to the phraseology of the day:--

'They have introduced a new language, in which they never say that A. B.
is good, or virtuous, or even religious; but that he is an "advanced
Christian." Dear Mr. Wilberforce is an "advanced Christian." Mrs. C. has
lost three children without a pang, and is so "advanced a Christian"
that she could see the remaining twenty, "with poor dear Mr. C.,"
removed with perfect tranquillity.'

Such was the disgust expressed towards that school by Mackintosh, whose
last days were described by his daughter as having been passed in
silence and thought, with his Bible before him, breaking that
silence--and portentous silence--to speak of God, and of his Maker's
disposition towards man.

His mind ceased to be occupied with speculations; politics interested
him no more. His own 'personal relationship to his Creator' was the
subject of his thoughts. Yet Mackintosh was not by any means considered
as an advanced Christian, or even as a Christian at all by the zealots
of his time.

Sydney Smith's notions of a bishop were certainly by no means carried
out in his own person and character. 'I never remember in my time,' he
said, 'a real bishop: a grave, elderly man, full of Greek, with sound
views of the middle voice and preterpluperfect tense; gentle and kind to
his poor clergy, of powerful and commanding eloquence in Parliament,
never to be put down when the great interests of mankind were concerned,
leaning to the Government when it was right, leaning to the people when
they were right; feeling that if the Spirit of God had called him to
that high office, he was called for no mean purpose, but rather that
seeing clearly, acting boldly, and intending purely, he might confer
lasting benefit upon mankind.'

In 1831 Lord Grey appointed Sydney Smith a Canon Resilentiary of St.
Paul's; but still the mitre was withheld, althou