EIGHT FRIENDS OF THE GREAT
A HERETIC IRISH BISHOP
A week or two after the return in 1880 of the Liberal party to power, one of its most influential supporters, the son of a bishop, introduced into the House of Commons a bill for "the abolition of the congé d'élire and for the appointment to the episcopal bench direct by letters patent under the great seal." An interesting debate ensued and the bill was opposed on behalf of the government by the then Mr. Arthur Peel. At a later period in the discussion Mr. Gladstone intervened with his accustomed interest in ecclesiastical affairs. He urged that the existence of the congé acted as a moral check upon the prerogative of the crown and supported his argument by a reference to a case which occurred in the time of Sir Robert Walpole. That minister wished "to appoint a certain Dr. Rundle to a bishopric" but on account of his doctrines opposition in the chapter of the see to which it was intended to send him was threatened by his theological opponents. Sir Robert thereupon "transferred him to Ireland" where the absence of a congé d'élire permitted him to carry out his desires without any restraint. Ireland was then and for long years afterwards the dumping ground of the parson and the placeman. It was a country in which the presence of a heretic on the episcopal bench was a matter of no consequence;
