The Archbishop of Canterburysaid, that he now rose for the purpose of doing justice to a right rev. Prelate, who, though he might be in an infirm state of body, was, beyond all question, in a sound state of mind. The right rev. Prelate read two letters to the House, one from a Dr. Clerk, physician to the Bishop of Ely, stating that his patient was at present fully capable of understanding any business that might be communicated to him; and the other from a Mr. Pickering, stating, in reply to a note from one of the Bishop's sons, requesting him to give an opinion as to the Bishop's ability to transact business since his attack in May last, that since the second week in June, he considered the Bishop, not only competent to transact any ordinary business, but also to direct any business connected with the administration of his See. He had thought it necessary to read these letters, as a doubt had been thrown out by the noble and learned Lord on the Woolsack as to the soundness of the right rev. Prelate's mind. Their Lordships were aware that a charge had been made against the Bishop of Ely, for accumulating his patronage on the members of his own family; but out of nine only two preferments had been bestowed upon the members of his Lordship's family in the course of several years, and that circumstance might tend to show how much exaggeration there was in the reports which had reached their Lordship's ears.
The Lord Chancellorsaid, that he was sure that the right rev. Prelate who had just sat down would do him the justice to recollect, that the observations which he had made on a former evening, respecting the right rev. Prelate, were in reply to an attack which had been made upon himself individually for an improper disposal of the Church patronage belonging to the Great Seal. He had heard certain reports respecting the bodily infirmities of the right rev. Prelate, and those reports, fortified by the circumstance of his having received a letter, bearing the signature, but evidently not in the writing, of the rev. Prelate, giving one account of his right to the presentation of a certain living, and of his subsequently receiving another letter, giving quite a different account of it, under the idea that he had not received the first letter, led him to suppose that the right rev. Prelate was in such a 1170 weak state of bodily health as might also impair the faculties of his mind. He had now no doubt that the right rev. Prelate was in a sound state of mind. He contended, however, that it was quite clear that the right rev. Prelate had not written both the letters which he had received.