To some account of the learned and venerable personage whose death has just caused double vacancy the Church, is now proposed devote brief space. In almost every part of England antiquity descent is highly prized, and not Devonshire than in any other county. There the history of Bishop Copleston’s family is preserved with all the care usually bestowed upon such records. As, however, there has been nothing very extraordinary in the fortunes of bis race, it will scarcely considered necessary to devote much time the illustration bis pedigree. It can be traced to the time of the Norman conquest through the records of its lauded possessions, a distinction of which few bishop, can boast, little does advancement in the English Church depend really upon circumstances to which it is too often imputed. The deceased prelate, Dr. Edward Copleston, was the son of the Rev. John Bradford Copleston, prebendary Exeter. He was born Offwell, in Devonshire, the 2d February, 1776, and was therefore, at the time of his death, in the 74th rear of his age.

Although it was at home that be received the education of his early years, yet that education was conducted with assiduity and success, that he bad not attained the age of fifteen when was elected scholar of Corpus Christ College, Oxford. There was at that time but I single annual prize for which undergraduates could I contend. That prize was for Latin verse, and the subject of this notice obtained it the third year of his residence, the competition being, usual, intense, and the subject proposed that ol “Marius sitting amid the ruins of Carthage," even then rather hackneyed. At Easter, 1796, was elected fellow of Oriel under the following remarkable circumstances had not been candidate, and it was not until after the exam inside, of those who competed for that distinction that the electors invited him to come to Oriel and bo chosen fellow. In 1796 the annual prise for a Latin essay, tba subject being agriculture, was awarded to Mr. Copleston, and 1797. though not yet entitled to proceed to bis degree of M.A., he was appointed college tutor, the duties of which office, till the year 1810, be performed in a manner that earned for him the gratitude of his pupils and the approbation of the whole University. The Professorship of Poetry was conferred on him in 1802, and his lectures were not only attended most numerously, but by many of the senior members of the University. The substance of those lectures he was subsequently induced to print under the title “Praelectiones Academies.” That work the time of its publication, as well as for several years afterwards, was much and deservedly admired, but now, like many other valuable tomes, it is rarely seen except in large libraries.

The Proctorship of the University was an office which he filled in 1807, and it would easy to repeat the threadbare form of eulogium that he had so performed its duties as to preserve discipline without exciting discontent; but as few executive officers attain that degree of excellence, the friends of Bishop Copleston may be contented to learn that he got through the business of Proctor with much approbation and very little blame. During the years 1810 and 1811 many attacks were made, in a variety of publications, upon the University of Oxford, the history of which warfare is now much forgotten that it would be scarcely worth referring except for the purpose of stating that Mr. Copleston was on that occasion the acknowledged and triumphant advocate of the great seat of learning in which he had already acquired many honours and much influence.