18,395,811 acres at 4s. 9d., or there will be a deficiency in the total sum, viz. 5,007,7311.: and of course in the same proportion in which the value of the small tithes is reduced, or the surface upon which they are grown is extended, the amount of the composition for the great tithes will be increased, and the surface upon which it is raised will be contracted. I hardly know whether I have expressed my meaning so explicitly and intelligibly as I ought, and as I wish to do; my object is to shew that in the estimate of the Quarterly Review the great tithes at nine-fourteenths bear too large a proportion to the small tithes at five-fourteenths. The sum to which they amount in this proportion is not equal to the sum appropriated to the vicarages only, 755,300l.; and it should be remembered that the land under the plough, from which the great tithe is collected, was not formerly in the proportion of more than one-fourth or one-third of the land not under the plough, and can hardly be supposed, at the present time, to exceed one-half or to amount to five fourteenths. I will suppose it to be one-half, and adopt the prices of the Quarterly Review; and that there may be no objection to the measurement of the Black-book, I will state the amount of tithe in this form : Remainder paying tithe to the Clergy £2,782,080 993,600 3,775,680 1,258,560 2,517,120 75,000 Add for perpetual curacies Total tithe received by the Clergy.... £2,592,120 I will only add the following notices of the revenues of the Church of England at different periods: Archbishop Whitgift (43 Eliz. or A. D. 1610) said that "the tenth part of the benefices are not severally competent for a mean person, nor the twentieth part estimated to be worth 201. de claro." Dr. Bentley, under the name of Phileleutheros Lipsiensis (A.D. 1713) "As for the cheapness of the priesthood, that appeared lately in one of your parliaments, that 6000 of your Clergy, the greater part of your whole number, had, at a middle rate, one with another, not 501. a-year." Dr. Warner (A.D. 1757). "Of the nine thousand some hundred churches and chapels which we have in England and Wales, six thousand, I speak from the best authority,-are not above the value of forty pounds a-year." Dr. Burn, in his Ecclesiastical Law,- "there are 5597 livings certified under 50l. a-year," to the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty." I have copied these remarks from Bishop Watson's Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, A. D. 1783, in which he says: The revenue of the Church of England is not, I think, well understood in general: at least I have met with a great many very sensible men, of all professions and ranks, who did not understand it. They have expressed a surprise bordering on disbelief, when I have ventured to assure them, that the whole income of the Church, including bishoprics, deans and chapters, rectories, vicarages, dignities and benefices of all kinds, and even the two universities, with their respective colleges, which being lay corporations, ought not to be taken into the account, did not amount, on the most liberal calculation, to 1,500,000l. a-year. I will not trouble your Grace with the manner of making this calculation; but I have good reason to believe it to be near the truth. Dr. Morgan Cove's "first calculations were founded on actual returns from upwards of 3000 livings between the years 1787 and 1797, and from these returns he states the average value of parochial benefices in England and Wales to be 1417. per annum. Comparing this average with another taken from the actual value of a considerable number of livings in two particular counties, the one inland and the other maritime, and both highly cultivated, the annual value appeared to be 154l. per annum; and the gross value of parochial livings in England Dr. Cove stated to be in 1798, 1,350,000l." See Lyall's Charge, p. 24. In his inquiry into the necessity of a commutation of tithes, A. D. 1800, he presents the following estimate of the value of tithes : 3840 impropriations, at 2007. each, per annum 8650 rectories, vicarages, &c. at sixteen times their value in the king's-books, 1,740,7527., but deducting 507. from each on the average, for glebe and augmentation lands, fines, &c. 1550 rectories, vicarages, &c. never in charge at 50%. each £768,000 1,308,302 77,500 Total receipts from tithes...... £2,153,802 In Mr. Beeke's observations, p. 29, the annual produce of tithes is stated at 2,850,000l. (I have before stated it from Colquhoun at 2,500,000l.) which exceeds the preceding statement by 696,000l. This difference must have arisen from the value of each impropriation having been taken at a much higher rate than 2001. per annum, because our two statements of the tithe income of the parochial Clergy, though resulting from different modes of computation, agree so nearly, that they mutually support and corroborate each other. But from his own data, a very strong presumptive proof may be deduced in favour of the accuracy of the preceding statement of the average value of each impropriation. In p. 31, &c. he states the quantity of our arable lands at about 11,500,000 acres, and that about a seventh-part of them are tithe-free, or covered by modus: the remainder, divided between 10,000 parishes, will give to each 986_arable acres subject to tithes. Three-fifths of these, or about 600 acres, can be supposed to be yearly under corn: and to this species of agricultural produce alone, generally speaking, impropriate tithes relate. The average value of our arable lands, considering the variation of cultivations, soils, seasons, quantities, and qualities, can scarcely exceed4l. per acre. The average corn produce, therefore, of each parish, will annually amount to 2,400. ; and the corn-tithes of each parish, if actually taken in kind, would be worth 2407. per annum. But as impropriate like other tithes are generally let, and of course greatly below their real value, though not in the same proportion as those of the parochial Clergy, which are certainly underlet, fall fifty per cent. on the average; and as a considerable number of impropriations have been greatly or wholly restored to their respective vicarages, or have become virtually annihilated by various causes.... when proper deductions are made on these accounts out of each impropriation, it will be seen that 2007. per annum is not a mere unauthorized statement of the value of each impropriation.-Inquiry, pp. 53–55. The actual charge of tithes on the average in the pound, or by the acre, may be calculated from Mr. Beeke's Observations (on the property-tax). According to his apparently well-founded computation, the quantity of land in England should be stated at 38,500,000 acres only, of which the cultivated lands are 33,000,000, and the waste lands 5,500,000 acres. The annual rental of the cultivated lands, estimated by him at 14s. per acre, amounts to 23,100,000l., from which one-seventh must be deducted for the tithe-free lands, thereby reducing it to 19,800,000l. of rental subject to tithes and from the cultivated lands, oneseventh must be deducted for the tithe-free lands, thereby reducing them to 28,285,715 acres subject to tithes. The total amount of tithes, stated by him at 2,850,000l. per annum, when proportioned to 19,800,000l. of rental, and 28,285,715 acres, will give the actual average charge of tithes about 2s. 10d. in the pound, or about 2s. per acre.-Inquiry, p. 56. From Mr. Vancouver's General View of the Agriculture of Essex, where the proportion of arable is higher than in most other counties (p. 4), may be deduced a fair presumption, that neither vicars, rectors, nor lay-impropriators, have by any means enforced extravagant claims. In his summary table, we see that the average composition for tithes of every kind, great and small, and whether paid to the Clergy or the laity, is scarcely 3s. 6d. an acre, and their advance during the last twenty years, only 1s. 14d. This may be considered as pretty authentic information. We are certain at least it is not too low. It was taken upon the spot, from the mouths of the farmers themselves, who could have no inducements to diminish, but might be under some temptations to enhance.—Howlett's Inquiry concerning the Influence of Tithes upon Agriculture. 1800. Dr. Cove published a third edition of his work, giving an account of the approximated value of a very extensive number of livings in the seven years preceding 1816, when the average price of a quarter of wheat was 108 shillings. From the result of this last calculation, it appeared that the value of parochial benefices in England and Wales, as arising out of tithes, had then advanced to 2,031,000l. being an increase since 1798, of 650,000l. in the gross amount.... According to the parliamentary returns under the property-tax, the amount of tithes, lay and ecclesiastical, in England and Wales, was, in 1814, 2,732,8381. : in the ten years preceding 1814, 2,292,2871.—Lyall's Charge. But now "the amount of Church-tithes is 6,844,800l. per annum. M. THE NEEDLE'S EYE. MR. EDITOR,-Since the discontinuance of Mr. Valpy's Classical Journal, the pages of a certain antiquated Magazine have been reopened to the reception of what the Editor courteously denominates Classical Researches. Amusing as are the specimens of "learned correspondence," exhibited in these disquisitions, no one would probably think it worth his while to subject them to further comment, were there no topics introduced but such as come strictly under the title of Classical Literature. When, however, the pages of the Sacred Volume are subjected to the same trifling familiarities with a Greek Epigram, or a Latin Leonine, I think it becomes the duty of the clerical As an additional proof of the correctness of the calumnious Black-Book, we find it has paraded the name of "Charles Wolffe Eyre, Prebendary of York :-Charles Wolffe Eyre, Rector of Carlton, &c. &c." Now it so happens that this gentleman has nothing in the world to do with either of those places. student to interpose his humble effort to interrupt, if possible, so idle and detrimental an interference. The numbers of the Magazine to which I have alluded, for February, March, and April last, have contained a variety of letters (one of them from a gentleman who ought to know better), of the most puerile and offensive nature, upon the meaning of the expression, “ κάμηλον διὰ τρυπήματος ῥαφίδος διελθεῖν,” as recorded by the first three Evangelists. Notwithstanding the proposed interpretation of κάμιλος (or, as Bowyer would have it, κάβηλος, or κάβιλος), a rope or cable, as better calculated to suit the refinement of modern adaptation, I shall take the liberty of retaining kaunλos, a camel, in my own copy of the New Testament; and, for the satisfaction of such sceptical gentlemen as cannot comprehend the analogy of an oriental metaphor, I will relate a circumstance recently communicated to me by a gentleman who has visited the Holy City, and which elucidates, in a manner the most clear and satisfactory, the apparent difficulty of the phrase. "In a suburb of Jerusalem," he says, "there stand the remains of a bar or gate, at which an embargo is said to have been once paid on camels entering the city with spices and other commodities from Arabia Felix and Idumæa. By the side of this gate was a narrow postern or wicket, with a revolving cross-bar, capable of admitting a foot-passenger, but which it was next to impossible that a camel could squeeze through, and so evade the duty. This wicket is still known by the name of "The Needle's Eye;" and probably the title was common to other passes of the like description. Hence the proverb, applied to any work of difficulty, "EVкоTWTÉρov éσrì káμnλov," &c. To the same image may be referred the expression of our Lord, “ ὅτι στένη ἡ πύλη, καὶ τεθλιμμένη ἡ ὁδὸς...” and not very dissimilar is the Indian proverb, "to drive an elephant in-doors." I am, Sir, your obedient Servant, SCRUTATOR. LAST HOURS OF THE EMPRESS MARIA FEODOROWNA, Mother of Nicholas I. Emperor of Russia. Or those exalted persons who have filled their high calling with most honour to their station, and greatest advantage to their subjects, by holding up, in their own conduct, an illustrious example and incitement to the offices of Christian charity, it would indeed be difficult to select a model more perfect, in all its parts, than the life of the late Empress Maria Feodorowna: and it is for this reason, that we have selected the following details from the papers of a close observer,* who was her proud and willing agent in many an act of unostentatious benevolence. We are anxious also that the reader's memory should store up a new instance of the heavenly placidity with which the virtuous soul passes from this world into a brighter and a happier state. *The Rev. Canon Meyer, of Hamburgh. 66 Fully prepared for her removal from this chequered scene," says the writer, "she rested her closing eyes on what was most dear to her on earth; extended her feeble hand in blessing on her children's heads, and bequeathed her benediction to each of those who were distant from her side in this solemn moment. The youthful heir to the throne, her grandson, was also brought into the apartment; he asked her, whether she was not anxious to see his sisters, and upon her answer in the affirmative, hastened to fetch them, and in another minute brought them into the presence of the dying princess. On them also she bestowed her blessing; with a last effort, in which she was assisted by her beloved son, the Emperor Nicholas, she laid her faltering hand on the head of her youngest grandchild, and in the act of blessing him, fell into a soft slumber, from which she awoke for an instant to cast a fond and parting glance on Nicholas; and then, without a sigh or pang, her soul winged its flight to the mansions of the blessed. It was the third hour after midnight; a gentle motion of the lip shewed that the spirit had fled; and a heavenly smile still rested on her features, when her pulse had ceased to throb." "This lamentable event clothed all Russia in mourning. It robbed orphans of a mother, and the unfortunate of an everwatchful and generous protectress. No words can describe the deep and universal sensation it made; it preyed on every heart, from the throne to the peasant's cottage; but in no quarter so poignantly as among the dependents on those charities, whether of private benevolence or education, of which she was an indefatigable conductress for a period of two and fifty years; tending them with an activity and zeal, a degree of affection and constancy, to which it is impossible I should ever again be an eye-witness. I speak without hyperbole, when I say, that there was scarcely a moment of her existence which was not signalized by some act of beneficence, or consecrated to the practice of the most exalted of female virtues. She never, at any one period of her life, discharged a servant, or allowed them to retire from her service, without seeing the means of subsistence provided both for them and their families, and directing the admission of their children into some one of the various asylums for education, of which she was the parent or active patroness. She never gave note beforehand of her intention to visit any one of these institutions; she came upon the conductors unawares, and inspected its whole condition with a searching eye, from the cellar to the uppermost floor. Amongst all her good deeds, none shone brighter than the benevolent and heartfelt concern which she lavished upon the sufferers in the late campaign in Turkey.* High and low, rich and poor, equally shared her charity; she personally visited those who had been bereaved of some dear relative; breathed words of consolation into their breaking hearts; sent them pecuniary or other relief, as the case required; and took those children under her motherly protection, who had lost their parental stay and protectors. Her generosity, on this mournful occasion, reduced her to the necessity of even borrowing a considerable |