To what next of kin are these livings given? or to what family are they never lost? Is it ignorance or art, knavery or folly, which dictates this tissue of absurdity? That is the question which requires an answer, of the degree of credit which is due to assertions thus huddled together, there will be no dispute. I may now be thought to hazard a questionable proposition, in following the example of Bishop Watson, who, when he included in his estimate of the revenues of the Clergy, those of the two Universities, with their respective colleges, made the reservation, that "being lay corporations, they ought not to be taken into the account;" and so, I conceive, that from every estimate of the revenues of the Clergy, the sum, whatever it may be, appropriated to "College and School Foundations," ought to be rejected. The secular interests of the Church might be abolished, and these institutions be left; or these institutions might cease, and the Church remain. They have no necessary dependence, connexion, or community of interests; they rest on totally different foundations; their estates are administered on different principles. The Church, not less than the State, rejoices in their welfare, as means of promoting true religion and useful learning; but the service which they render, the merit which they reward, is not properly ecclesiastical; and except, as some of their body happen to minister in the Church, and as a considerable portion of their wealth consists in ecclesiastical patronage, in right of which they draw from the Church, without contributing to the Church, they have no proper share of the general funds of the Church. The emolument assigned to the masters of Charity Schools and National Schools, of the Proprietary Schools in connexion with King's College, and of the masters and professors of King's College itself, might, with the same propriety, be called a of the revenues of the Church. These, not less than the funds of the Universities and public schools, are derived from distinct sources, of which the Clergy, as Clergy, have no share, which are not the funds of the Church, because the masters whom they maintain are Clergymen, and which can in no wise be said to constitute any part of the average income of the Clergy. They are a distinct and specific fund. The funds of Merchant Taylors' School, and of St. John's College, might as well be confounded with those of the Merchant Taylors' Company, or those of Tonbridge School with the funds of the Skinners' Company.

66

Lectureships in towns and populous places" may, or may not, amount to 60,000l. No ground is stated for the calculation. I can hardly believe that there are 1,000 of these lectureships, producing 60l., or 600, producing 100l. to the several lecturers. There is,

66

What the

I think, an error in the estimate of the number or the value, and little injury will be done in admitting but half of the valuation. Chaplaincies and offices in the public institutions." offices may produce I know not: the chaplaincies to the Royal Family, Peers, Peeresses, and Judges, and even the Bishops, are all gratuitous. Those to the King are considered rather a privilege and honour, than emolument; but as the sum stated is but 10,000l. let it stand without objection.

"New Chapels and Churches, 94,050l.," to be collected at the rate

of 450. from each of 209 new churches. This is a large sum to be raised from pew-rents, when allowance is made for the free-sittings, most properly reserved for the poor. The author of the “ Remarks on the Consumption of Public Wealth by the Clergy," appropriates but 100,000l. to what he calls "Chapels-of-ease stipends;" which, whether they do or do not include the new Churches, are numerous in the Metropolis, and in Bath and Liverpool, and other towns. The Editor of the Black-Book must not, however, be offended at my rejecting the whole of this sum. He distributes the whole revenue of the Clergy among 11,342 benefices. This is the exact number stated in the Quarterly Review; viz. 5,177 rectories, 4,516 vicarages, 1,000 perpetual curacies, and 649 benefices not parochial. The aggregate emoluments of the perpetual curacies and benefices, not parochial, have, as I have already observed, been copied from the Quarterly Review into the Black-Book; and I have corrected the error which made the benefices not parochial amount to 2500. instead of 500. each. Now the new churches and chapels must either be included in the benefices not parochial, or the total number of the benefices must be raised from 11,342 to 11,552. The divisor or the dividend must be altered, and it will occasion the least disturbance in the calculations of the Black-Book to reject the whole charge of 94,0500.

The total sum appropriated in the Black-Book to these several accounts, distinct from Church tithe, and the incomes of the Bishops, Deans, and Chapters, is 1,783,650l. From this sum, I consider myself fully entitled to deduct 1,084,603l., viz. for excess of Church fees, 260,786l. ; for excess of Easter Offerings, 21,677l. ; for excess of Lectureships, 30,000l.; the whole sum charged to College and School Foundations, 682,150l., and the whole sum charged to new Churches and Chapels 94,0501. The balance of 699,050l., which I leave, is, I am persuaded, far more liberal than justice requires, and it is almost double the sum added to the amount of Church tithe, by the author of "Remarks on the Consumption of Public Wealth, by the Clergy," which is for assessments on houses in towns, &c. 250,000l., and for Chapels-of-ease stipends, 100,000.

The total sum charged by the Editor of the Black-Book to the account of the parochial clergy is 8,668,450l.; viz. for tithes 6,884,800l., and for other emoluments 1,783,650l. This sum, distributed among 11,342 benefices, makes the average value of each benefice 7647. These benefices are, however, distributed among 7,191 incumbents, having an average income of 1,205l. each (p. 51); or, as it is otherwise stated (p. 54), there are

2,886 aristocratic pluralists, mostly non-residents, and holding two, three, four or more livings, in all 7,037 livings, averaging each, tithes, glebes, church-fees, &c. £764...

Average income of
each individual.

4,305 incumbents, holding one living each, and about one-half resident on their benefices

£1,863

764

Total incomes.

£5,379,430

3,289,020

The sum which I have ventured to ascribe to the use of the parochial Clergy is, for tithe 2,592,120l., and for other emoluments

699,050.; together, 3,291,170l.: and this sum I would distribute among 11,342 beneficed clergymen, deriving from each benefice an annual income not exceeding 3001. I say advisedly not exceeding 300l., because I am persuaded that both the premises and the conclusion are formed on an extravagant estimate.

The difference between me and the Editor of the Black-Book is reduced to a very simple question,-Does every benefice in the kingdom yield to the incumbent an average income of 7647. or an income not exceeding 300l.?

I believe that there is but one instance of the present value of a living mentioned in the Black-Book :

The valuation of the rectory of Alresford in the King's Book is only 8. a-year; the extent of the parish is 1,400 acres; yet the composition for tithes, paid by the parishioners, amounts to 300l. per annum, being an increase of more than thirty-seven fold.-P. 39.

If this is a specimen from which an average may be gathered, the great tithes are worth about 4s. 3d. an acre; and, to say nothing of the vicarages, each rectory must contain 3,542 acres, or the tithe income of the Clergy will not amount to 7641. Now let every one residing in the country determine whether 3,532 or 4,100 acres, paying tithes, are more usually found in the parishes of the country. If the whole cultivated surface of the country were equally divided into 11,342 benefices, it would not allow more than 2,800 acres to each benefice; and of this it has been shewn that but two-thirds pay tithes to the Clergy. Now 1,867 acres, paying tithes at 4s. would yield not 7647., but 3751. only.

In the statement of the Black-Book, copied from the Quarterly Review, there are included 1,000 perpetual curacies of the average value of 751. each, 649 benefices, not parochial, of the average value of 50l. each. The total sum appropriated to these benefices is 107,450l. which, being deducted from 8,668,450l. leaves a balance of 8,561,000l. to be distributed among 9,693 rectories and vicarages at the rate of nearly 9007. each. Will any one acquainted with the Church or the country agree in the truth of this statement? If the total sum of 1,783,650l., supposed to be derived from other instruments than tithes, were equally distributed among 11,342 benefices, it would yield but 1487. to each benefice, and consequently every rectory and every vicarage must receive from tithes alone a sum hardly less than 750l.; that is, every vicarage and every rectory must contain more than 3,000 acres, of which the tithe is paid at the rate of 50l. for every acre.

Again. By the diocesan returns of 1827 it appears that there are 2,496 benefices under 300l. per annum, and 1,223 of the gross value of 300l. and upwards. Now if, of 3,719 benefices, 2,496 are under 300l., it is not unreasonable to conclude that of the whole number, 11,342, there are 7,343 under 300l. There remain 3,999 benefices of the value of 3001. and upwards; and is the excess of these 3,999 benefices above 300l. such, that they themselves and their 7,343 poorer brethren may all boast of an average income of 764l.? If the 7,343 benefices which are under 300l. are estimated at that sum, they will consume but 2,202,900l. out of the 8,668,450l. which the

Editor of the Black-Book appropriates to the parochial Clergy; the balance, 6,465,550l., distributed among the 3,999 richer benefices, will yield to each an average income exceeding 1,600l. Let gentlemen in Wales ask the question, Is every benefice of the value of 3001.? Let gentlemen in England ask, Are all benefices, above 300l., worth 1,600l. a-year?

There is another criterion. In 1809 there were 3,998 livings returned under the value of 150l. Now, if more than one-third of all the benefices of the kingdom are under 150l., is it by any means probable that the whole are of such value as to raise the general average to more than five times the value of this third part? I will exhibit from the Black-Book a list of these benefices, adding in the third column, the aggregate amount of the sums which they are said to exceed. There are

If these 3,998 benefices consume not more than 332,7801. out of the alleged 8,668,450l., there will remain for the other 7,344 benefices an aggregate income of 8,335,670l. and a several income of 1,135l. But are two out of every three livings worth 1,1357.? Or if there are 3,998 livings under 150l., and, according to the calculation which I have already made, but 399 exceeding 300., is it the more reasonable to conclude that the average value of the whole is 7647., or that it does not exceed 300l.?

I think that I have here the ground of another computation. Of the 3,998 livings under 1507., the average value, collected from the highest estimate, is not more than 847. per annum. If, then, these benefices are worth but little more than the half of the highest sum, or 150l., the 7,343 benefices, which I have calculated to be under 300l. will not be worth more than half of the highest sum, and will be estimated at their full value if they are said not to exceed 1757. each. If, then, two-thirds of the benefices do not exceed the sum of 175l., it probable that the remaining third part is of such value as to raise the whole to an average not only exceeding 300l., but amounting to 7647.? If this calculation is admitted, the benefices of the Church may be thus classed :--there will be

is

I. 3,998 benefices with an annual average income of.

£84

II. 7,343 including the former....

175

or 3,345 excluding the former.

284

477

III. 3,999 benefices with an annual average income of

if the calculation which I have offered is approved, or of 1,845l., if that of the Black-Book is preferred. While I ask again if every third benefice is of the value of 1,845l., (for which purpose it must contain 7,384 acres, paying tithes at 5s. by the acre,) I cannot avoid remarking, that on the calculation which I have adopted, and in which I am not conscious of assuming any thing which is not justified by the plain use of figures, that if there are 3,998 benefices under 1507. and 3,999 above 300l. (and the coincidence of figures is curious,) there can be nothing very extravagant in concluding that the average value of the whole does not exceed 300l. a-year.

I have always regretted that the amount of the revenues of the Church cannot be ascertained more directly and with less appearance of calculation and inference. The laity, who profess to feel, and are wont to complain of the burthen of tithes, and who, confounding the private with the professional incomes of the Clergy, or being acquainted with some unhappy instances of accumulated preferment, give credit to the reports of the enormous wealth of the Church, and close their eyes against the many instances of its poverty, are prone to believe that under the veil of mystery which envelops the wealth of the Church, there is something which needs to be concealed. But let them look into the dioceses of South Wales, where the abject penury of the Church is almost without conception, and where, as in the diocese of St. David's, 400 benefices have been returned under 150l. a-year. Let them look again into Lincolnshire, where, as was stated in the Agricultural Report for the county, "the livings are miserably poor," and incapable of providing for an officiating minister oftener than once a fortnight, or three weeks, or even a month. (See Cove's Inquiry, pp. 87, 88.) Or let them listen to the report of the Encyclopædia Britannica, and learn that, "in England the vicarages and small rectories from which we have reason to believe that the incumbents do not reap 801. a-year, greatly exceed all the livings in Scotland; nay, we doubt if there be not upwards of 1,000 livings in England and Wales, from which the rector or vicar derives not above 501. annually." Let them be brought to consider facts rather than reports, and to reflect upon what they see and know rather than upon what they hear and read, and the vision of the enormous wealth of the Church will quickly vanish from their view.

A charge was, some years since, brought against some of the Irish Bishops, concerning the amount of certain fines which they were reported to have received, and the charge was wisely met by stating the sums which had been actually received. A similar charge against the Bishop of London has been more recently obviated with the same straight-forward and manly simplicity and when the hustings of Essex were lately re-echoing the statements of the BlackBook, and one of the provincial journals, circulated freely in the county, was employed in shewing how liberally the Clergy might be provided for, and how much might yet be taken from the revenues of