Notices of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America. 753 of the excellent Bishop are felt and imitated. And where there are harmony of views, and concentration of strength, happy results may be rightfully anticipated. MISSISSIPPI. The Church in this state has but recently been received into union with the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. Though in its infancy, a prospect is presented which affords ample encouragement to the continual exertions of its Ministers, and the zealous co-operation of every member of the laity. In the vast population which has journeyed to the western borders of the country, there are to be found many families who belong to the communion of the Church, who have been educated in its principles, nurtured in its faith, and governed by its discipline. To such as have been located in this diocese, the happy privilege has been granted of again worshipping their God and Redeemer in that "reasonable and holy manner which seems agreeable to Scripture, and is in accordance with the ancient custom of the Primitive Church." The short space of eight years has only elapsed since the regular ministrations were first performed in this state by a Clergyman of the Episcopal Church; and that the pious exertions have been blessed, who can doubt that contemplates the present growing condition of the Church in Mississippi, and believes in the promises of God to his faithful people? There are at present in this diocese four officiating Clergymen, and five congregations. Within the last three years there have been sixty-five baptisms, thirty marriages, twenty funerals; the number of communicants is fifty. The services of the Church are here regularly and statedly performed; the Sacraments rightly and duly administered; and the children instructed in and examined on the doctrines and duties contained in the Catechism, as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer. It is also deemed proper to observe, that in no case are the Rubrics of the Church here departed from; and while the Clergy most ardently and earnestly urge the necessity of a holy life, devotion to God, and faith in the merits of the Saviour, as the surest foundation of all Christian hope, they also regard a strict conformity to the prescribed offices of the Church, as the best security to the continuance of that "unity of spirit, and bond of peace," bequeathed to the Apostles by the Chief Shepherd and Bishop of the Church. There are, within the limits of this diocese, several flourishing villages, where it is thought Churches might be organized, could Missionaries be found who would devote themselves to such an undertaking. During the three years last past, Churches have been erected under the committee of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society at St. Louis and Detroit. Missionaries, most of whom are labouring with highly encouraging prospects, have been sent to St. Augustine, Pensacola, and Tallahasse, in Florida; and to Tuscaloose in Alabama: a settlement of the Oneida Indians in Michigan has been taken under the care of the Society. With respect to the domestic operations of the Society, the Committee have been forcibly impressed with the effect which has been produced by the visit to Tenessee and Kentucky, of the Bishop of North Carolina; its effect in enlarging our acquaintance with the true condition of that interesting region, and in disclosing to us the extensive and touching demands which are made from thence for the services of the Church. Could such visits be made more frequently, and extensively, and leisurely, it is obvious, that while a most favourable impression would be made in behalf of the Church, a mass of information would be collected which would be invaluable. It is, therefore, with the most lively satisfaction, we have heard, that a proposition is now before the Board of Directors, to invite one of the Bishops to visit the valley of the Mississippi, with a reference to this object; and that it is contemplated, that on his return, he shall make it his especial business to awaken throughout the southern Atlantic states a more extensive and active interest in behalf of this Society. It is evident that a spirit of active philanthropy is abroad in the world. The highest dignitaries of the Church are seen, at one time, traversing mountains to visit distant and scattered members of their spiritual flocks; at another, collecting around them the children of the forest, who have been reclaimed from Pagan darkness through their instrumentality, and dispensing to them Christian counsel and blessing; and again standing up before the highest and most solemn council of the Church, and pleading in behalf of the Missionary cause. We may not feel prepared to embark in the support of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the United States, but we must be willing to bid it God speed. Careful, in the first place, to give it such a form as will recommend it to the favour and patronage of all who ought to be its friends; careful to see that in the conduct of its affairs there is activity in raising the means, caution in selecting the Missionaries, and economy in disbursing the resources; we must then call on all who feel an interest in this object, on all who, loving the Lord Jesus Christ, are constrained by that love to labour for the salvation of those who are afar off, to give it their united, their hearty, and their steady support. THE EXTRAORDINARY BLACK-BOOK, AND THE REVENUES SOME years have elapsed since an attempt was made to enter into a new composition for the tithes of the parish of Bishopsgate, in the City of London. The value of the tithes was estimated at a very considerable sum, I think 6,000l., by a busy common councilman of the ward. The sum asked by the Rector, Dr. Mant, was considerably below that sum; I think not more than 3,000l. The precise sums are, however, of less consequence, because the higher value was, according to the newspapers, maintained by the common councilman; whose chief objection in resisting the claim was, that it was too large a sum for a Clergyman to receive. Let me ask what would be thought of such an objection, in any contract in which a Parson was not concerned? What would a landlord think of a tenant who admitted that the rent was not too high for the farm, but who objected that the landlord's income was already more than he ought to receive? If such objections were made by the tenants of the Duke of Bedford, or Lord Petre, or Mr. Coke of Norfolk, would they be considered prudent, or honest, or worthy of any very respectful notice? If it is admitted in the case of the Parsons, will it be found convenient to stop there? May not the Irish, who are now refusing, and instructed to refuse the payment of tithes, look hereafter for some abatement of rents? and has not a declaration already appeared, that they will not pay more than a stipulated sum? I have myself been obliged to listen to passionate declarations on the inordinate wealth of the aristocracy, and on the expediency of extorting, for the public service, all which they may possess beyond a certain amount. The hint which I have already quoted from the Black-Book, is sufficiently open and sufficiently insidious. "One extravagance in society generates another to keep it in countenance. Because we have a King who costs a million a year"-i. e. not half a million-"we must have Lords with a quarter of a million, and Bishops with fifty thousand a year; and, as a consequence of all this, a labourer's wages cannot be more than tenpence a day: he must live on oatmeal and potatoes, and have the penny roll not bigger than his thumb." Let the Lords of the soil direct their thoughts to the tendency of this insinuation against the rights of property, in which the law protects them, and to which the envy of the labouring poor is directed. The extravagance and exaggeration of the whole statement hardly needs to be pointed out. It is part of the levelling war of opinion against property; and, although it is rather bold to talk in one page of Bishops with 50,000l. a year, and in the very opposite page to calculate, with an appearance of minute exactness, the incomes of the Archbishops at but 26,465l., and those of the Bishops at 10,1747.,—although I must say, as I think, that this is a bold assertion, need I to say how the offence is to be removed? By the very simple process of taking from him that has too much, and giving to him that has too little. The poorer man is of course to be the judge, and his judgment the rule of distributing and appropriating the excess. Some will be content to reduce the maximum of property to fifty, twenty, ten, or even five thousand a year, taking especial care not to contract their own incomes. But there are others who will think all these sums very excessive. There are men with one hundred, with fifty, with thirty pounds a year, who will like to make up their deficiencies from the excesses of the class above them. The tenant will appropriate the rent of the landlord; the labourer will not object to the profits of the farmer: and if the amount, instead of the right of property, is to be made the chief subject of consideration, the strongest man will obtain the largest share in the scramble; and when every man's loaf is as big as his fist, instead of being as small as his thumb, all will be peace and prosperity, till the children begin a new quarrel for the largest apple, or the ripest cherry. The landlords, however, with the help of the lawyers, will for a time be able to secure their estates; and the farmers will call upon the yeomanry and special constables to assist them in the protection of their corn-stacks. It is only the Parsons who are at present required to render the account of their incomes, and to reckon with the spoiler upon the probable amount of the spoil, and upon the benefits which may be expected from its new appropriation. The editor of the Black-Book estimates the revenues of the Church at 9,459,565l. Be it so and let the people, if they will have it, take it all, upon the only condition of a fair and equal division. By the census of 1821, there were nearly twelve millions of persons in England and Wales; and if these all have their share in the assumed property of the Church, each will be benefited to the amount of 16s. a year, or a fraction more than one halfpenny a day; i. e. when there are no Parsons to be paid-the father of a family, consisting of himself, his wife and three children, will have two-pence halfpenny a day more than he has at present. This would be the effect of abolishing the Parsons. But there are some who would not set the Parsons entirely aside they would only reduce their incomes to 300l. a year each; and they would also have Bishops for the superintendence of the Clergy, with 5,000l. a year each. Upon this scheme, if there were but 10,000 parishes in the kingdom, and twenty-six Bishops to be provided for at this rate, it would consume 3,130,000l., and there would of course remain, of the former estimate, a balance of less than six millions and a half to be distributed; which, equally divided, would yield to each person less than eleven shillings a year, and hardly more than than two-pence halfpenny, the price of a pint of beer, a week. This would be the effect of reducing the Parsons. But if the revenues of the Church amount to no such sums as are assumed; if, according to the view which I have taken of them, their total amount cannot be shewn to approach the aggregate sum of 4,000,000l., what is the result, but that if the whole of that sum were given up to other uses than the promotion of true religion and virtue, none of the twelve millions of the people would derive a benefit from the confiscation, exceeding six shillings and eight-pence a year, twentypence a quarter, not one penny three farthings a week, not one farthing a day. Verily these Parsons are a pretty expense to the country; a nuisance which ought to be instantly abated; and it is wise to cry at the hustings, Hear, hear! and Shame, shame! and Ho! to the spoil! when it is said how these Parsons cripple the energies of the country, and put their hands into the pockets of the poor! But I have not yet exposed the whole of this grievous burthen. Archdeacon Lyall indignantly exclaims: The enormous expence of the present establishment! Now supposing it to be as great as is generally stated, yet to whom? I would ask. Not to the poor; that is not pretended. Not to the householders in our large towns; for they contribute nothing to the support of the Clergy, except in the shape of fees for services actually performed. Not to the farmer; for he is quite aware that what he pays in tithes is subtracted from his rent, and would be added to it were there no Church to be maintained. Not to the land-owner; for if the tithes were done away to-morrow, he cannot be so ignorant as to suppose that they would be made a present of to him. Not to the State, for the tithes never belonged to the State. -Charge, p. 17. While I cordially subscribe to this statement of the Archdeacon, as far as it goes, I am in doubt whether it meets the full extent of the controversy in which I am engaged with the editor of the BlackBook, as it relates to the expense of religion to the country, which, in my judgment, amounts to the smallest possible trifle. The composition for tithes is the rent of certain estates, let to tenants at a profit, or they would not be taken. The incomes of the Bishops, Deans, and other dignitaries, which do not consist of customary fees paid chiefly by the Clergy, and the incomes of colleges, and school foundations, are also raised from the rents of estates, whether of tithes, lands, or houses, taken again by their occupiers with a view to profit. The stipends of perpetual curacies are in the nature of a rent-chargemore to the benefit of those that pay, than those that receive. Many of the lectureships and chaplaincies in public institutions, have estates of real or funded property, and are so far no burthen to the public generally. Glebes and parsonage-houses would also impose a rent on the occupier, and on the public the expense of repairs. From the nine millions and a half, therefore, at which the editor of the Black-Book estimates the expense of religion to the country, I am entitled to deduct eight millions and three quarters, which the Church contributes out of its own estates; and the whole expense which falls upon the public for pew-rents, in extra-parochial or the new churches and chapels, for Church fees and Easter offerings, is less, according to the Black-Book, than three quarters of a million, and is, in truth, less than half a million; and this is all which the public pays towards the maintenance of the Clergy, for work done without value received. This expense, divided among twelve millions of people, will cost each person ten-pence a year; or each family, consisting of five persons, less than one penny a week. But I am told, that England affords the only grand monument of ecclesiastical wealth remaining to shew the intellectual bondage of men in times of superstition, before the more general diffusion of knowledge and education. Except in this country, the people have everywhere cast off the prejudices impressed upon them during the dark ages, that it was necessary to yield up a large portion of their property and the fruits of their industry to be consumed by a numerous body of idle and luxurious ecclesiastics. The subjoined comparison will shew that the Churches of the Roman Catholic faith present as singular a contrast with their ancient revenues, as with the present enormity of the Church of England opulence,— Black-Book, p. 58. The drift of the subjoined comparison is to shew, that while the Clergy of 201,728,000 Christians, dispersed over the globe, receive but 8,999,000l., the Clergy of the 6,500,000 members of the Church of England receive 9,459,565l. It is not stated from whence any of these estimates are taken; and when I see the "Christians in Turkey," reckoned at 6,000,000, paying 30,000l. for each million of hearers, and, in the aggregate, 180,000l. for the remuneration of ecclesiastics; and again, "Christians dispersed elsewhere" paying 50,000l. for the million, and 150,000l. for the mass, I am free to ask whether the cost of religion in the moon, or in the Georgium Sidus, may not be calculated from the same data. The only sum to be worked is: given a guess; required a conclusion. I will not attempt to analyze these calculations: I will offer specimens of them to the reader, only |