a wonder great indeed, if not explained on grounds already stated. The first case we bring forward is that of a living in the diocese of Exeter, the tithes of which were commuted at 6201., and produced therefore, in the year 1853 (after the deduction on corn averages), 5587., which with glebe, &c., estimated at 50l., made the gross value of the benefice to be 6087. The payments out of this living for the year in question, the first of incumbency, were as follows, before any income was left for private expenses : Stamp fees and charges on institution Tenths Poor-rate (this item unusually small) Income-tax (7d. in the pound) Land and house-tax £ S. d. 44 3 0 43 17 9 To Queen Anne's Bounty, loan for rebuilding house 38 0 0 Assessed taxes, schools, and parochial charities are not here included, yet only 2081. 58. 6d. are left for these and also for personal uses; and this was a living that appeared at first sight to hold out the prospect of ease and abundance. We now take the case of a vicarage, the income of which, after the deduction for corn-averages, was last year (1854) 3107. 9s. 1d. The enormous amount of poor-rates in many rural districts as well as in towns, and the crying need of some fresh system for their assessment, even on grounds independent of their unequal pressure on the Clergy, are strikingly illustrated by this case, which is taken from the diocese of Rochester: Outgoings-Poor-rates for rent-charge and vicarage 79 6 3 4 6 0 7 11 Queen Anne's Bounty for advance on vicarage house 49 5 0 Insurance 0 18 0 12 3 10/1/2 178 16 21 A net income is here left of 1317. 12s. 10d. without any allowance being made for repairs, losses, expenses in collecting, schools, and other parochial charities incident to a population of 1,400 persons. Some other instances we put together in a tabular form, the more readily to contrast the amount of rent-charge with the necessary legal outgoings on it, without including curates: Let us hear what some of these gentlemen have to say for themselves, in illustration of their figures. No. 1, out of a total income of about 265/., pays 601. a-year to Queen Anne's Bounty for his parsonage, 321. to parochial rates, 51. for collections, besides income-tax and other charges, amounting in all to the above 1427., to which may be added 521. for a curate. No. 2, out of 847. pays 167. in rates, and from the nature of his income has to give no less than 81. to the collector. No. 3, with a total value, including fees, parsonage, &c., of 4467., pays 537. to Queen Anne's Bounty for his house, 517. for poor-rates, 127. land-tax, 257. to the collector, &c., leaving him only 2351. No. 4 pays 60%. in parochial rates alone, land-tax being 191. No. 5 pays 957. to poor and highway-rates, and 40%. to land and income-tax; there is also a charge on his living of 50l., payable to a sinecure rectory, now appropriated to a district chapelry. No. 6 was presented to a living in 1850, worth 2271. a-year gross, as a reward for sixteen years' faithful service in the Church. About two years since the land-tax was unexpectedly raised from 17. 58. to 147. 88., the former sum having been paid for a century. Poor-rates are 347., and 251. has to be paid to Queen Anne's Bounty for his house. It is hard,' he says, 'out of so small a living to have so many outgoings; again, there are 6 'schools to be supported, poor relieved, local societies which 'demand assistance. Surely something should be done, and that immediately, to relieve us of these sore and oppressive ' burdens.' No. 7 enjoys what would be called a good living, the rentcharge of which last year amounted to 850%.; but poor-rates alone are 1527., highway-rates 677., land-tax 13.; the compulsory taxes amounting to 2631. Beyond this, however, he paid last year 2001. for curates, 80%. for schools, 27. 5s. for insurance. Henceforth he will be chargeable with 80l. to the incumbent of a district church; his income-tax is now 48., and the expenses of collection 457. All these deductions leave him about 2007. for all general expenses. No. 8 has a rent-charge worth last year 2347., which he has to collect from five hundred persons, living in eight townships. In his letter, he says:— 'I should explain to you that the old commutation was 180/., a sum which was allowed to be ridiculously insufficient, the living having been robbed for many years, in consequence of the easiness of the circumstances, as of the disposition, of an old vicar whom I succeeded twelve years ago, on which occasion the new act was brought into force. The sum of 2567. was intended to cover every outgoing, and leave the living improved. Indeed, I heard the assistant-commissioner say to some of the landowners, who, dissatisfied with the semblance of a rise, threatened to appeal against his award, "Take care what you do, gentlemen; you will burn your own fingers. I am not giving the vicar half as much as he would get if he were a hard man, and determined to have all that the law would give him." After all, the net rent-charge for this year will be actually below the old commutation.' In this case we cannot understand how the commissioner reconciled his opinions, not to say his conscience, with his decision. Justice ought in his person to have rendered it unnecessary that a man should be hard in order to have his rights awarded him; but ex pede Herculem,' it is a fair specimen of the dealings of civilians with Church property; for laymen there is another meaning. No. 9 has a glebe which, with fees, raises his rent-charge to an income of 4667.; but he pays 201. for land-tax, 637. for poorrates, 50%. for mortgage to build his house, which, with a curate and smaller legal charges, reduce his income to 1987., whence to provide all parochial charities, and to live in decency. No. 10 is an authority which we shall make use of under various heads. We will first quote our correspondent in proof of the very strong feeling which exists in the minds of moderate and sensible clergymen on the subject of our article. He is of mature years, a magistrate, and chairman of a Board of Guardians, and writes thus : I propose to put on paper a few thoughts that have occurred to me in relation to the heavy, and, as I believe, unequal pressure of various assessments and charges on the beneficed Clergy of England. It is to be hoped that when the subject comes to be more carefully discussed and understood, effectual steps will be taken not only to disabuse the public mind of the false impressions which have been made upon it, but to seek also, from the justice of Parliament and the country, that measure of relief which is so urgently called for by the circumstances. I believe that if the unequal pressure of which we complain were of small amount, it would be submitted to without remonstrance. However unintelligible to many minds, it is still a truth which we need not from false delicacy be afraid to avow, that the Clergy have a strong feeling that their energies, directed to the higher objects of their calling, ought not to be tired out by much attention to secular interests. They have something like an instinctive dread lest their people should suppose that they allow temporal interests to interfere with the efficient exercise of their spiritual duties; and hence it has passed into a proverbial expression, that the Clergy are not men of business. These observations account for the forbearance with which many acts of injustice have been submitted to.' We proceed now to consider, under separate heads, the many items which, when added together, make such very serious deductions from the income of an incumbent. To enable our readers to understand the amount of the hostile forces which carry on such unrelenting and successful warfare against the pockets of the English Clergy, we will enumerate them under three great divisions:-1st, What in military language may be styled the cavalry of ecclesiastical charges, improperly so called, under the command of registrars and other Church officials. 2d, The great mass of infantry (for the most part heavy), in the shape of parochial charges, which make steady and unceasing havoc of the pastor's income; and 3d, the far-ranging artillery of civil taxes on income, house, and everything else, which the Clergy, of course, have to pay in common with their fellowcountrymen. Besides, however, the loss occasioned by these external foes, there is the cost of maintaining spiritual auxiliaries for the pastor's proper work, scarcely less damaging in a pecuniary point of view; e. g. the cost of curates and of charities, most severely felt by the best men. Then come the wear and tear of material, which make some outlay constantly necessary on the chancel, on the school, for the purchase of books. Much also must be laid down to the score of unavoidable accidents, which are ever, on one plea or another, making unforeseen claims of a clergyman's resources. But beyond all these things, there are the constant demands of home and family, all the members of which must be educated and respectably settled in the world. Here is a catalogue of forces and of difficulties not unworthy of an epic poem. May the doleful muse of grievance and complaint enable us to exhibit the devastating powers of the great enemy in tones sufficiently pathetic to invoke, with good purpose, the sympathy and the help of those good and constant allies to any righteous and suffering cause, the justice, the common sense, and the religious feeling of the people of England! First, then, under the head of compulsory payments, we take those which may be called ecclesiastical. These are ordination fees, of which above; those paid to registrars at Bishops' and Archdeacons' visitations for purposes wholly unknown, such as procuration, of which the name is the only explanation; synodals, to pay the expense of synods that are never held; fees for the consecration of churches, demanded by well-to-do Bishops' officials, and wrung from resources already overdone by the cost of building; the petty annoyance of making clergymen, beneficed or not, pay two shillings on the occasion of a Bishop's first visitation, for the trouble given to the registrar in casting his official eyes on letters of orders; and, last but not least, the enormous charges on induction, with first-fruits and tenths. On the subject of ordination fees, and the minor payments which every official act of the Bishop, even in countersigning testimonials, entails with it, we are very glad to see that Archdeacon Allen, whose kindness and consideration for the poorer and junior clergy are well known by all who have had any dealings with him, either as examining chaplain or otherwise, has represented them as special gravamina, in the lower house of Convocation. This item of gravamina the Archdeacon represents in the following form : 'That his Grace the Archbishop, and their Lordships the Bishops, be humbly requested to consider whether the demand made for a fee by some Bishops' secretaries for the Bishop's countersignature to letters testimonial, ought not to be put an end to; and whether a uniform and reasonable charge for fees paid to the Bishops' secretaries for ordinations, institutions, and all other official acts, may not be settled and published. That his Grace the Archbishop, and their Lordships the Bishops, be humbly requested to consider, in reference to the consecration of churches and graveyards, how far the required writings may be simplified and the expenses lessened.' After some discussion his schedule was received, and we sincerely hope its purport will be acted upon without loss of time. The whole system of registrars' fees is one great abuse, derived from former days perhaps, but with this distinction, that once they were for certain definite and specific objects in which the clergy shared some benefit, whereas now the benefit is gone, while the payments alone remain. There was a time, for instance, when the Bishop or Archdeacon went round the diocese to visit the clergy, and small fees, originally invictuals' and |