On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
clergy have , as each provision has been made , craftil y eluded the remedy provided , and the reason is , because the Government drew upon them , who possessed affluence and laboured not , for the means of a scanty subsistence for those on whose exertions and purity of life the existence of the Church mainly depended . It would lead us too much into detail to speak of the various remedies devised , and the artifices by which they have been made of no effect : a state of things which is still in existence , and which a recent Act of Parliament has failed to remove .
It is not easy to arrive with precision at a knowledge of the annual consumption of wealth by the clergy of the establishment . That it is great , all admit : that it is enormous , some few of the whales of the hierarchy have good reason to know , while it is not easy to mention the exact sum . The third edition of a work , entitled " Remarks on the Consumption of Public Wealth by the Clergy , " makes the amount to be £ 7 , 600 , 000 . In the Quarterly Review , No . LVIIL , it is estimated at £ 3 , 872 , 138 , while the latest and most laboured estimate , that which is given in the " Extraordinary
Black Book . " " raises it to £ 9 . 459 . 565 . The cle rgy have taken erood care Black Book , raises it to £ 9 , 459 , 565 . The clergy have taken good care that as little as possible should be really known , and aware of their practices , we incline to think the highest estimate the nearest to the truth . Who enjoy this immense sum ? Efforts have been made to mystify the subject and to throw dust into people ' s eyes . The amount , whatever it has been allowed to be , has been divided by the number of the benefices , and then some two , three , or four hundred pounds per year have been declared the average . And is this , says the Church-advocate , too large a sum for a man of
education ? We answer first : if this be the average , how small must be the pittance of hundreds , since all allow that a few enjoy enormous emoluments ! If the topmost figure be 30 , 000 , what must be the lowest when the average is two , three , or four hundred ! And can a greater abuse exist than that a bishop should wallow in luxury while a priest pines away in penury ? We answer secondly : the whole of the benefices in England , to the number of 10 , 674 , are in the hands of 7191 incumbents . There are 2886 persons with 7037 livings ; 567 with 1701 livings ; 209 with 836 livings ; 64 with 320 livings . Some people imagine that there are as many rectors as
rectories , vicars as vicarages , prebendaries as prebends , deans as deaneries , &c . No such thing ; the 26 bishops , 700 dignitaries , and about 400 non-resident incumbents , principally belonging to the aristocracy , enjoy the greater part of the ecclesiastical revenues of Nine Millions sterling . And for what service ? But the miserable and disgraceful neglects of the beneficed clergy every one knows . Let us then turn to the workers , among whom are hundreds of excellent men . From the last parliamentary return on the subject , we learn that , for the year 1827 , out of 4254 curates in England and Wales , there were 1631 with salaries not exceeding £ 60 a year , and only 84 out of the whole number with salaries exceeding £ 160 . There were 59 with
incomes between £ 20 and £ 30 a year , and 6 with incomes between £ 10 and £ 20 . It is a fact that the bench of bishops receives nearly as much annually as all ihe curates in England and Wales ! Yes , the two archbishops and 24 bishops receive £ 297 , 115 , while 4254 curates receive only £ 319 , 050 . How it has come to pass that the aristocracy and their dependents have got possession of so many millions of the annual produce of the country may easily be learned from a statement exhibiting the hands in which lies the right of donation to Church livings . " The King ' s patronage is the bishoprics , all the deaneries in England , thirty prebends , twenty-three canonries , the mastership of the Temple , the wardenship of the Collegiate Church of
Untitled Article
History and Mystery of Church Property . 303
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1831, page 303, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2597/page/15/
-