Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

many opportunities will occur, to those that seek them, for inculcating this indirectly. The first object, in my opinion, is to gain the confidence and the respect of the young persons who meet together, and to prove to them, not so much by words as by deeds, that their former instructors and benefactors are willing to continue their present and their future friends; and this point gained, each person must use his own judgment in working out the influence thus obtained to the greatest possible advantage.

I am aware that these observations may appear very homely and common-place to some of your readers, and that your pages are, for the most part, devoted to subjects of more passing interest and greater learning; but I am sure that you will allow that every labourer in the vineyard may contribute something to the general stock, and, though he may not be able to furnish "strong meat" for those that are" of full age," i. e., for the wise and the learned, he may yet labour in a more humble, though not less useful, vocation, and be permitted to supply a little portion of food convenient for the young.

I remain, with great respect, your obedient servant, London, June 12th, 1837.

TYRO.

PLURALITIES BILL.

SIR,-In reply to your editorial remarks upon the letter of a "late Curate," I would observe, without meaning any disrespect to you, as the writer of those remarks, that you have fallen into the very error which you lay to my charge; that, namely, of giving an opinion unsupported by any reasoning. I plead guilty to the charge, and shall therefore, with your permission, now give you an opportunity of confuting, if you can, the facts upon which my suggestions were founded. Before I do this, I must express my obligation to you, not only for printing my letter, but more especially for your statement of the reason which has induced you to insert it,—namely, that "it gives a specimen of the feelings and views of a certain (it is hoped, a small) portion of clergy themselves; their determination, for one must not say their wish, to drive the better educated and higher classes out of the profession, if it is possible, and to bring the profession itself down far below the level of all others." Really, sir, such a display of sensitiveness, for one must not call it petulance, is usually considered to be token a consciousness of inferiority in argument, and I feel myself bound to thank you for the advantage you have unwillingly afforded to my side of the question. It may perhaps be seen, before I have done, whether your "better educated and higher classes" will have equal reason to express their gratitude. You complain, sir, that "no general view of the question is attempted; that I think 500l. enough," I suppose you mean for the support of a clergyman, "and so it is to be." Now, sir, this is an entire, for one must not call it a wilful, misrepresentation of what I did say; my words were these-"My own opinion is, that no one who holds preferment to the amount of 5001, a year, should be allowed to hold any second preferment at all." To

reconcile this opinion with your interpretation of it, you must shew1. That no single preferment exceeds the sum here specified; and, 2, That no clergyman, not even the "better educated and higher classes," are in possession of any pecuniary resources beyond what is supplied by their professional income. Either of these suppositions is too absurd to be dwelt upon. There is nothing, however, like an appeal to facts, and I will refer you, sir, for such as I shall now bring forward, to the Ecclesiastical Revenues Report, which you may easily examine for yourself; I make this reference the more readily, as you may thereby be enabled in your future numbers to comply with the suggestion made by a correspondent in your last, that it would be well to affix the value of the preferments noticed in your ecclesiastical intelligence for the month.

It appears, sir, by the report above mentioned, that there are 1461 livings, or nearly one seventh of the whole number, which exceed 500l. a year; to these must be added at least a hundred dignities (so called) in cathedrals, exceeding that amount, even if the reductions contemplated by the commissioners should be carried into effect; so that, under the most unfavourable circumstances, there will be at least 1560 clergymen in the country whose professional income, supposing my suggestion adopted, will vary from 500l. to 2,000l. a year, and upwards. At present, sir, the number of such barely amounts to 1,400, and there are 2,434 incumbents whose entire professional income does not amount to 2007. a year, while the remaining 2,448 who hold such livings, being pluralists, must, with few exceptions, employ curates upon an income considerably less.

I have before me, sir, a list of 485 pluralist incumbents, one benefice of each of whom amounts to 5001. a year; the names are at your service, if you will promise to print them, which I have hitherto refrained from doing; it being my object only to expose the system by which such abuses have been produced. I will observe, however, that not one in twenty have any claim, that I can discover, to the title of being "better educated," though some few of them may perhaps rank among the "higher classes.' Be this as it may, these 485 persons possess among them 1217 dignities and preferments, namely, 204 of the former, and 1013 of the latter, giving an aggregate net income of 654,5791., or an average to each of nearly 1,350. Now, sir, I would simply ask-not any of the gentlemen here alluded to, for, alas! their appetite but grows by what it feeds on-but any unprejudiced person, who has no hope, if you choose to put it so, of becoming a pluralist, or as I would rather say, no wish of incurring the responsibility such a character implies, I would ask him, sir, whether this state of things ought to continue? and whether, in the outcry which is now raging against our church, that clamour will not be the most difficult to be silenced which is directed against those who to such a fearful extent "have gathered where they have not strewn"?* .. I shall

The late Curate, in this part of his letter, has indulged in some remarks on the residentiaries of Salisbury, in consequence of some passages contained in the Memorial of the Dean and Chapter of that Cathedral, published in the last number

now, sir, produce a synopsis of all the livings in the kingdom, com-
piled from the report above referred to, and stating their net value,
whether held singly or with others. I could enter more into detail, and
point out what parties are principally to blame in the disposal of prefer-
ment; but such a statement is not called for at present; and I must
confess I shall be somewhat surprised if you permit statistics so un-
like those you are accustomed to receive from your correspondents
to appear in your pages. As, however, I refer you to the source from
whence they are procured, you cannot excuse yourself from admitting
them upon the plea that they are destitute of authority. Nous

[blocks in formation]

This table may be taken as a very near approximation to the truth, although it does not accurately agree with those in the report; it was formed, however, by a careful analysis of that report, in which every living was separately arranged according to its value, and whether held singly or with others.

I proceed, sir, not for want of facts, but of time, to reply to your observations on my remarks on clause 28; and here, again, I must refer you to the invaluable report of which I have already made so much use. There are but four deaneries under 8007. a year, and the average of the remainder is nearly 2,000l.; so that I still think, sir, till you shall be able to shew the contrary, that these dignitaries will fail in establishing a claim to exemption from residence upon any

of this Magazine. It was intended to publish the "late Curate's" letter without curtailment or alteration, but this portion of it is worded in such a manner as to preclude the adoption of that course. His objection shall, however, be stated fully. He mentions two passages of their first Memorial, on which he animadverts -that wherein they lament the ill-paid services of many of the clergy, and that wherein they state, in respect to themselves, that "it will be found, on due examination, that their incomes have been, on on average of years, but barely adequate to their support in a becoming responsibility." He then speaks of this commiseration of the ill-paid clergy as being affected,' and proceeds to extract a statement of the revenues of the residentiaries from the Ecclesiastical Revenues Report. He says, that "on turning to the Ecclesiastical Revenues Report, which they themselves made out, it appears that, exclusive of fines and patronage, (the former amounting in the three years specified in the report to upwards of 14,0007.,) the dean and residentiaries held among them, at the time the report came out, twenty-two pieces of Had the "late preferment, giving them an average of 1,8501. per annum each."

[ocr errors]

Curate" confined himself to stating this fact, without remarks which are so offensive in their language towards a highly respected body as to render their appearance here almost an insult to individuals, the letter would have appeared exactly as he sent it.

CORRESPONDENCE.-
-PLURALITIES BILL.

other preferment. We may dismiss the head rulers of colleges with quite as little ceremony; and as for the masters of Eton, Winchester, or Westminster schools, I must confess I do not see such a close connexion between the secular learning required from these gentlemen, and the responsible office of the Christian ministry, as would induce me to relax in their favour; besides, if the masters of the abovenamed schools are to be entitled to exemption from residence upon that ground, you will perhaps inform me why are the masters of Harrow, Rugby, and the Charter House,-aye, of every foundation school in the kingdom,-to be debarred from the same privilege.

Come we now to clause 29. And here, sir, I shall merely ask you whether you do not know of at least one instance where the restriction I have proposed would have been attended with advantage? I suspect you do; this is, however, a delicate subject, which I shall not at present pursue any further, except by saying, that if bishops are not disposed to "connive at their own chaplains breaking the law," they can lose nothing by an enactment which would check such a disposition at any future time. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes, is a question often asked in these days, which the legislature, I trust, will be able to answer satisfactorily. With respect to clause 86, you assert, with a delicacy of irony peculiar to the British Magazine, that any "notion of the bishop being allowed to remove a curate is too horrible to be endured:" when you substantiate your own view of this question by sufficient argument, it will be time enough to consider it; meanwhile it is but an opinion on either side; and I am not desirous, till it is absolutely necessary to do so, to produce the grounds upon which I have founded mine. I do not, however, exactly perceive why the clergy should be the only class of British subjects who are to be excluded the benefit of a trial by their peers.

I now, sir, take my leave of that I have lowered the clergy as a body by my suggestions," it you for the present. Till you can prove will be but a waste of time to attempt an answer to your last sentence. I remain, your obedient servant,

A LATE CURATE.

P. S. I shall be at all times ready to supply you with any details respecting pluralities; the parties by and upon whom they are bestowed; and the services for which they are obtained.*

June 16, 1837.

It is impossible to print this letter without a few comments upon it, although its tone and temper supply a comment which can hardly be mistaken. marks made in the note which appears to have given so much offence, it was stated, In the rethat there can be no use in printing letters which merely give a writer's opinion on certain details of acts of parliament, unsupported by any reasoning;' and the "late Curate's" opinion (as he himself calls it) relative to preferments of 500l. per annum was referred to, among other opinions which he had delivered in the course of his letter. The letter and the remarks upon it are both fairly before the public, and they will be able to judge whether there was anything unfair in that remark. now appears that the "late Curate" considers that he entirely blunts the force of It this remark by detailing the number of benefices which are above 500l., and thus shewing the number of persons in the profession who may have a higher income than

DISSENTERS AS SPONSORS.

SIR,-If any of your clerical correspondents would kindly communicate, through the medium of the British Magazine, a statement of the course which they adopt in the case of a dissenter offering to stand sponsor, they would greatly oblige,

Your obedient servant,

A. C. C.

5001. per annum. The question still remains, whether other persons may not consider that the alteration of the system which he advocates will have the tendency of lowering the clergy as a body, and of driving the better educated and higher classes out of the profession, and bringing" the profession itself far below the level of all others." On this question, which is still a matter of opinion, others will form their own judgment, as the "late Curate" forms his, although it is not safe for any one else to draw any inference as to what that judgment is. It still remains only his opinion, that no second preferment should be held where one piece of preferment amounts to 500%; and why should not some other "late curate," limit it to 3007. or to 2001. ? It comes still to a matter of opinion what is the proper limit, and it was to printing mere opinions of this sort that an objection was made, as being at least useless. This is not altered by publishing the number of livings above 5001. [This, too, is the gross income, be it remembered, without any consideration of the numerous deductions to which it is often subject.] On this part of the letter it is not, therefore, worth while to comment further. The "late Curate's" statistics are placed before the world exactly as he sends them, and if he will look at vol. vi., pp. 320-322, of this Magazine, he will find the enumeration made by the ecclesiastical commissioners already published there. It does not, however, separate those held singly from those held with other preferments; and this contribution to ecclesiastical statistics is almost all which is due to the "late Curate."

Before concluding this note, which has already extended to greater length than the subject deserved, one or two more remarks, which the tone assumed by the "late Curate" renders requisite, must be made. He says, that "he shall be somewhat surprised" if statistics so unlike those usually sent by the correspondents of this Magazine are permitted to appear in these pages. His letter, he will see, is permitted, with one exception, to appear verbatim; and certainly, in the opinion of the writer of this note, no person will have to complain so loudly on this account as the "late Curate" himself. The temper in which it is written is one which excites feelings only of sorrow and of pity for a man who seems to spend so much of his thoughts, if not of his time, in calculating his neighbours' emoluments, and in writing about them in such a spirit. The attack on the chapter of Salisbury is certainly expressed in language which unfits it for these pages; but the substance of it is published, that the writer may have no ground for complaint at his statements having been omitted, and because it will enable those who are acquainted with the facts of the case to examine the justice, or rather the injustice, of this attack. The other preferments of the members of the chapter appear to the writer of this note to have nothing to do with the question in their memorial,-that question, he apprehends, related to the emoluments of their cathedral preferment alone, and therefore the remark of the "late Curate" is quite uncalled for, even supposing it to require no modification from the consideration of the outgoings and other causes. The "late Curate" writes under the protection of secrecy, as writing anonymously; but it will be seen by his remarks on clause 29, that he is ready to avail himself of personal argument by insinuating what he does not assert, so that it cannot be fairly met, because it is not distinctly stated. But such insinuations are beneath notice, from a writer who has not the courage to give his name. Till he fixes such an insinuation, also, to one specific case, he cannot expect his remark to be answered or denied, although it is believed that bis allusion is utterly unfounded. clusion, it shall only be said, that the offer of details respecting pluralities, the parties by whom and upon whom they are bestowed, and the services for which they are obtained,' is entirely declined. Such personal details, collected together in such a spirit, are not the matter which would suit the readers of this Magazine, nor the matter which its conductors would like to supply; and the best wish that can be expressed for the "late Curate" is, that he may find other and more improving subjects on which to exercise his mind.

In con

« ZurückWeiter »