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is spent. The education of their children is the object nearest and dearest to the heart of most English gentlemen; and the ecclesiastical patronage of our noble and wealthy families enables them to obtain for this purpose the assistance of men whose talents and learning have raised them to distinction, and open to them a fair prospect of being advanced to some of the highest dignities which the church can confer on professional merit. It has been frequently observed, that many of those learned and eminent individuals, who have filled the highest dignities of the church, commenced their career as private tutors in some of our noble and wealthy families and it has been hence inferred, that they owed their professional success to the influence of patrons, secured by these services, rather than to the force of their own individual merit. This is an illiberal and incorrect representation. It assumes, that in the selection of tutors for their sons, noblemen are inattentive to the qualifications and abilities of those who are appointed to the charge, and that, having once retained them in that capacity, they blindly put them forward without regard to their claims or merit. It is, however, much more consistent with truth to assert, that the prospect opened through this avenue, to honourable and virtuous ambition, enables wealthy families to engage the services of individuals of superior abilities, who are subsequently promoted-not through the blind recommendation of friends, but because they have distinguished themselves as scholars, and, on account of this distinction, have been selected by their patrons to fulfil the most important duty which a parent can devolve upon another; and because they acquitted themselves in the trust reposed in them with fidelity and success.

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There are, indeed, but few opinions on any subject, too absurd to meet with some advocates. We remember to have seen it somewhere mentioned, that university livings are injurious to the public, inasmuch as they give college tutors an opportunity of retiring before they have become absolutely incapacitated by age. We wonder that it should not occur to those liberal economists, that if such a prospect of withdrawing did not present itself, few individuals of any talents and acquirements would be willing to engage in a laborious and responsible occupation: their abilities might be taken to a better market elsewhere, and the instruction of young men sent to the universities would, on this account, fall into the hands of teachers, infinitely less able and respectable than those who are at present engaged in the details of tuition. The certain, though somewhat distant prospect of preferment, with other incidental advantages connected with the situation, holds out an inducement which frequently prevails upon men of first rate abilities to become, for a time, college tutors: abolish

this prospect, and academical instructors would necessarily degrade into mere drudges, labouring for bread; and it would be idle to expect that any man of respectable connexions and competent attainments would, under such circumstances, turn his attention to this pursuit. Individuals with the feelings and acquirements which the instructors of the sons of English gentlemen ought to possess, who have devoted fifteen or twenty of the best years of their life to public tuition, have an irresistible claim to a competent provision when withdrawing from a laborious function, the duties of which they have faithfully and successfully discharged.

As strenuous and persevering efforts, however, are daily made to misrepresent and exaggerate the amount of church property, and as some of our readers may still be disposed to consider the clergy as a body of public functionaries paid by the state; we shall produce a few statistical details, which will show that, viewing ecclesiastics even in this incorrect light, the aggregate amount of their stipends by no means exceeds the scantiest remuneration which the most penurious financier would appropriate for their services.

England and Wales contain (see Population Return in 1821)

Total Number of Benefices in England and Wales. 11,342

We have every reason to believe that the above summary contains a correct representation of church patronage, as we have ourselves made an actual enumeration of all the rectories through

out

out the kingdom; and we have also counted all the vicarages, except those which are in the gift of private individuals.

The area of England and Wales, as measured upon Arrowsmith's large map, published in 1816, contains 57,960 square statute miles; and this measurement being founded upon a trigonometrical survey can, it must be evident, be liable to little (if to any) future alteration.

England and Wales therefore contain

57,960 × 640 (acres in a square mile) Deduct for waste land, one-seventh,

Number of acres in a state of tillage

Statute Acres.

37,094,400

5,299,200

31,795,200

Deduct as exempt from tithes, as Abbey lands, or by modus, one-tenth 3,179,520 Number of acres actually subject to tithes

28,615,680

This number, being divided by 10,693, gives an average of 2,676 titheable acres to each parish. Having thus ascertained, on a basis to which we are satisfied no fair objection can be made, the number of acres in England and Wales subject to tithes, we shall subjoin what we consider a fair estimate of the annual value of the ecclesiastical payment, which, after the expiration of subsisting agreements, may be levied upon them.

In the patronage of the Crown, Bishops, Deans and Chapters, Colleges and other Public Establishments, there are―

Now, if we subtract the value of 5,516 vicarages and perpetual curacies from the whole amount of tithes levied in so many

VOL. XXIX. NO. LVIII.

parishes,

parishes, it will, probably, give us an estimate, very nearly correct, of the value of lay impropriations:

5516×2676=14,760,816, at 3s. 6d. per acre

Value of Vicarages and Perpetual Curacies to be deducted

Amount of Lay Impropriations

£

2,583,142

830,300

1,752,842,

It will thus be seen, that lay impropriators enjoy an income from ecclesiastical property, which exceeds a moiety of the whole revenues divided among the English parochial clergy.

In forming the above estimate of the average charge for tithes, a reference has been made to the Reports published by the board of agriculture, about the year 1812, when farming produce had arrived at its highest price. Taking the average charge for great and small tithes in eighteen of the most fertile and best cultivated English counties, as stated in these documents,, we find that it amounts to about five shillings and sixpence per acre; and this average would, no doubt, have been somewhat reduced had we the means of ascertaining the money compositions in lieu of tithes. in other counties at the same period. If, then, five shillings and sixpence was the average charge for tithes in the most fertile and best cultivated counties in 1812, when wheat sold for 201. per load, three shillings and sixpence per acre cannot be considered as a low average, when a load of wheat sells for no more than 127., and when the price of every other agricultural production has fallen in the same proportion. The experience of every individual at all conversant with the subject will, we are persuaded,, fully bear us out when we state, that at the expiration of subsisting contracts, the charge for tithes in the richest and best tilled districts cannot exceed four shillings and sixpence per acre; and if this be the maximum value of tithes levied on the best land, it is clear that the mean average on all lands cannot exceed three shillings and sixpence per acre.

As there are upwards of 3000 churches and chapels, to which neither houses nor glebe lands are attached, we have taken what must be acknowledged a high average value of the glebe in 8000 parishes it will be further observed that no charge has been made for parsonage houses-none should be made they are built and kept in repair by the incumbents, out of the profits of their livings; and whatever may be the annual value of such residences, it is more than balanced by the capital sunk in building and repairing them they cannot, therefore, be said to increase the emoluments of the benefices to which they belong.

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The incomes of the bishops are estimated at a sum which, we are satisfied, exceeds their actual receipts. A considerable por

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tion of their revenues is derived from fixed money payments, which can have received little or no augmentation, while the value of every other spécies of property has been increased ten-fold: indeed it is a well known fact, that the revenues of one-third of the bishoprics are so miserably deficient and scanty, that it is found absolutely indispensable to permit the prelates who fill them to hold some other benefices, to enable them to meet the expenses which, from their station, they must unavoidably incur. It may also be added that, with the exception of the Bishop of Landaff, who has no episcopal residence, they have all large and expensive houses which, from the lapse of time, require constant repair; and that they have a multitude of different officers whom they must pay. When these deductions are made from their gross revenues, we very much doubt whether their net incomes can be rated so high as 150,000l. per annum.

The average value of each benefice in England and Wales amounts, according to our calculation, to (3.447.138÷11,342=) 3037. annually,

To this calculation of the average annual value of English livings, we shall annex an estimate of the expense which the clergy of the establishment must unavoidably incur, in order to qualify themselves for the proper discharge of the duties which devolve upon them.

It may be assumed, on a moderate computation, that, by the time he has completed the twenty-third year of his age, the friends of every candidate for orders have expended on his education, at school and at college, a sum which amounts to 800/.: it may be further assumed that, taking the average of ecclesiastical promotions, he cannot obtain preferment till he has been seven years in orders. If to 800l. the principal expended in educating him, we add its interest for seven years, it will amount to 1100. It thus appears clear, that at the earliest moment in which an ecclesiastic can expect preferment worth 3037. per annum, 11007. has been sunk in preparing him for the discharge of his official duties. If a man at the age of thirty laid out 11007. in the purchase of a life annuity, it would produce for him 84/. per annum, which, deducted from 3037. leaves a balance of 219/. as the cuniary compensation which clergymen, on the average, receive for their professional services. The state thus enjoys the services of between nine and ten thousand well educated individuals, whose province it is to instruct the population of the country in the duties which they owe to their God and to society; and as a recompense for the devotion of their time and talents exclusively to this object, they do not, on the average, receive more than 2217. each. This is in truth the sum which excites the 002

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