and also to visit the sick, and perform other duties of his or their profession in the said workhouse; and also shall allow to such clergyman or clergymen such salaries or other recompense or remuneration as shall seem meet and reasonable.'-59 George III., cap. xxxix., s. 19.

"The salary of the chaplain in the workhouse of St. Pancras, under the old vestry, never exceeded 120l. per annum, and this the new vestry first curtailed to 70l., and afterwards wholly abolished. Now, the workhouse of St. Pancras contains generally 1,000 inmates, affording a sufficient cure of souls to occupy the whole attention of any one minister, especially as these inmates consist of the poor, the aged, the sick, the unfortunate, the profligate, and the deserted and ignorant young. Some of these were, no doubt, dissenters, but the majority were certainly churchmen; and, when the church service was performed, the chapel was always quite full.

"It was now contended that the parochial clergy ought to be called upon to perform the duties of the workhouse gratuitously; and votes of censure, with cries of "Shame, shame," have issued from the vestry in consequence of their refusal to comply with so preposterous a proposal. The ignorance of that man is truly pitiable who could conceive that a parish, containing 110,000 souls, should not afford ample labour to the parochial clergy in their several departments, in preparation for their Sunday instruction, and in the discharge of all their other multifarious duties (some of which, and those most laborious ones, are almost peculiar to the large metropolitan parishes), so as to leave no time for their undertaking, over and above the express engagement of a large workhouse. Even if they should have volunteered their services, they must have at best performed these services in a very imperfect manner, by which they would have sanctioned an unjust measure, depriving the workhouse-poor of the full benefit of a regular chaplain, which both the legislature had provided and common humanity renders imperative.

"Having thus illegally excluded a regular chaplain, the new vestry proceeded to open the chapel of the workhouse to ministers of all persuasions, who might come in their turns on the Sunday afternoons to occupy the pulpit -a plan by which the same congregation were exposed to be carried about by various winds of doctrine, it might be presumed not much to their spiritual edification.

"Under the old vestry, attendance in the chapel was by no means compulsory, and a minister of any religion was always admitted, as a friend, to administer private consolation to any individual pauper who might require his assistance."

EXTRACTS FROM THE BISHOP OF LINCOLN'S CHARGE.

(Continued from vol. vi. p. 694.)

THE Bishop then proceeds to shew that, with respect to the Articles and Liturgy, no concessions would now satisfy dissenters :—

3. Reform of the Formularies.

"If, then, we are to engage in a revision of the articles and formularies of our church, we must engage in it with the view of removing, not the scruples of dissenters, which can only be removed by the destruction of the establishment, but the conscientious scruples of members of our own communion. That objections are entertained to various parts of our services is apparent from the numerous schemes of alteration which have recently been put forth; some by men whose ability and station and personal character give weight to every suggestion which proceeds from them. But, unhappily, though all agree in finding much to amend, there is by no means a corresponding agreement respecting the particulars to be amended; one even regarding as an excellence that which another condemns as a defect. So long as this diversity of opinion continues to exist, it is useless to engage in a revision of

our formularies of devotion. To satisfy contradictory scruples is manifestly impossible and even when they are not contradictory, there will be no end of revision, if we are to go on revising until the scruples of all objectors are removed. There are minds in which doubts appear to grow up as in their native soil; and, though it has been well observed, that a scrupulous mind is, for the most part, a pious and an honest mind, and, consequently, to be treated with indulgence, yet, as it is continually creating to itself new doubts, it can never be satisfied. The warmest advocates of the right of private judgment will admit, that individuals in every society, whether civil or religious, must be content to submit their judgment to that of the majority. If they cannot do this, without doing violence to their conscience, they must quit the society. When a portion of the members, lay and clerical, of the established church, respectable both in numbers and intelligence, shall agree in pointing out certain particulars of our services which, in their opinion, require revision and correction, we may be assured that their representations will receive, as they ought to receive, respectful attention. But, as far as I possess the opportunity of collecting the opinions of the members of our communion, the majority, far from urging, are inclined to deprecate any alteration of our liturgy at the present

moment.

"A wish has, of late years, been not unfrequently expressed, that the convocation should be roused from its present dormant state, and resume the active exercise of its functions; nor can it be doubted that, according to the principles of our ecclesiastical polity, all projected alterations in the articles and liturgy must, in order to obtain validity, be submitted to the consideration and approbation of convocation. If, then, that general agreement respecting both the points to be amended, and the amendments to be made, which is, in my judgment, a necessary preliminary to any attempt at revision, shall be found to exist, the convocation must be assembled; not as now, for form, but for the despatch of business. Yet even in that case, I should anticipate little good from its meeting, unless the precedent set at the Revolution was followed, and a commission issued, authorising certain discreet and learned men to digest and arrange the propositions to be submitted to its consideration. Without this previous arrangement, the houses of convocation would too probably be turned into an arena of theological debate; and would renew the unedifying scenes presented by councils in ancient times, when the promotion of the interests of religious truth-the ostensible plea for calling them together-was too often forgotten in the love of personal display and the desire of obtaining a triumph over an opponent."

4. Church Revenues.

"In commencing the attack upon the established church, its adversaries displayed no small share of that wisdom in their generation which distinguishes the children of this world. They knew that envy and cupidity are passions to which an appeal is rarely made in vain; to them, therefore, they appealed, by industriously circulating the most extravagant statements respecting the wealth of the church. Nor did they display less wisdom in the selection of the time, than of the mode of attack. They commenced it at a moment when, from various causes, of which the investigation would be foreign from the purpose of our present meeting, many classes of the community were, in a greater or less degree, struggling with difficulties and embarrassments, and were, consequently, disposed to lend a willing ear to any scheme which held out the promise of relief.

The unfavourable feeling thus excited against the church by exaggerated statements of its wealth, was increased by equally exaggerated representations of the inequality existing in the distribution of its revenues. While, it was said, the dignitaries of the church, the favoured few, live in ease and luxury, the majority of the parochial clergy, the men on whom the religious instruction of the people really devolves, receive only a scanty pittance, and wear away a painful existence amidst poverty and privations.

"These representations, or rather misrepresentations, of the amount of the revenues of the church, were not suffered to pass altogether uncontradicted. Attempts were made, from time to time, by well informed persons, to disabuse the public mind, but with little or no effect. It was, therefore, deemed advisable, in order to remove all doubt on the subject, that the amount of ecclesiastical property should be ascertained from authority; and with this view, his majesty was pleased, in his capacity of temporal head of the church, to issue a Commission of Inquiry into the value of

all the ecclesiastical benefices in England and Wales. The returns, with very few exceptions, have now been received from all the beneficed clergy, and I will state to you the result of the returns from this diocese. The average income of 1,248 benefices, from which returns have been received, is, as nearly as possible, 3007. per annum. I speak now of the average gross income. I cannot accurately state the net income, because the clergy have not made the deductions from the gross income according to any uniform plan. The returns, as you are aware, were made upon an average of three years, ending December 31, 1831. In consequence of the depression which has since taken place in the price of agricultural produce, I doubt not that, if the returns had been made on the receipts of the three years, ending on the 31st of last December, the average annual value would have fallen considerably below 3002. Out of the 1,248 benefices now mentioned, the income of 206 is below 1007. a year; of 837, between 1007. and 5007.; of 205, above 5007.; the income of 21 being above 1,000l. a year."

5. Pluralities.

"In the enumeration of the flagrant abuses of the existing system, non-residence holds a conspicuous place; and, as non-residence is, in the greatest number of instances, occasioned by plurality of benefices, we are told that pluralities ought altogether to be abolished. Let us consider, however, what would be the probable effect of their entire abolition in the diocese of Lincoln, in which there are 206 benefices, each in value below 100l. per annum. The probable effect would be, that one-half, at least, of those benefices would be left without a minister. On most of them there is either no parsonage-house, or a house of so mean a description as to be inhabited by a labourer. The incumbent, therefore, out of an income below 100.

a year, would have not only to maintain himself and his family, but also to pay the rent of a house. Is this, I would ask, possible? Some of these benefices might be accepted by clergymen either possessed of private fortunes, or engaged in the work of tuition; the rest must either be left without a minister, or be held by men who would be compelled to live in a continual struggle with the ills of poverty; in continual anxiety respecting the means of providing for the wants of the passing day. We might abolish pluralities; but, whether we should, by so doing, raise the estimation in which the ministerial character is held, or obtain a more learned, a more zealous, a more efficient body of ministers, is, or, to speak more accurately, is not doubtful.

"Before, then, pluralities can be altogether abolished, or even limited in the manner which has recently been suggested, it is evident that the incomes of the 206 benefices of which I have been speaking must be augmented, and rendered adequate to the maintenance of a minister; nor, if we judge from the numerous plans which have issued from the Press, can we be long at a loss for the means of accomplishing this desirable object."

6. Tenths and First Fruits-Taxation of Benefices.

"One of the plans proposed is to exact the real tenth of all benefices above a certain value, according to the returns made to the ecclesiastical commission. To this we are told that there can be no valid objection. It has even been made a ground of accusation against the wealthier clergy that they continue to pay first-fruits and tenths according to the old valuation, as if they were thereby defrauding their poorer brethren. Let us inquire into the justice of this accusation. First-fruits and tenths were originally a papal exaction, devised for the purpose of conveying a large portion of the wealth of the different countries of Europe into the papal coffers. When Henry VIII. dissolved the connexion between this kingdom and the Bishop of Rome, he converted them to the uses of the crown; and they remained a part of its revenue, until they were given by Queen Anne for the augmentation of small livings. So long as the clergy continued to tax themselves in convocation, first-fruits and tenths might fairly be regarded as a portion of their contribution towards the exigencies of the state. But when they lost that privilege, if privilege it could be called, the tax ought to have ceased; inasmuch as it fell upon them exclusively, in addition to the share which they bore, in common with the laity, of the subsidies levied by the authority of parliament. The legislature appears to have been sensible of its unfairness; for, in the Act by which the first-fruits and tenths are vested in the governors of Queen Anne's Bounty, it is expressly provided, that the clergy shall be called upon to pay them, according to such rates and proportions only as the same have heretofore been usually rated and paid. Those rates were according to the

valuation made in the reign of Henry VIII., and the depreciation which had subsequently taken place in the value of money, though it could not correct the unjust principle of the tax, had rendered it less oppressive in its operation. The inference which I draw from this brief account of the origin of first-fruits and tenths is, that if the richer benefices are now to be taxed for the augmentation of the poorer, the measure cannot be justified on the ground that the clergy are bound in equity to contribute a tenth part of their income, according to the present value; if justified at all, it must be justified on its own fitness and expediency.

"It has appeared that, in the diocese of Lincoln, the incomes of two-thirds of the parochial benefices are between 100l. and 500l. a year. On some of those benefices it is impossible, and on all it would, in my opinion, be oppressive, to lay a tax. A living below 2001. a year ought to be augmented, not diminished; and the possessor of a living even of 5001. a year, with a family, and without any private sources of income, if he administers as he ought to the temporal wants of his parishioners, has little or nothing to spare. The number of benefices above 500l. a year is, within one, the same as that of those below 100%; and the latter might be augmented out of the produce of a graduated tax on the former. But whence are we to obtain the fund for the erection of parsonage-houses, which must be erected before residence, the great object sought through the abolition of pluralities, can be secured? For this fund we must look to some other source.

"Let us now look at a taxation of benefices in another point of view; as it will affect existing rights of property. You require not to be informed, that more than one half of the parochial benefices of England and Wales are in the gift of private patrons; and that advowsons and next presentations are frequently bought and sold. Whether such purchases and sales ought ever to have been allowed, I shall not now inquire. They do take place, and are recognized by law. An advowson is property. Let us then suppose the case of two lay patrons, one of whom possesses the advowson of a living of 1,000l. a year, the other of a living below 1001.; the effect of a tax of 102. per cent. laid upon the former for the augmentation of the latter would be to diminish the value of one advowson, and to increase that of the other; in other words, to transfer so much property from one patron to the other. It happens, too, that the patrons of small benefices, which are, for the most part, either vicarages, perpetual curacies, or donatives, are the persons least entitled to any augmentation of this portion of their property from an extraneous source; since they are, in very many instances, also the impropriators, and, consequently, in possession of those very tithes out of which the provision for the parochial minister was originally made.

"But, objectionable as a taxation of the richer parochial benefices in order to augment the poorer may be deemed, on the ground of its interference with existing rights of property, it possesses this recommendation, it does not interfere with the incumbent in his character of an independent proprietor. The church is not unfrequently called a corporation; and the revenues of the clergy represented a common fund, which the state may distribute amongst them at will, but no representation can be more erroneous. Each incumbent is, in the eye of the law, an independent proprietor during his incumbeney; he holds his property, it is true, upon certain trusts and conditions, but they do not affect his right and title; and, if his rights are disputed, he has his legal remedy in common with every other possessor of property. Should the parochial minister be once deprived of this independent character, and the revenues of all the parochial benefices thrown into a mass, from which each incumbent is to receive his allotted stipend, the day of the total extinction of the establishment will not, in my opinion, be far distant."

7. Cathedrals and Bishopricks as Sources of Augmentation.

"Hitherto I have spoken only of parochial benefices; but are there not, I may be asked, other sources from which the incomes of the poorer clergy may be augmented? Can nothing be obtained from the revenues of the cathedral establishments? I am aware, my reverend brethren, that the exorbitant wealth and the utter uselessness of those establishments are themes on which church reformers are wont to exhaust all their powers of declamation. But when we attempt to carry plans of reform into execution, we must be guided, not by declamation, but by facts. What, then, are the facts in the case of the cathedral of Lincoln? There are, in the chapter of Lincoln, numerous sinecure prebends; some of which the value is little more than nominal, others endowed with the great tithes of parishes, of which the vicarages are in the gift of the several prebendaries. With respect to the latter, it

As, how

has been suggested, from high authority,* (and I entirely concur in the suggestion) that the vicarages, as they become vacant, should be annexed permanently to the prebends, and the prebendaries thus be invested with the cure of souls. ever, the great tithes, or the lands given in lieu of great tithes, which constitute the endowments of these prebends, are, for the most part, let on leases for three lives, it is evident that a considerable time must elapse before they can be made available to the augmentation of the vicarages. With respect to the prebends of merely nominal value, they may be retained, to be conferred as marks of honourable distinction on those of the clergy who have laboured successfully in defending the truths and promoting the interests of religion. Though the pecuniary emoluments derived from them may be small, to enlightened and generous minds they will not be without their value.

"The other dignities in the cathedral of Lincoln, though sinecures in the strict acceptation of the word (sina curâ animarum), have duties annexed to them; some of them-I mean the archdeaconries-very important and laborious duties, for which the possessors are most inadequately remunerated. If, then, any change in the application of the revenues of our cathedral establishments is contemplated, the case of the archdeacons ought, in the first instance, to be considered; and, speaking with particular reference to the cathedral of Lincoln, I have no hesitation in declaring my opinion, that the general interests of the established church will be more effectually consulted by providing adequate incomes for the archdeacons, than by diverting the portion of the cathedral revenues, now divided among the residentiaries, to the augmentation of small benefices. Such an arrangement will, to me, have this additional recommendation; it will not be a violation, but rather a restoration, of the ancient constitution of the chapter. Earnestly, my reverend brethren, most earnestly, shall I ever deprecate any change having for its object the destruction of our cathedral institutions. I may expose myself to the charge of a superstitious veneration for antiquity; but, I must confess, that I am not one of those who wish to obliterate every vestige of the olden time. The venerable cathedral, and the peculiar manner in which Divine service is celebrated within its walls, are links which connect us with past ages; they tend to confirm the historical evidence on which our belief in the truth of Christianity rests; and if for no other reason, yet for this, I must protest against every project for alienating the funds provided for the maintenance of our cathedrals.

"Having spoken of the parochial benefices in the diocese and of the cathedral establishment, I may be expected to say something respecting the bishoprick. Before the second year of the reign of Edward VI., the bishoprick was endowed with lands; but in that year the Protector Somerset compelled the bishop to surren der nearly the whole of his estates, and to take in exchange impropriate rectories, which had fallen to the crown at the dissolution of the monasteries. The immediate effect of this arbitrary proceeding was to reduce the income of the bishoprick to less than one half of its former amount. But the change in the nature of the property was even more injurious than the diminution of its value. Not only was the income reduced, but the reduced income was, in future, to be derived from the tithes which ought to constitute the provision for the parochial minister. The bishop was placed in the most invidious position in which it was possible to place him; he was made, as it were, an accomplice in the robbery which had been committed on the parochial clergy, through the mischievous system of impropriations. The peculiar mode in which episcopal and cathedral property is, for the most part, leased out, rendered it very difficult for an ecclesiastical impropriator to augment a dependent vicarage, until an Act framed for the purpose of facilitating such augmentations was carried through parliament by our present excellent metropolitan. Öf the facilities afforded by that Act I have already availed myself, and shall continue to avail myself whenever an opportunity occurs. I am, indeed, persuaded that, by means of similar enabling statutes, the augmentation of poor benefices may be as effectually, and if existing interests are to be respected, as rapidly accomplished as by compulsory measures."

By the Bishop of Exeter, in his Charge to the clergy of his diocese, delivered in the year 1833.