The Press.
London, England, 1857-10-03 00:00:00

In the course of the twenty years which have elapsed
since 1831 no fewer than 2,029 new churches have been
built, and the value of Church property has much increased,
so that after the considerable addition which must be
made to the whole amount in order to obtain an accurate
estimate of the total income of the Church in 11+5I, it is
probable that it will be considerably upwards of 5,000,0001.
per annum.
The number of beneficed parochial clergy in 1831 WaS
10,174 : the average gross income, therefore, of each would
be upwards of 300/. per annum. At the same dates there
were 5,230 curates, the total amount of whose stipends was
446931., yielding an average of 811. per annum to each
curate.

The author then says :
It has now become the fashion to mourn over the poverty
of the clergy, and, because some of the livings are small, to
deem every conscientious priest half starred. Both these
views are erroneous. It has been shown that the average
income of the clergyman is 3001. a year. This is higher
than the average income of barristers, much higher than
the average pay of the military officer, and not much
inferior to the average profits of the medical man.
This income cannot be looked upon as lucrative when
we reckon up the cost of education, the situation the
clergyman must maintain, the charities to which he must
contribute, the family he may have to rear, if he does that
which most clergymen do on sound principles of morality
marry early. Yet the profession of the clergyman, though
not presenting the hopes of profit, sloes promise a gentle-
manly competence to the majonry•. Of course many
persons will be ready to sneer at any idea of 3001. a year
being a gentlemanly competence, but it is not fair to
decide on the wealth of the individual by the items of his
income. A man in one station of life is tar richer with
5001. a year than another with 1,0001. The clergy have
many advantages, and many opportunities of enjoying the
comforts of a life on a basis of economy denied to other
classes. They are admitted into society on the recom.
mendation of their sacred calling and education only,
independent of the advantages of money. They have oppor.
tunities of forming, and do continually form, advantageous
marriages, and in the event of death there is no class
whose families are so well provided for by foundations and
benevolent institutions.

And the following calculation is interesting :
That 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 8001. ; that it may be further assumed
that, taking the average of ecclesiastical promotions, he
cannot obtain preferment until he has been seven years
in orders. If to 8001., the principal expended in edu-
eating him, we add its interest for seven years, it will
amount to !,1001. It is further alleged that it thus appears
clear that at the earliest moment in which an ecclesiastic
can expect preferment worth 3001. per annum, 1,1001. has
been sunk in preparing him fur the discharge of his duty.
If a man at the age of thirty laid out 1,1001. in the purchase
of a life annuity, it would produce him SI/. per annum,
which, deducted from 3001., leaves a balance of 2101. as
the pecuniary compensation which clergymen on the
average receive for their professional services. The State,
it is sail, thus enjoys the services of between nine and ten
thousand'well-educated individuals, whose province it is to
instruct the population in those duties which they owe to
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 216/. each.
This kind of speculation is erroneous, inasmuch as it
presumes that the Church provides no emolument but that
attached to benefices, whereas almost every deacon, unless
ordained to a fellowship, enters the Church as a curate,
and from the brat obtains some stipend generally more
than lie could purchase a life annuity with 1,1001. at the
age of three and twenty. But he has in addition all the
advantages of his position : and in compari,son, the clergy
man in pecuniary matters is as well oft as members of
other professions,—lbis income is more certain,—his ex-
penditure can be regulated according to his means, and
both are independent of the numerous fluctaations incident
to other intellectual callings.
- - -

Into the various modes of being educated for
the Church the author goes some length,
treating of colleges, &c. ; but on these heads
his knowledge, of course, is only compiled.
We shall now extract from Mr. Thomson's
views of the Bar as a profession:—

The number of prizes is positively great, in fact daily
increasing in number, and growing in wealth and im-
portance, yet the prizes are, in proportion to the midi-
dates, exceedingly small ; in fact, much smaller than in
any other profession or business in the country, not
excepting the ill-paid curates and starving artists. There
is no profession in which there are so many bond tide
practising members making nothing at all by their pro-
fession. Not the prizes, but a bare subsistence cannot
be obtained without the greatest difficulty. The absence
of an outlet for )oung energy during a long peace, in a
country rapidly increasing in wealth and numbers, com-
bined with that aristocratic feeling that prevents the
sons of the English gentry from engaging in business,
has had the effect of lamentably overcrowding the open
professions.
He then goes into statistical illustration :
The profession at the commencement of the present year
contained 4,035 members, and the following has been the
number in 45 years:-I'ilo, 880; 1821, 820; 1830, 1.120;
1840, 1,835 ; 1850. 3,268 ; 1855, 4,035. Thus, in Ave years,
from 1830 to 1855, there has been an increase of
767 members, or rine•tenths of the whole profession in
1810, and one•half more than the number supposed on