The Express.
London, England, 1856-10-04 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4.

VERY powerful and highly-coloured pictures have
recently been drawn of the general inefficiency and
occasional indolence of the Church of England clergy,
and of their inability, from these and other cause, to
keep pea with the growing spiritual wants of the
time. The evil hes been set before the world with
all the practised skill of rhetorical amplification, bat
no attempt has yet been made to suggest a remedy.
Let as endeavour to supply the omission.
No doubt there is a considerable amount of truth,
mixed with much exaggeration, in the general repro-
mutation given by a distinguished **temporary of
the extent of the evil which be has so vigorously ex-
posed. Is very many cases, indeed, it is notoriously
not the fret that anything like residuum or in-
dolence is chargeable on the working clergy.
Frequently the reverse is the cue; and that to
each a degna that instances are not uncommon,
especially among the younger clergy, in which men
working single-handed in populous parishes have
literally and simply worn themselves to death with
over exertion. But still, notwithstanding the vast
infusion of fresh lite and energy which, during the
bat tee or tweety years, has been so marked a feature
in the English Church, the rule, we take it, unforta-
mately still is, that in the larger proportion of eases
the parochial clergyman is satisfied with a slipshod
and slovenly performance of hie dada; and is, in
fact, bet too often what he has been described as
being, ." the idlest paid labourer in his parish." This
leen, without taking the extreme instances of Wales
and Cumberland, where it is still notoriously true
that the clergyman le frequently rather a tiller of
his glebe than a pastor of his flock, immersed daring
six days of the week in such severe struggles for a
livelihood here u to leave him but little capacity on
the seventh to expound for his parishioners the way
to the better life hereafter.

Bat Lord BLANDYORIAI notion, ao unhappily
adopted by those who see the evil without being able
to provide any effectual remedy for it, of dividing
pariahs*, building new churches, and thereby cresting
a larger num bir of indepsowiessi clergy, isemactly the
cm to Menem and perpetuate the mischief.

L those professions when remuneration deposal,
cc, and is commensurate with, intelligeses, new

promptnets, and regularity, every man may well be
left to shift for himself; and so may the public in
reference to than professions. But where then are
Axed stipends, oertain payments, biennia incomes,
and each like dampers to incitement and exertion.
men, se a general rale, are net to be relied upon
doing their professional duty up to the mann of
their capacity. Individuals there alms will bit
honest sod :calm in, and true and faithful to, the
work they have to do; but the penal rule is hem
arable w►ich requires for security, for safety, and for
the dee performance of labial, either the incement
spar of self-interest, a close control by empnbstead-
saw, or the neural responsibility, and sheik, or
encouragement (es thalami may be) which, mosompany
association and beget stimulus in work.
Now, in the cue of the clergy, then is no elms
sad effective superintendence of the work of each in-
cambent in his separate and independent cure of
souls; and, increase the episcopate as you may, re-
quire from the clergy what reports, dierise, or logs
that the wit of man can devise, none suit an be
obtained. All that you meld do by each moms
would be to make confusion worse nefoomded, to
sonvert the bishops, their archidieemal 0 eyes,* and
their rural demons, ion a hierarchy of eeskeiartioal
smuchords, and to alienate the parochial clergy hem,
and to exasperate,them spinet, their uprises. The
alternative is, the responsibility which cosmos of
eisimiatioc. But, to neon it, we nest desessi how
the clouds and be content to walk es the meth r we
mast eschew the amateur legisladom of Lord SLAM,.
Ina and the industrial dreams of Mr. Enrosoom
sad take ourselves to pa-entice' names and preluded
advienn

Ask any incumbent of large experience la largo
whim, who has done hie duty up to the limit of his
ability, and 'hokum the real state of things hem
something better than societies' reports, Blae Books,
or idle soavereadow—and yos will And that in the
opinion of such a man, the parochial work is always
beet done according to the greater number of tholes
waisted in carrying out that work. When at
able sad sealossman is lacumbeat of a large parish,
experience proems that he gets men work oat of
himself sad oat of seek of those emodated with him,
when he bee seder him four siestas aid two &rip
tare readers, than he would get set of himself and
sat of his aerate when they were but two, or out of
himself when de was altogether aloe. in hi. care.
The evil does not lie, SS Lord Btruproxte and hi.
keetor suppose, in large parishes.
By all means build more places of worship; by all
means obtain fonds for the maiatenance of Mee
'limey. Bot do not divide pandits (wept where
they are inordinately large) into new and iadependeut
parishes ; do not build large churches ; do sot
devolve the ears of new districts to one poor is-
depeadent irreepoesiblo clergymen. That is to
augment the evil by increasing, I. the loss rue, the
irresponsibility, the isedequery, the inedloissey, sad
the idles's,.

New broom swop ekes, and the sew dermas
of a new &exist is very likely to work hie heart
oar, bat ia tine will near is interwar Irma the pee.
seat evil. The clergymen of the sow districts, being
ordinarily ill.pald sea, will have ao seiraleo, sad
having so one to smolt, to inwearege, to lasi* will
biome i■ eetaaehoty truth N the idlest paid labourers
la their perisbee.•

Moreover, sew Maria' require new umiak new
Glebe, sew charities, additional ratio t sad as the ex-
pense and bertha deduction sad el moistease to the
peer is most wastefully Jimmied. Further, they for the
most part require a seperistendenes which se ea
elergywee no give; for it le impossible kg ea der-
roan adequately to discharge the dudes et tithing
the sick, superinteadier the easel, peanuts, the
offices of the church, mutating its amides, givisi
advice, manse), and correetia,
Instead, therefore, of new, independent, wall, and

poor districts, let us in most instances retain the
pariah ea it is, and, according to its means and wants,
build thenin plain, simple, unpretending chapels of
ease, and with and by means of the endowments of
such chapels, compel the incumbent of the parish to
maintain a curate, paying such curate, oe curates, if
the endowment afforded two, the whole of the income
of the chapel. Thus in large parishes we should get
mutual evangel, mutest responsibility, close mutual
affectionate superintendence, a division of labour, one
kind of work allotted to one man, another kind of
work to another; we should not have more schools
built than necessary ; we should not raise huge, over-
grown, and deserted churches; and we should be
able to collect larger funds for what the poorer parts
of the parish might need, and to provide a supply of
hard working men heartened by the spirit of co-
operative association for the great and arduous task of
spreading amongst our rapidly-growing population a
knowlsdp of the truth.

Co-operative association' of working elargymen in
our existing parishes is what we want, not the
creation of new; parishes; and for the means of thus
adding to the numbers of the working clergy let the
Church of England look, not to State aid, bat to the
voluntary assistance of her own members. An
increased number of Church-paid curates would be a
far more valuable auxiliary to the Establishment, as
well as an infinitely greater advantage to the poorer
classes of the laity, than an increased number of
State•paid bishop..