The Express.
London, England, 1849-03-21 00:00:00

tory wee seen ea exemplineation of Dives, from wives sump.
tams, table only • few combs occasionally fell. The four
aspirin were not 1 t esastituted parishes, and had only
very small iacomes. There were also two district churches,
which, when established, were understood to be maintained
oat of the rectorial estate ; and payments were made to
them out of that estate. The incumbent of St. Thom bad
the sharp of a population of 10;000, for which he received
SOK a year • the ether incumbent (St. Andrew's, Deptford)
fed the &mine of 8,000 souls, and pot 1901. a year. The in-
emlieSS of Ryhope, with a population of 800 received 1001.
per ammo ; sad the incumbent of South Hylton. with •
mektion of 4,000, 801. One of them incumbents received
WM a year from pew-rents ; the other three did hot derive
from pew rents and all other sources more than 1001. a year
'menet them. The incumbent of Deptford kept a
curate, is which ha wan assisted by the Diocesan Society.
Such, therefore, was the condition of Bishop Wearmoutb.
The rector of this wealthypariah received, including the in-
sane of a stall In the , probably not km than 7,000/.
or 8,0001. a year • bat he was non-resident, and ease-

uses suppor.eu uy ass It= manta.
ble ehnstian sod. ties. As might be expected the difficulties
of those of the clergy ea whom the burden fell, were con-
siderably increased by the now residence of the rector, and
by their own poverty ; acd the church, se might be ex-
pected, was rendered less efficient in its operations, in pro-
portion es they were circumscribed in their means. This
was one of the eases in which we might be thankful that
there were dissenters in the country • Mr by their means,
all that had been lost to the church'had not been lost to

christionity. They had come forward will so much promp-
titude, that thrall oaths cf the worshipping community of
this wealthy parish wore now members of dissenting con-
gregations. One fact alone would show the spiritual
condition of the parish in this nspeet. There were five
churches belonging to the establishment. and no less than
eighteen places of worship belonging to the dissenters. In
the five churches were 4,200 sittings; in the dissenters'
places of worship 14,360; the former were only moderately
filled, the latter densely crowded. This was one of the
many exemplifications that might be given of the fact, that
wherever there were large revenues ill distributed, there
the establishment was the weakest, and religion in the
establishment was most apt to languish. Such was Bishop
Wearmonth, with a dense population, neglected by the
skulk and the inhabitants daily falling off from it. But
he Wstated only one half the eviL Sunderland and
Ohiter•Vnatuanath were usighaelly one perish; they had
boon Milmited, but still remained, for all ecclesiastical pur-
rilliees town and one community. Sands/lend, with
t pugnlation of 20,000, waa probably in a still
wine condition than Bishop Wearmoutb. Its population
was of to different kind. Bishop Wearmouth might be
galled" the west-end ; " Sunderland was composed of the
purest and most wretched inhabitants, to whom religious
tembirg and superintendence were moat necessary. That
mulatto° we the moat liable to every contagious disease
end fever; and at this moment, cholera was most fiercely
raging there, while other parts of England were compare-
sleety exempt In Sunderland there were three churches, all
snider one rector, whose ircomo was something under 6001.
slear ; and for that population and those three churches. he
had the ssaistence of two curates, in whose maintenance he
was aided by the diocesan societies. There were therefore
seven clergymen, for this population of 60,000 ; their
overate income was under 1801 ; and of five of them, the
avenge was under 901. This state of things had been long
felt sad seriously deplored throughout the parish ;
but one piospoct held out acme distant hope of
amendment. The rector was a very old man ;
in the course of things some change must take
place beers long; and as the patron of the living was
also the bishop of the diocese, it was thought probable that,
when that change did take place, under his paternal are, it
would conduce to a considerable improvement. Last Octo-
ber, the rector of Bishop Wearmouth hat died; sad as
though to make the opportunity still better, and to make the
change still mere blessed for the population, it happened at
the same instant that there was a vacancy is the neighbour-
ing parish of Sunderland. Both benefices, so vacant, were
la the gift of the same patron, who had therefore the fullest
and amplest opportunity of making any new arrangement he
pleased, and thus contributing to the utmost extent to the
spiritual improvement and welfare of the pariebiocers.
Considerable sensation was created in the parish; it was felt
to be a great opportunity : and, accordingly, all parties who
had any influence with the bishop, or any interest is thy
result, addressed him on the occasion. The noble lord
at the head of the government had stated in the
list week of the session that be had corresponded
with the bishop; and rumour said that the ecclesianical
commies/loners, with that scrupulous and conscientious regsrd
which they always showed for the interests of the church,
when not opposed to their own, had also given their advice
to the bishop. Memorials were addressed to him by the in-
habitants both of Sunderland and Bishop Wearmouth ; those
memorials were before the house. They remained unan-
awned about sir weeks. Th. se memorials were in a very
dilltrentopirit—the vestry of Bishop Wearmouth being a self.
elated body, and their proceedirgs being secret: while the
vestry of Sunderland was elected by the ratepayer,. and pro-
perly represented the inhabi'ants of the tows. Writing t
the bishop Wearmouth vestry, and telling them the arrange-
ments that had been made, the bishop said, " I have only
fixed upon Mr. Eden, the incumbent of this place, of whose
sound judgment, active but well-regulated zeal, and con-
ciliatery manners I have had much ex: erience, at a
great sacrifice of my own feelings, and in some degree
of my own wishes.' No oulogium would be mimed
upon Mr. Eden that he did not deserve. Appointed under
urcumstareel whim rendered him not at that time accept-
able to the parishioners, he had already gained upon their
respect 8,4 affections ; and his ministration would probably
be a great blessing. But the whole of the arrangement was
certainly not satisfactory. Mr. Eden had nand the living
of Bishop Auckland, which, next to Bishop Wearmouth,
was cue of the richest in the diocese ; the bishop had there-
upon ordained a nephew of his own, not then in holy orders,
and had presented him to that living the next day. Part of ,1
the arrangement was that the income of the new rector of
Bishop Wearmouth should be limited to 2,0001. ; the rarplus
to be placed in the hands of trustees, for a certain period, to
be applied at a future time, for purposes and in proportions
no yet stated. So far as that arrangement was legal, the
parishioners bad no complaint to make. They might have
their own opinion on the subject. and might comment on
what they could not altogether approve ; they might believe
that 2,000/ was rather excessive, and that an unnecessary con-
trast bad been made in the course pursued towards the two
rectors. The one was to have, until the month of May, the
whole income accruing from the rectorial estate, to enable
him to go into the rectory; the other was left in such com-
parative poverty that, though there was a rectory at Sunder-
land, he was not able to take pcconsion of it, and had been
obliged to occupy two rooms in a very humble lodging. But
as far as the !proceeding was legal, the parishioners bowed
submissively to the law ; but a portion of it was not sal isfac.
tory, and was not legal. The new rector of Bishop Wear-
mouth, acting no doubt from a very good intention, bad pot
himself into a not very agreeable dilemma. There was no
doubt that the:proceeding on his part was sinsoniacaL The
pate n had the right to present any one whom he pleased ;
but with the patronage the temporalities necessarily went,
and the patron had no porter of interfering and keeping
back a portion after the institution had taken place. In a
note in Stephens's Exlesiasticol Suits," it wan distinctly
laid down that " the cure of souls of every parish or paro-
chial district belongs to, sod ad its emoluments are by the
original founder and endower set apart for the maintenance
of, the Incumbent and his successors, and become vested in
the existing incumbent by his institution and induction."
Hence, the bishop might give or withhold a benefice ; but,
giving the living, he could not withhold the temporalities.
In this can a condition had been made that the rector
should give up his title to a certain portion of the temoora-
li•ies ; and on that condition he bad been presented. Every
lawyer would ay that this was a case of direct simony.
There was a ow exactly in point, where, the patronage
being in the hands of certain parishioner., they had pre-
sented on specific conditions; the coart held, that the agree.
meat entered into for the purpose of restraining the then
mrate from asserting his claim to the small tithes by due
course of law and furnishing evidence against his successor,
was eimoniarzil, and the presentation made thereon void.
This was a ass exactly in point. In both instances, previous
to presentation, the presentee had agreed not to assert his
rights to certain portions of the temporalities ; and such an
agreement had always been held to be simoniacal. Putting
that aside, the arrangement woo unsatisfactory in other res-
pects. It was left in such a state that, if the rector died, after
several years' accumulations, these might be claimed by his
representatives ; or his successor, wben appointed, might
lay claim to the whole of the temporalities, and, if the pa-
tronage were then vested in another bishop, the whole of
those temporalities might bo given. The patron having en-,
disavowed to carry out a proceeding which he had no legal
power to carry out, let the house nut tun an inquiry with
tea view of carrying out an arrangement which the patron
himself had admitted to be desirable. There were strong
ressons why parliament should take this question into ill
own hands. The parishionerwere an for it.
did not wish to express any distrust of their patron : still, IS
there was to be an inquiry and a re-distribution of the rem-
nues, they should have more confidence in its being dons
under the authority of parliament than under that of the'
patron and his present advisers. These advisers were the
very same gentlemen, the self-elected body, who had
gone to him and represented themselves as speaking
in the name of the inhabitants, from whom their
proceedings were kept secret. He had made certain
inquiries of them which would have been more propsily
pat to those responsible for the spiritual condition of the
pariah. If the inhabitantsfelt d:strus: as to those arrange-
mats, they were certainly justified by past circumstances
in the government of that parish. Let any one go through
the length and breadth of the land, and observe the evils,
abases, and eye-sores which, in different dioceses, pervaded
the functions and diminished the usefulneo of oar ecclesias-
tical and parochial system, and they would find that there
ms not one of those evils of which there was not so exem
plification, in an abridged form, in this unfortunate perish
of Bishop Wearmouth, whose wealth bad been the attraction
of every possible abuse. There were things which operated
meet injuriously upon the material agencies of our ecclesias-
tical system ; first, the existence of these is menee
parishes, with enormous populations and most deficient
=toil instruction; secondly, the immense dispropor-
between the labour and the payment of the
sleepy, and between the income of one clergyman and
another; then, the comparative isolation of the poorest and
most neglected of the clergy, and the want of all countenance
and sympathy for theca by their diocesan. Thera was also
the question of the abase of patronage, which instead of
being exercised as a publics trust, was too often exercised ist
a very different manner, so as to dishonour both the church
and the patron. Then that* was the glaring and gross waste
dollar& property, which woo going on, not only unchecked,
but absolutely, is some instance, encouraged by than who
had authority to check it. All then evils and abuse* were
here congregated. The abuse of patronage, in particular,
was strongly felt by the parishioners; and any one looking
through the rich livings in the patronage of the Bishop of