The Sun.
London, England, 1837-03-13 00:00:00

Difference

£24 4,0G7

I have been since supplied with a most important document,
being the particulars of all the leases in the sec of Durham,
with the estimated yearly rental of each tenure, and the fine
paid when each lease was actually granted.
We have now the means of examinieg, in a very simple
manner, the accuracy of my former estimate of the property
of the Church in its present state, on the assumption that Dur-
ham is a fair sample of the whole. One-eighth part of the
fines received by the Bishops is 9,351/. ; and in the see of
Durham alone those which yearly arise are 8,746/., so that it
is nearly an eighth of the whole episcopal estate.
But as the Bishops, by means of concurrent leases, are in-
vested ►itb the power of enforcing a larger amount of fines
than Deans and Chapters, who have no such means, it follows
that, if the whole estate of the Church (including that of the
Deans and Chapters) be taken as proportionate to Durham,
the yearly rental so inferred will be still less than the actual one.
Among the leases in Durham there arc thirty for terms of
years, and nine on lives, concerning which no Report is made
of the ;early value of the tenement when the lease was granted.
These, with all their particulars, are omitted from the sums
which lam about to mention. In all other cases the gross
annual value being stated, together with the reserved rent and
land tax, I have deducted the two latter items, to show the
net rental, in respect of which fines were paid. The result is
as follows :

Net Rent. Fines.
There are, s. d. s. d.
For terms of years, 277 leases 29,166 8 2i 41,401 18 6
And on three lives, 275
Thus the total sum of the fines in respect of
all present leases is
The fines returned 'from the Bishops as annually paid were
74,8121.

Then, if they were in the same proportion .Z.
as Durham, there would be in respect of terms 31,908

And of lives 42,904
But, as I have just mentioned, the proportion which I had
assumed as probable, and on which my former answers were
grounded, was, for terms £31,5G3
And for lives 43,429
. .

So that it happens that I only differ from the result shown
by the leases of the Bishop of Durham, by giving the fines
for terms too low, and those for lives too high, by 345/. ;
which is certainly very little, in the distribution of 74,812/.
Including the Chapters, I had by proportion assumed for the
whole estate of the Church that the fines for

terms are £109,960
And for lives 150,671

Total
But in proportion to Durham they would be

for terms £111,161
And for lives 149,470
Now the Bishops' leases stated to be now outstanding are :
For terms of years 1,336 in number.
And on lives 2,559
Then, as in Durham, 277 leases for terms
had a net rental of £ 29,166 8 2
1,336 should be under a rental of 140,672 13 0
And as 275 leases on three lives are found to
be in respect of a rent of . 29,220 0 0
So 2,559 such leases would be under a
rental of..

271,905 7 8

And those two items should, if all the Bishops' rental was
similar to Durham, be the yearly net rent of the episcopal
estate, viz. :

Yearly Fines I In respect of a
now payable. Rental.
For renewing leases for terms 1£31,908 I £140,672 13 0
For renewing those on lives... 42,904 271,905 7 8
So that, including The net rental
the Chapters, when will, by pro-
the fines are portion be
For leases on terms £111,161 I .f 490,074
And on leases for lives

Total present rental, if the whole be similar to
Durham
The rental which I had inferred, by the method of proba-
bilities, was 1,514,6461.
It will appear below that the excess in my estimate of the
rental is more than compensated by an excess in the esti-
mate of the value of the tenants' interest therein, by taking
the average term of the subsisting leases too high.
I valued the interest of the tenants and Church respectively
in their present leases for years, on the basis that land in fee-
simple is worth only 25 years' purchase. It is almost certain
that the Church has a property in this class of 'casts worth
13.28707 years' purchase of the rental.
In like manner I valued the interests of the tenants and
Church respectively, in the leases for lives, on the same basis,
and found the property of the Church to be 6.726991 years'
purchase of the rental which respects that class of leases.
Then the present value of the property which the Church
now has in a rental let for years,
Of 490,0751. is equal to £6,511,655
Aid in that under lives, of 947,270/

Total, ~,. £12,883,832

The interest of which at 4 per cent. is
Then deducting the income now received as
fines

615,353

260,031

The surplus is equal to a perpetual annuity of 554,722
I have above stated that, by my previous investigations, this
surplus was calculated at 244,0871.
This close coincidence, like that already noticed, in the dis-
tribution of the fines between two classes of leases, is very
remarkable.

All this reasoning is exceedingly simple; there is no one
proposition which is at all questionable, except the single point
whether the Church has so much property in the rental of the
estate for lives as 6.726991 years' purchase, which infers the
tenants' property, one with another, to be worth 1.8273009
years' purchase.
I will show immediately that in Durham the lives are older
than in any of the leases used in the former calculation, and
that the Church has therefore a greater property in the estate
leased for lives than is above set forth.

The ages of the lives in each lease in Durham being given,
a calculation has been very carefully made of the probable
number of renewals which, according to the law of mortality
of the Government tables would be necessary in the course of
one year; that number, out of 275 leases, is 2.328965.

Then 'the average Probability of such lease being subject
to a fine in the course of one year at Durham, is the fraction
.0848696.

The corresponding probability in the 191 leases, on which
I had grounded my former calculation, is the fraction
.0610133; so that 275 of these leases would produce in the
first year 16.77866 renewals, that is to say, not so many as
seventeen fines, whilst in Durham there would be more than
23. Thus it is evident that the lives in the Durham leases are
older than those of the others which I have examined ; and,
therefore, the property of the Church in the rental subject to
this class of leases is greater than 6.727 years' purchase, which
was the result deduced from an examination of those others.

In the next place, it is to be observed, that the leases in
Durham were, in many instances, granted a long time ago,
and there is little room for doubt that the rental on which the
tenant in those days confesses himself liable to pay a fine is
much below the true rental at present.
The 275 Durham leases were granted in the following or-
der :—One year ago, 15 leases; two years ago, 21 leases;
three years ago, 11 leases ; four years ago, 12 leases ; five
years ago, 22 leases ; six years ago, 15 leases ; seven years ago,
2 leases ; eight years ago, 12 leases ; nine years ago, 12 leases ;
ten years ago, 13 leases ; eleven years ago, 16 leases ; twelve
years ago, 21 leases; thirteen years ago, 15 leases; fourteen
years ago, 8 leases ; fifteen and under twenty years ago, 16
leases; twenty and under twenty-five years ago, 23 leases;
twenty-five and under thirty years ago, 16 leases; thirty and
under thirty-five years ago, 8 leases ; thirty-five and under
forty years ago, 7 leases ; forty and under forty-seven years
ago, 10 leases ; total, 275 leases.

But in the foregoing calculation of the rental from the Dur-
ham leases no allowance is made for any suppressed re;:tal.
That which was stated as the annual value of each tenure when
the lease was granted has been treated as the rack rent at the
present day.
Lastly, when, from among the whole of the leases for terms
of years at Durham, we select those only which were renewed
from a term of 14 years to a term of 21 years—
We find that, for all such leases, the fines
were

£38,745 13 9

And that the net rental in respect of which
such fines were paid is stated at 25,28.0 7 1
Therefore the average fine received was 1.53209 years'
poiclisse of the rent.
Now, when the interest of money is nine per cent, the
proper fine to be allowed for such a renewal is 1.506 years'
purchase.
Therefore, without going into the question of suppressed
rental, the leases in Durham have been renewed on the prin-
ciple of raising money at very nearly nine per cent. In my
former answers I assumed the rate of seven per cent. as below

tic average.

JOHN FINLAISON, Actuary of the National Debt,

and Government Calcnlator.

NOTE ON ECCLESIASTICAL LEASES, BY MR. DRINKWATER

13ETIIIJNE.

The ingenious calculations submitted to the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, on the subject of Ecclesiastical leases, by Mr.
Finlaison, rest upon principles the truth of which will not
easily be appreciated by those aho are not familiar with
such considerations. I have endeavoured, in the following
remarks, to reduce the calculation to the simplest possible
form, in which accuracy of assumption has been unavoid-
ably sacrificed in some degree to ensure facility of explana-
tion.

The average yearly amount of fines received by the Arch-
bishops, Bishops, and Chapters, is about 261,000/. These
arise partly from renewals of leases en lives, partly from re-
newals of leases on years. In order to calculate them accu-
rately, the value of the interest which the Church has is the
lands comprised in these leases (beyond the reserved rents) it
would be necessary to know the actual term subsisting in
each lease, the fine separately received on each renewal of
it, and the rate of interest on which that renewal was calcu-
lated. These three data would enable us to calculate the
rack-rent of the lands comprised in each lease, and, deduct-
ing from that the value of the tenant's interest, the remainder
would show the interest possessed by the Church. The
same -thing may be done with tolerable accuracy by assum-
ing an average term of all the leases, and an uniform rate
of interest.

From the best information which bas yet been procured on
the subject we shall make a supposition less favourable to the
proposed plan than the truth, by assuming the common term
to be of twenty-four years, and the rate of interest 7 per cent.,
which rate is equivalent to taking two years' purchase for
the renewal of a lease from fourteen to twenty-one years.
Caiculations have been made in much greater detail than
this, and this term of twenty-four years has been fixed on for
facility of explanation, from knowing beforehand the results of
those more accurate estimates.
Assuming these numbers, it is plain that, if this supposed
lease of twenty-four years were suffered to expire, the Church
would receive no fines in the interval, but would, at the end of
that term, come into possession of the whole estate which it
would possess thenceforward in perpetuity.
The average annual amount of fines received, which, on the
system of perpetual renewal now practised, is, in fact, a per-
petual annuity in possession is therefore treated as being of
equal value with a perpetual annuity equal to the rental of the
estate, deferred for twenty-four years, the rate of interest being
taken at 7 per cent.
The first question, therefore, is,--" What perpetual annuity
deferred for twenty-four years, is of the same value as a per-
petual annuity in possession of 261,0001., the rate of interest
being taken at 7 per cent. ?"
Log. 1.07=.02938
24

.70512=L0g. 5.07
That is to say : 1/. in hand is of the same value, at 7 per cent.,
as Si. Is. sd. twenty-four years hence. The same proportion
holds true of each successive annual payment of both annui-
ties. Therefore, an annuity of 261,0001. in hand is of the
same value at 7 per cent., as an annuity of 1,323,000/. deferred
for twenty-four years. This, therefore, is the rental of the
Church Lands, on the foregoing suppositions.
The second question is, " What would be the value of the
interest of the Church in these estates if their reversion could
he turned into possession at 4 per cent. instead of 7 per cent. ?"
For this it is only necessary to reverse the process just gone
through, at the altered rate of interest :

Log.

1.04-. 1.98297
24

1.59128=L0g. .39.
That is to say, 11. to be received twenty-four years hence is
worth 7s. 91d. in hand, the rent of interest being 4 per cent.
Therefore an annuity of 1,323,0001. deferred for twenty-four
years is of the same value at 4 per cent. as an annuity
of £516,000
in present possession. The fines now received are 261,000

Which leaves an available surplus of £055,000
" J. E. DRINKWATER BETHUNE.
" Home Office Chambers, 25th February, 1837."

COURT CIRCULAR.

The Duchess of Kent entertained a large and distinguished
party at dinner on Saturday, among whom were the Duke of
Norfolk, the Archbishop of Dublin and Mrs. Whateley, Lord
Palmerston, Sir John Hobhouse, Lord Morpeth, the Attorney-
General for Ireland, Dr. Lushington, Countess Cadogan, Earl
and Countess of Rosebery, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley, the Earl of
Ilchester, Lord Templetown,
The Princess Augusta and the Duchess of Gloucester, took
an airing together in a carriage and four on Saturday, in the
neighbourhood of Hampstead.
Divine service was performed yesterday morning at Kensing-
ton Palace, by the Dean of Chester. The Duchess of Kent
and her Royal Highness's household attended ; and in the after-
noon the Duchess of Kent and the Princess Victoria attended
divine service. The Dean of Chester again officiated.
The Duchess of Kent has given large orders for dresses to
the silk weavers in Spitalfields.
A Cabinet Council was held on Saturday afternoon at the
Foreign Office. The whole of the Cabinet Ministers were
present. The Council sat an hour and a half.
Mr. Mauray and Mr. Oxley, deputed by the American
Chamber of Commerce, and the importers of tobacco at Li.
verpool, and accompanied by Viscount Sandon, Mr. Ewart,
p,, Mr. George Evans, M, P,, and Mr. Thornley, M. P.,
had a second interview on Saturday with the Chancellor of 1
the Exchequer and Mr. Baring, on the subject of reduction of
the duty on tobacco.

,
The cinbassy from Madagascar visited Viscount Palmerston
on Saturday, at the Foreign Office.

At a meeting of the Baronets held on Saturday, at Sir
Robert Fitzwygram's in, Connaught-plAce, Sir Francis Shuck-
burgh in the Chair, it was agreed that the petition to be pre-
sented to the King should solicit only the privilege of wearing
the Ulster badge, similar to that granted to and worn by the
Nova Scotia Baronets. His Majesty, at the last deputation of
Baronets, having been graciously pleased to say that some
poi:lts in that petition were entitled to receive his support and
favourable consideration, and that his Majesty took a personal
interest in their proceedings.

A deputation of the General Synod of Ulster, including
the Rev. 11. Walker Rodgers, Moderator of the General
Synod, and the Rev. John Browne, Secretary, had an inter-
view on Saturday with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in
Downing-street.
The Bavarian Minister and the French Charge d'Affaires
transacted buSiness at the Foreign-office on Saturday.
The Ilon. Fox Maule, M.P., left town on Friday, for
Scotland.