The Sun.
London, England, 1831-11-25 00:00:00

portable by those who have been used to the more
gay and lively habits of life on the Continent.

The subject of the Church revenues and
pluralities would appear to be one of very great
interest, if we were to judge only from the mul-
titude of pamphlets we receive on such topics.
The former branch will, we trust, be early con-
sidered in a Reformed Parliament, and the
latter is already, to a certain extent, provided for
by the Archbishop of CANTERBURY'S Bill. His
Grace should have had the boldness to have
urged their total abolition, instead of their partial
diminution, but we, nevertheless, give him credit
for sagacity in following the temper of the times
to the extent that he has done. Neither should
the conduct of Lords ELDON and TENTERDEN
be forgotten, who voted against the clause in the
Archbishop's Bill, limiting the distance at which
joint livings might be held, to thirty miles, al-
though the first mentioned Learned Lord, in a
speech on the Stipendiary Curates' Bill, on the
21st May, 1813, said " why not enforce the
residence of the incumbent, by declaring that it
he did not reside he should forfeit the living.
That there should be a resident Clergyman in
every parish was most desirable." Yet the
Learned Lord doubts whether thirty statute
miles is a proper distance within which the hold-
ing of pluralities ought to be limited !
The letter° f the Rev. Mr. HULL, of Liverpool,
to the Archbishop of CANTERBURY, on the Bill
to restrain pluralities, is well worth perusal by
those who take an interest in the subject ; especi-
ally the following passage, which attacks the
Archbishop with much force:—

" The Bill, which your Grace has proposed for this end,
enacts that no person in future shall hold more than two
benefices, whatever may be their value in the King's books,
and that the churches of such two benefices shall be within
thirty statute miles of each other : and your Grace con-
ceives that, by these means, the number of parishes now
deprived of resident incumbents, owing to pluralities, will
be reduced from 2,100 to 700. The distance between the
benefices of a pluralist, which are above Si. in the King's
books, being now measured from the boundaries of the two
parishes, the distance between the churches may be con-
sidered as fifty miles. Your Grace is thus represented to
have expressed your sentiments upon this point If
fifty miles is the distance at present allowed, and thirty as
lessened by the Bill, every church may he considered as
the centre of a circle, of which the area will be in propor-
tion to the diameter, and in this particular case the greater
circle will be to the smaller as about one to three ; and
consequently, the number of benefices, now tenable to-
gether by dispensation, will be less by two-thirds than at
present. Allow a similar reduction for livings under Si.
(which I conceive to be under the mark,) and we may
fairly conclude that the number of pluralists will, in the
end, be reduced from upwards of 2,000 to about 700.'
" Now it is plain that your Grace did not express your-
self in such terms as these. Your Grace, no doubt, said,
that as the areas of circles are in proportion to the squares
of their diameters, in this case, the area of the greater circle
would be to that of the smaller as about three to one
(25 : 9) ; and from this fact your Grace concludes that
the number of benefices now tenable together by dispen-
sation will be less by two-thirds than at present, and that
the number of pluralists will, therefore, be reduced from
2,100 to 700.

" I am afraid, however, that your Grace's conclusion is
somewl.at too hastily drawn. Granting that the number
of benefices now tenable together by dispensation will be
less by two-thirds, it will not necssarily follow that the
number of pluralists will be diminished in priportion. I
much fear that we shall see such selling and buying, and
chopping and changing of livings, especially among the
great men of the nation, in order to suit their eeclesias.
tical property to the smaller circles, as will in great mea-
sure defeat your Grace's intention, and probably bring
some sc indal upon the Church.
" But even supposing that this great reduction contem-
plated by your Grace may be accomplished, and that only
700 clergymen shall be permitted to be absent from their
benefices in consequence of pluralities, I still venture to
ask whether your Grace is prepared to justify this permis-
sion upon principle?'
" The ecclesiastical property in every parish was set
apart by law for the maintenance of a resident minister,
who should instruct the people in their duty, edify them
by his example, keep hospitality among them, and comfort
and relieve them in their distresses.

" With regard to pluralities, they are contrary to all
the ancient canons of the Church, and were contrary to
the law of England until the passing of the 21 Hen. VIII.
And since the passing of that Act many efforts have been
made to abolish them in the reigns of Edward VI.,
Elizabeth, James 1., Charles I. and Charles 11. During
the reign of Mary, and dining the Commonwealth, they
were totally abolished ; and by three several Acts of
Parliament, passed in the reigns of James 1., William and
Mary, and Anne, the Universities are restricted from pre-
senting any clergyman, already in possession of a benefice
with cure, to another such benefice, which under certain
circumstances might be placed at their disposal.
" Hence it must be evident to every one, that the evils
arising from pluralists have long been sufficiently glaring.
I beg, therefore, respectfully to ask your Grace, whether
you are prepared to defend 700 of them upon principle ?
i. e., whether you are prepared to show, either that there
is nothing wrong in a clergyman's receiving, for doing
nothing, property set apart for the maintenance of a resi-
dent incumbent, and paying to a hireling, to whom he
commits the care of the parish, the lowest sum which he
is perniitted to pay ; or that the good which arises
from enriching some of the clergy with the reve-
nues of two benefices, is greater than the evils which
arise from the non-residence of incumbents, the poverty
of curates, and the shameful system of single duty, which
prevails to so lamentable an extent ? If your Grace is not
prepared to establish one of these positions, it is plain that
the Bill which you have brought in is not founded on
principle."

We have also before us a pamphlet of con-
siderable erudition, entitled " Church Revenues
Revealed, or the True Origin of Tithes," by Mr.
OWEN OWEN ROBERTS, of Carnarvon, which
though in some respects of local interest, handles
the question in a very able manner, and very
strikingly illustrates the fallacy of such notions
as the intactibility of tithes by Parliament, under
whose authority they were taken from the Ca-
tholic Church, to whom our ancestors had dedi-
cated them, and appropriated in a manner which,
upon the whole, has but little advanced the true
interests of Christianity. Well may it be doubted
whether the Reformation was not a mistake,
when we reflect on such facts as the following
stated by Mr. ROBERTS :

" The number of abbeys, monasteries, hospitals, and
other ecclesiastical establishments seized by Henry the
Eighth, and alienated during his own and the succeeding
reigns, amounted to upwards of 1,180, whose estimated
value (exclusive of 300, the income of which not being
specified cannot be correctly estimated) amounted at that
time to upwards of 210,800/, equal in the present time,
independent of improvement, to 4,216,0001., to which if
there be added 1,405,3331., the probable proportionate an-
nual value of the 300 before referred to, will make upwards
of 5,620,000/., out of which 3,743,000/. ought to be ex_
pended annually towards the support of the poor, and in
repairing and ornamenting the Church, before a single
rate should be levied for that purpose, or the overseers and
churchwardens allowed to touch a single farthing of parish
money.
" As to the present revenues of the Church of England,
I shall not take into account those of bishoprics, colleges,
deaneries, and chapters, nor money levied upon houses in
large towns in lieu of tithes. The number of rectories,
vicarages, perpetual curacies, and benefices, not being pa_
rochial, is 11,338.
The number of acres in England and Wales 37,094,400
Barren land 5;299,200

31,795,200
Exempt from tithes (modus abbey land, &c)... 3,179,520

Total average subject to tithes
" The amount of the farmer's produce to enable him to
live, must be at least equal to three rents, which valuing