The Sun.
London, England, 1833-03-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The misappropriation of Queen Anne's Bounty,
by Bishops, Deans, and Chapters, was brought be-
fore the House of Lords last night, by Lord King.
The object of this bounty, as every body knows, is
the augmentation of small livings, which cannot
otherwise be increased, to an amount adequate to the
suitable maintenance of incumbents. But, according
to Lord King, the Bishops, and Deans and Chapters,
applied this bounty to the support of those who
served the cures in parishes of which they were the
impropriators, in order to avoid paying these in-
cumbents out of the tithes. His Lordship did not
mince the matter in characterizing this offence :
He knew not (he said) a more crying abuse than,
that the dignitaries of the Church, who were impro-
priators of the tithes of parishes, and in many in •

stances afforded the most miserable pittance to the
incumbents, should have these livings augmented by
large sums from Qucen Anne's Bounty, and the an-
nual grant voted by Parliament. He could call
this nothing better than obtaining money under false
pretences, and those pretences of the moat flagrant
and unworthy character. These grants were ob-
tained under a plea that the livings thus benefited
were poor ones, when, in fact, they were rich bene-
fices with poor paid incumbents." His Lordship
stated the particulars of several of these grants, and
specified at the same time the holders of the impro-
priated tithes. Our readers will see that several of
the livings are in Wales, and they wilrrecollect a
Oiscussioh on a petition from Chester a few days
ag►o in the House of Commons, on the same subject.
We have received from a correspondent the follow-
ing communication, which will serve to throw some
further light on the subject :

" THE CHURCH IN WALES.
" To the Editor of the Morning Chronicle.

" Sir,—l never was more surprised than in reading an
assertion attributed to Mr. W. Wynn, in your report of
the discussion that took place on the presentation of a
petition by Lord Robert Grosvenor from the Welsh resi-
dents in Chester, for a reform in the Church in Wales.
Lord Robert Grosvenor had stated, that there were many
instances in which the fund called Queen Anne's Bounty
had been applied to exonerate sinecurists and Bishops
from paying the salaries of their curates. To this state-
bent Mr. Wynn ventured to offer a broad and general
denial. ' The Noble Lord (says he) was under a mistake
in some part of his statement, for he had stated there
were many instances of non-resident clergymen, and of
curates who did the, duty being paid out of Queen Anne's
Bounty. That was not the case.'
"Now, Sir, as specific facts are better than a general
Idenial, I will mention a few instances in which this abuse
does prevail, and in a most aggravated and disgraceful
form.

" Gresford, Holt, and Isened, are three parishes in
Denbighshire, in which the Dean and Chapter of Win-
chester enjoy, from tithes and lands, 2,4001. per annum.
The Vicar of Gresford, who receives from thence 4001.
a year, is the Rev. Heneage Horsley, who lives in Edin-
burgh.
Holt and Iscoed are both served by stipendiary Cu-
rate,, appointed and paid by the Dean and Chapter : to
the Curate of Holt they pay only 201. per annum—but he
receives 100/. from Queen Anne's Bounty ! To the
Curate of Iscoed they pay nothing!—but he receives 1201.
from Queen Anne's Bounty ! This is the case, though
1-lolt and Iscoed, apart from Gresford, pay to the Dean and
t_•lrapter 900/.
Towyn, and those other parishes in Merionethshire
which are annexed to the see of Lichfield, are worth
1,1001., and yet the Bishop pays his three Curates only
201. a piece, and ekes their salaries out from Queen Anne's
Bounty ! A petition on this subject has already been
advertised in the Shrewsbury Chronicle.
" One more instance and I have done. Norton Cha-
pdry, in Shropshire, worth 600/. per annum, is the pro-
duce of a lucky speculation with a sum taken from the
Bounty Fund, and is enjoyed by the Rev. John Luxrnoore,
an absentee, and a brother of the Dean of St. Asaph,
who, though an absentee from \Vales, possesses, as very
justly stated by Mr. Wilbraham, eleven sources of emolu
ment, and most of them derived from that country. The
fact is, that throughout North Wales the Bishops and si-
necurists have almost uniformly resorted to Queen Anne's
Bounty, as a means of relieving themselves from
,the pay-
ment of their own curates. Thus has a charity, meant to
provide for the decent support of the poorer clergy, been
most fraudulently converted into an instrument for aug-
menting the wealth of the higher clergy."

Lord King summed up by observing, that the
two Collegiate Bodies of Winchester and Windsor,
with the three Deaneries of Exeter, Carlisle, and
Bangor, hail alone received 14,5001. from Queen
Anne's Bounty. "It was not to be endured," he
added, " that the Deans and Chapters, Registers,
and all the other rubbish of Cathedrals, should take
so much, more especially, too, of what did not be-
long to, or never was intended for them. For his
part, he could only find one language in which to
address them ; he could only say, Get you gone,
give place to honest men—men who really work,
who are really a pattern, as well by their lives as by
their precepts—who know their calling and act up
to it.'" The Bishop of London some time ago
advanced a justification of the Church, to which the
homely phrase of helping a lame dog over a stile
might well be applied. He told us that the Church
had suffered all such abuses as those specified by
Lord King to exist, because the attention of the
people had not been called to them ; but that
now that they had received an impulse from with-
out, they were setting their house in order. It
never occurred to the Lords Bishops and Deans
and Chapters, that there was anything wrong in
paying their own curates out of the sums intended
for the augmentation of poor livings. But now
that the people have enlightened them on the
subject, they will set about the Reform with
all conceivable vigour. " Before 1831," said the
Bishop of London last night, "at which pe-
riod the Right Rev. Prelate introduced his Bill,
they could not legally saddle their estates with
any payments except out of the reserved rents,
which were very small. The Bishops, therefore,
were not able, before the passing of this Bill, to
do what their feelings would prompt, without im-
poverishing themselves, and improperly touching
those resources which were absolutely necessary to
maintain them in that respectability, station, and
dignity, which was becoming the heads of the esta-
blished religion." There was a lion in the way be-
fore 1831—their Lordships felt intensely all the
while for the poor clergy ; but they buttoned their
breeches-pockets close. Charity begins at home,
and when the question is, whether a Bishop who
occupies two or three palaces, arid keeps a little
army of menials, shall keep two servants fewer, and
give 201. in addition to each of two or three curates
starving on 201. a-year ?—The answer must be
easily given. Our readers will, therefore, clearly
see the powerful reasons which existed for inducing
the Bishops, and Deans and Chapters to allow
this abuse to be continued as long as the public
would suffer it to be continued, and give
them due credit for the deference which they
showed to public opinion in 1831. As the Bishop
of London well observed, why should Deans and
Chapters show any more concern for the souls of
the people of the parishes of which they hold the
tithes, than if they were lay-impropriators ? " The
Noble Lord (King)," said his Lordship, " was not
warranted in the language he had uttered about
Deans and Chapters—language which was not then
heard for the first time." And then followed an
allusion to the rebellion—the great rebellion, as it
has been termed—which was begun by people
" who loved the poor clergy ;" a significant hint to
Ministers, that all who wish to relieve poor clergy
at the expense of rich clergy, are little better than
rebels. The state of the Church in Wales, the
abandonment of the people, the violation of an ex-
press article of the Church of England, which
enjoins the service to be read in a language under
stood by the people, -
the appropriation of Queen
Anne's bounty to livings of which the clergy them-
selves are impropriators, all proclaim that the very
best of men (and we assume' the clergy to be the
best) are apt to be biasiiid, when interest calls one
way and duty another; and that, if we wish to see
the Church effective for the object of diffusing reli-
gious instruction among the people, other than
clerical hands must labour at the task of referm.-
li/ermine, Chronicle.