The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-05 00:00:00

COUNTY FINANCIAL BOARDS,

There is likely to be no lack of measures for deal-
ing with the important subject of local taxation.
beside the notices of motion given by Mr. Acland,
Sir M. Lopes, and Sir W. P. Gallwey, we learn that
Mr. Read, the tenant farmers' member, and his col-
league, Mr. Howes, are preparing a measure for the
establishment of county financial boards.
ASSESSMENT OF CLERICAL INCOMES.

Under the heading of " A Fat Living," the Rev.
J. F. Hodgson, vicar of Horsham, writes to expose
a very serious injustice to which he and his brother
clergy are exposed. His nominal income is £BOO ;
but, when the absolutely necessary outgoings and
those morally necessary are deducted, £2OO is all that
remains for bread and cheese. He is assisted by four
curates, the salaries—Ll7o—of two of whom
are paid by him. Formerly the magis-
trates used to exempt him from the payment of
rates upon this sum, and he was thereby saved £4O a
year ; but, by a recent decision in the courts of law,
they are unable to do so any longer, and he now has
another £5O per annum clapped upon his shoulders.
The result is that he is unable to increase the stipends
of his hardworking curates, as he had intended to do.
The amount of the clerical tithes being known exactly,
the clergy are rated to the utmost, and every
burden now—police, lunatic asylums, county rates—
is heaped on these local rates. Of course, though
Mr. Hodgson does not say so, the squires and the
farmers take very good care to exempt themselves
from assessment on their necessary outgoings. The
case is really very hard, and some county M.P. ought
to introduce a bill for exempting curates' stipends
from the assessment on the incumbents' incomes.
RITTJALIST SERVICES.

The Ritual judgment being, as Mr. Mackonochie
mentions in his letter to the Archbishop of Can-
terbury, under the deliberation of the High Church
clergy, the practices condemned by that judgment
are still adhered to in the churches where they
have hitherto prevailed; i.e., the altar lights are still
lighted, the officiating clergy still prostrate them-
selves after consecration of the elements, and in
some places incense is used. The morning papers con-
tain long accounts of services at two London churches,
All Saints, Margaret-street, and St. Paul's, Lorrimore-
square. At the first church the services have not,
hitherto, been so " advanced " as at St. Alban's and
St. Michael's, Shoreditch. But Mr. Upton Richards,
incumbent, now intends to make them more
ritualist; and in order to compensate for the prohibi-
tions decreed by the judgment, he asked the congre-
gation to shew their reverence for the sacrament by
kneeling at the words in the Nicene Creed, "And he was
made man," and also by prostrating themselves after
consecration. He especially exhorted them never to
sit down, but to kneel or stand " while Our Blessed
Lord lies on the altar." No one, he said, would think
of sitting in the presence of the Queen ; how much
more should one be reverent in the presence of the
King of Kings ? At St. Paul's, Lorrimore-square, of
which the Rev. John Going is the incumbent, the
sermon was preached by the Rev. G. Abbott, travel-
ling secretary of the Curates' Aid Society, who,
before commencing his sermon made the sign of the
cross, and in his discourse spoke of the large increase
in the number of churches where such services as his
congregation were then witnessing were carried out.
He said, if they would have their worship acceptable to
God, and carry out what they had in view, they must
suffer, and by the measure of their suffering they might
count the measure of their success. Let them adopt the
principle of non-resistance,which had been the weapon
of the saints. Let them give a passive resistance,
for true it was, and true it always would be, that
they who took up the sword perished by the sword.
They might come to church to cross themselves, to
kneel and talk about religion, and all that might give
them a name ; but the true circumcision was the
circumcision of the heart. He attributed the
shocking scenes witnessed in Lambeth and other
parts of London to the want of money for the sup-
port of God's priests. At St. Peter's, Vauxhall,
the incumbent, Mr. Herbert, a moderate High
Churchman, said that he felt bound to comply with
the recent judgment, and he should therefore adopt
the Eucharistic vestments. As the Daily News
remarks, the net result of the judgment so far is to
convert moderate into advanced ritual.