The Sun.
London, England, 1810-06-05 00:00:00

POOR CLEF?"; Y.

- As there were some omissions and mistakes in the
account which we gave on Saturday of the state—
ments made by the Chancellor• of the Exchequer,
when he proposed a vote of I 00,000 t. to be placed
at the disposal of the Governors (d Queen Anne's
bounty fur the,• relief -of the Poor Clergy, we deem
it our duty to present ()lir rea&rs with a more cor-
rect report of wh.it the Honourable Gentleman said
on the occasion. He said, that he felt no aPologY
necess,ry for bringing forward this grant_; but if
any were called for, it would be for his not having
brought it tOrw.:rd of an _earlier period of the Ses-
sion. ;The reason why 'be had not submitted it
eat lief to the consideration of the House war.,, that
he,was anxious previously to obtain all the informa-
tion which could be colletrted on the subject: not
only as to the wanner in which the form,er grant
had been disposed of, butt also as to othcr points
which were of great importance with reguri to the
distribution of any fu'u'e grant, and to the present
situation and interest of the Church he, had
wished, if that information could have heen
col-
leaed in' ti the, to have subMitted to the House se-
`seral other propositions for antelioratitvg the situa-
tion, of the Church.

The Report of the Governors of die Bounty, re-
speCting the manner in which' they had distributed
the grant of last year, was now before the House,
and together with other pipers hich had been pro-
duced,enabled him to put the House in possession
of some interesting,though not compleke information.
The Governors had in the first instance vested the
'money in the public funds, and had purchased with
it 146,5181. 3 per cent. consolidated annuities, in
the name of the Corporation—they then preceMed
to advertise, that-if .any person would advance 2001.
they would advance 3001. for the improvemeot of
Livings coming w4;thitt the conditions of the Grant.
To meet' these benefactions 20,0001. had been set
•aside. It appeared by the Report that -50 tiv!ngs
had; afier due inquiry, been thought proper to be
augmented in consequence of benefadtions of
aril that offers fur fineen more were at present un-
der examination. The Governor, then proceeded
to distribute the remaining 86,0001. by lot amongst
(hose Livings of-which' the value did not exceed
601. per annum, according to the late returns, sub-
ject to a condition wh,ch had been notified in the
Gazette, viz. thiit where a Living Was filled by
an Incumbent not resident, or who did not do
the duty, or who possessed other preferment of
1501. per annum, then the benefaction should
no; go to the.. benefit of the present Incumbent,
but should accumulate for the future benefit of
the Living, ,whenever it should be filled by an In-
cumbmt answering these conditions. He trusted
the Committee would approve this measure, as
tending to encourage the residence of -the clergy,
without which the bounty of Parhatnent must fail
to produce the beneficial consequences it bad in
view. • A.,: . -

In proceeding to augment, in the first instance,
the smallest Livings, the Governors bad a6led ac-
cording to their usual pratitice, Under the existing
rules; but he 124 much doubt whether this was the
best method o proceeding. He had called for other
rc;urus, with a view to give the Committee full in-
formation upon this subjed : and particularly for a
return of the population of every parish, where the
'income of the incumbent did not exceed 1501. per
annum. It was found, from a variety of circuin-
stakes, which he detailed, that these returns could
not be made up, as yet, with sufficient accuracy to
be laid before the House : but he had received• such
nformation from that portion of them which had
been prepared, as convinced him, and -he trusted
would convince the Committee, that there was a
class of parishes, of which the population and copse
quent duty was large, and the income wretchedly
inadequate, which ought to be the first objeas of
the liberality of Parliament, and to which, he under-
stood, it was the intention of the Governors to di-
red that bounty, in case the proposed vote should
pass. He was informed that there were about
493 parishes, containing a population of above
1,260,000 persons, the aggregate income of the
Incumbents of which parishes was about 42,0001.
amounting to about 8d per parishioner per annual.
Each of these, parishea contained above 1000 inha-
bitants. But this was not the most striking part of
the case: .In fifteen of these parishes, in the diocese
of Chester alone; there was a population of 208,000
persons, and the whole income of the incuinbants
was 13151. per annum, amounting to ti per parish-
ioner per annum; In six parishes in another diocese
which he enumerated, there were i 1 6,229 persons
and an aggregate ecclesiastical income of only 4271.
per annum. -

- He trusted that with these bets before them, the
Committee would have no doubt that relief was in-
dispensable, and that pariShes of this description.
ought to be the' first'objetis of it.
One of the most important objets of any measure
relating to the Church, was undoubtedly to promote
the residence of the Clergy. It appeared lion; the
returns for 1207-3, that there were bene-
fices; of these about 584 were dignities.. The resi-
dents are stated t 6 be 4412 ; the nr:;.'f-residents, ac-
cording to the different classes ;:ir the abstra6l, about
(1100; and, he understood;-there were about 650,
wirio were also non -residents, for various reasons not
included in the abstract At first sight, therefore,
the non-residers:.s bore to the residents a proportion
of not rnuc:a 'less than 3 tow ; but amongst those
who w.`,,re stated as non-residents were a,large num-
be-1. who resided in_the parish, though not in the
por,onage, and a still further number who resided
in the neighbouring parishes, and did the duty of
their own. Making, however, every allowance for
these, and for other dedullions where no duty and
no 'residence are required, from the number of the
non-residents, there must still be considerably more
than orre-half of the parishes in the kingdom upon
which the incumbent neither legally nor virtually
resided.

He 'wished for further infrmation upon this sub-
jeß, and was desirous of learning how far those pa-
rishes on which the incumbent did not reside were
supplied with residen(curates, whether such curates
were licensed, and it insuperable difficulties did not
occur in obtaining such information, how they were
paid. He was sasisfied that whenever it was pro-
poser! to continue fora length of tithe the bounty 01