New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-04-22

gwen 10 new III portunties on tAe part OF oInef
parishes less literally endowed, to come in fora
share Of the good things OF Trinity Ii would
seem, however, from the report referred to, IS II
tie dosged DcommuDicativenss of the Ves.ry hsd
grown entirely out Of an unviliogness to confe"
the utter extravaganza ana thriftlessness with
which the great es ate Of Trinity Church had been
msrsged; that this course of refusing intormaticn
TO the public, had been pursued, not to eonceal
wealth, but to cover up poverty, tall at last the
Vestry to save itself from bankruptcy and utter
Iuip had concluded to make 8 clean breast Of it,
and to lay before the public statement Of its
affairs. no less humiliatibg than candid.
The impoverished and fallen condition of this
once rich corporation, driven by absolute poverty
to eurta all its charities and to limit its expenses
strictly to its own service is well caculsted to ex-
cite strong feelings Of sympathy. An expression
of that sympathy is now before u.s. in tho shape OF
pamphlet entitled Poor Trinity" emsnating, n
the title page shows, from John H. Hopkins, jr.,
NJ. a., Deacon. 1t is quite plain, however, from
this pamphlet, that Mr. Hopkins has not entirely
lin tied himself to the study Of divinity. He has
evidently given considerable attention to the sub
ect Of real estate. However bis character
of deacon might qualify or entite him to
administer spiritual consolation or e1hort,-
ton to the humilisted and peuitential Vestry,
he attempts nothing Of that sort. He leaves that,
we suppose, to the clersymen who form part OF
the Trinity establishment. Neither does he act
the part of those friends Of Job who visited him 10
bis poverty and desttnion. He takes no occasion
to read the Vestry lecture on its sinful ext'ays
gsucs. In fact, Mr. Hopkins is convinced that the
Vestry is under deluson, or, at all events, that
the public will be if it takes all the statements and
conclusions Of the Vestrys report as realities.
There are cases, we know, 10 which men OF great
fortune under q delusve idea-the result occa-
sionally Of too luxurious Gvng-that they are
Oh the high road to the poor-house, cur.
tail their establishments, dismiss their serv-
ants, turn deaf ear to all applications for
charity, aud sometimes 90 and hang themselves.
We trust the cOnsoutOry assurances and mathe-
NAUTICAL calculations Of the Rev. Mr. Hopkins may
save the Vestry Of Trinity from being driven to
that awful extremity. The first point of encour-
agement to which he calls the attention OF the
Vestry is the state Of its revenue. That revenue,
I'D to le41, according TO the statement of DR..
Berran, in his history of Trinity Church, had
never vet reached the annual amount of $4,000.
Seven years after that, in 1854 it was reported by
the corporation to the House of Assembly at
SCI, 967. In 1858, according to the evidence
before the Senate Committee, it was $780,
428. The lugubrious report of the Finance
Committee to the Vestry states IL to have
been Sl02 294 in 1857, and in 1853 Sll5,8i5, while
their controller estimates it for 1889 at Sl20 $50.
Here is regular increase of income-a duplication
of It in twelve yesrs-wbch does Lot on the face
of if, look exactly Ike ruin. But the attention oil
the Vestry is wholly absorbed by the "enormous
burden of it's debt" which in 1858 had reached
the amount Of S709,735. Mr. Hopkins, however,
calls attention to the fact that as long sgo as l547
the debt amounted to S4i0,000, so that after al
it has not increoed in the same proportion as the
income. Moreover, the corporation hold S2O' oO9
in bonds and mortgages, which Is an offset to so
much debt, and deducting also Sol, 800 upon which
be corporation is only liable for the interest, the
principal of the debt is reduced to just about the
amount at which it stood twelve years ago, when
he income was only half its present amount.
Mr.. Hopkins thinks that the Vestry are now
lsborng under serious deusOn as well az to the
present as to the prospective value OF their vast
landed estate. They do seem to have been led, by
the result Of the Senatorial investigation of lo56, to
extend their ideas ittle but they still stick fast
at the point where ADMINISTRATION left them over
three years sgo and stesdfsstly shut their eyes to
the increase which has since taken place IN the
value of their property. Ia their own report made
10 the Senate in 1856, they estimated the value
of their landed property at 81 1861, or their
whole net property as only little over
million. In the late Report of the Finance |
Committee, they substitute the apPrsi'ement of |
value of their real property arrived at by that Com
mttee and confess to net property at the present
time of a.. $50 236 But the value of the landed |
property of Trinity, three years and upward ago, |
i, not its value at the present time The value of
that property is operated upon BY two causes OF
enhancement both OF which the published report |
to the Vestry entirely ignores Nearly the whole
of the Trinity estate is under lease the greater
part on rents which bear no proportion TO Its pres
emit value. The Astor lease. covering three hun
dred and thirty.sx lots which was granted IN l7o1
for ninety nine years, pays only s267 rent year.
This lease expires in 1850, when the Corporation
will resume possession Of this vast property and
can sell or let the whole at its then market value.
The Lispenard estate, covering eighty one lots
given originally for eightythree years, at trifllng
rent. expires in 1862. All the other property of
the Corporation except FIVE lots let on lease
which has still fifty two years to rum is held on