, 1877-08-05

| CLERGIMES.
| At the evening session OF the British Hous
OF Commons, June 26, Mr.. Lcatnam rose to cal
the attention OF the House to- The traffic in churc
| 1iyings- The gentleman said it could not b
said that in bringing forward this matter he ha
shown the inpatience OF an enthusiast. Fl
had waited until the reforming zeal Of tue Who'll
bench Of Bishops had eyaporatcd, and 1t wa
evident TO everybody that If reforms were to b.
introduced it must be by those wh0, If not 81
Jealous as to honor the Church, were NOR,
hopeful OF Indicating the necessity for these re-
forms. He should content himself with lavins
bare, as briefly as he could, what he couceivet
to be the extent Of the evil, aud leaving tilost
who hid the right to do SO to indicate til,
remedy. All he wished to do was to draw, Il
possible, from his right honorable friend the
declaration that be was prepared, when the op
portunity should arrive, to give this sub
lect some OF the attention and skill that he
had been willing to give to it before, and also
to draw from the House the expression Of opill-
ion Which might be strong enough to fortty his
friend in his resolution to deal with the qucs-
tion little more cflectually than was attempt
ell By the abortlye bill Of 1873. Now, as to the
extent Of The evil. Mr.. Day, who for seven
years WAS Secretary to the Bishop OF Rochester,
had laid before q committee of the House oil
Lords 4 tabular statement OF the number of
Iivlngs offered for sale Ill the Ecclesiastical Ga
zette during the month oi January, 1872, 1873,
and 1874. In january, 1872. there were eighty
eight livings offered. 4 friend of his, we'll
known to many mcmbers Of the House, writing
to u prominent organ OF the provincial press
nom de plume Of "Prumnliou by Merit,n csti-
mated that two or three years ago oEc-tifth Of
the whole patronage of the Church was in the
hands Of the. aren't for the sale Of ivings, and
that the wiolc Chur:t, might be 'sturned ovcr''
in thirteen years. Through the kindness OF
various friends he had in his possession
recent issues Of nearly the whole
of the published list Of Church
prefcrmcnts for sale or exchange, He found
tina. in the Ecclesiastical Gazette there were all
yertiscments relating to printed lists of 1,G7G
liyings. and If they were to add the number
which one of the most prominent Of the agents
always had on his list they arrived at the cuor-
nous total of 2,3Sssj ivngs as being at this mo-
1ncnt ior sale or exchange. Perhaps it might
bc said that the desire to dispose Ut the liyiilgs
led to the employment Of several agents, SO
that many advertisements i'll tho lists were
duplicates, but against that might be set the
number who did not appear upon the registers,
but who disposed Of their liyinss by private in
yitatIon, giving, il he might SO cal{ it, to this
protligacy the hecency oi al assiynation in the
dark, It might Le fairly set down that the
number OF iiylngs for sale or exchange was
more than 2,00J Or nearly oue-fourth Of tine
t'en-f il SAID thai very many Of the adreT,isc-
mcnts were bogus ones but his friend
ti,,.,, Iists. ami ner.r tn,,rd th,t thnt
wos the rase Cnc such 1,c ti,'u,c1t 10 had
i,;scovrrcI af A Ashtnn-unnn- Nersrv 1p rc,1cd
IT, ~; alvcrfisrmcnt cn,an,,;nsr from Raw Wr
a,i Il Ic1 ~ r,rrosnnn,in,,c,, ,,nt ~ tf - r,.,st
t;nJ mi ;,nmans" ;n,i;o. tin o,nnnrr
~. ,,arish;nners Wien hr5nthf ~ ba, a'ius NV
evsr the nt,nost thr rnyarsnG 9.ut'en,n' cn,,,1
b. brouent to saw was That the living was % not
th. ~ CALI 'irIo1no frn, thnsa ,;7'a1.;so
n,nn:s The rr,f1;c VAS carr;aJ on viii, f,a,;,,S.