New-York tribune., 1882-04-09

Circumstanced, as ne often is, Ourueneu WIFI iah
lily to boot his outdoor establishment is restricted
| to pony carriage with boy In nondescript ana
somewhat shabby livery to attend to 1t, the indoor
| domestics being a cook and housemaid. AS these
clergymcn to become such have all been at the ex-
pense of university educaton-a costly affair in
England to say nothing of other difficulties attend
ing tit may be wondered al, and asked why
they should settle down to of life so little
rcnumerative, sacrificing as many OF them certainly
do, other and better chances Does 1t come OF re-
| ligious conviction and inclinngs Nothing of the
sort. Such cases there may be- and are but only as
the visits of angels. What then the motive-what
! the compensation For compensation there must
be- else they would not be wearing black coats, and
doing duty as poor country clergymen. The answer
TO this last question not the for all, since
all have not entered the service of the Church from
the same motives, with similar
aims. Some, goodly number of them,
are of the gentry class younger sons deprived of
inheritance by the heartess law of entail to whom
any genteel employment is acceptable, and the
Church is all this The clergy themselves, too.
usually have each trained up to holy orders.
and always so when the livIngs belong to them
But it Is from the middle classes that the clergymen
| of Englands State Church are now chiefly recruit
! ed and every day more and more their motive be-
ing almost mean as it Is easily Understandable.
The middle-class Englishman, who has gained
wealth and is aspiring to social position, knows
that one of the surest stepping gsones, reades Tor
ascent of the social ladder, is to have son III the
Church. If the father himself Is rich, he can pur-
chase an advOwsOn and make the son either
rector or vicar. But if only of moderate means,
and nothing beyond curacy be obtainabe, even
| this opens to the parvenu family prospect OF IN
PRODUCTION to that society they not born III,
hu+ lono 70 bac art of IS
SELF he enters it at once; and though his pay he
but ESQ per annum, there is paradise before him,
not heavenly, but one altogether earthly in his be-
coming rich by maJrimony and so soon after a
rector. In almost every parish there is woman
of wealth. cften a widow, on the lookout for hus-
band and for this alliance Is deemed more
eligible or stands better chance of ehecting 1t,
| than he who administers i'll the Church. Even the
uniform of the Army officer, bedizened though it be,
takes not precedence of the surplice. The number
of young curates of such chances, and specu-
| lating in them. were the truth known, is anything
| but nconsiderable
The respect paid to the parson depends very much
on his character as a man, and how he comports
| himself To be popular he must needs do some ser
| wee beyond that of his Sunday duties in the
Church show interest in the welfare of his parish
toner's, especially the poorer ones visit their SICK,
and contribute something substantial towards their
| comfort or cure. Many do all tins, at the expense
| of their own limited incomes while their wives and
daughters active. often Jealous i'll such admins
tration; Us also in the training and education OF
children So in the of civllizers alone these
parish clergymen are laborers well worthy of their
hire the great drawback being that their pay is not
voluntary on the part of the people, but a forced
contribution to which all must add-as
much as any the dissenters who never
enter the church, and hate the very sight OF it.
Still another per cruria is, that these duty-dong
parsons are rather the exception than the rule
while some equally assduous with parOchal work
make themselves offensive medders i'll family
affairs. There is yet another class OF clergymen,
though few in numbers, who altogether neglect
their parshioners, leaving them, happy go-ucky,
TO take of their Christianity of themselves.
| know some who do not even reside in their
parishes but far away and who never appear III
them during the week, but only in their churches on
Sunday, to run perfunctorily through the service
then off again on Monday morning by the earliest
train! There moreover parishes where the par
son fairly fulils his duty. whose churches on Sun
day present array of empty pews l have driven
through country village, on a Sunday morning,
while the bells were tolliDg for church, to see at
almost every cottage door the cwner i'll week day
apparel-the orthodox understanding his pipe with
one or two of his cOnfreres none of them having
thought about entering the sacred ediicc Inside
it would be found only the squire, with his family
and servants, those of the clergyman himself, and
some six or eight tradesmen +" (shopkeepers) with
theirs who by absentng themselves might risk the
loss of the squire or parsons custom. Add to these
half-score aged and decrepIt paupers in receipt
of Outdoor relief" who must show themselves
there or forfeit the charity dole of two shllngs and
sixpence per week, thrown in the parish clerk, with
the sexton, and you have the congregation as it is
in many an English country church. The truth is,
that England's poorer people, though nOmnally of
the Epscopalian faith care very little about it, or
indeed about any other.
1t is in such parishes that the NoncOnformist
clergy have their harvest. Enter a Dissenting
chapel, and how different the scene! There all is
earnestness and activity, with crowd assembled to
display it, while the clergyman administering is
often man who can both preach and pray with
eoquence far excelng that Of the university grad
uate. 1t may be less grammatical, but coming
direct from the heart goes home to the hearts Of his
hearers carrying with it conviction far beyond
what is produced by the refined, sometimes finical,
discourse from the pulpit of the parish church.
These Dissenting ministers labor, and have long
labored. under grevous social disadvantages.
Among high class EpiscopaliaDs it is thought the
correct thing to scout and scorn them. Even a
Roman Catholic priest takes precedence of them in
the consideration OF society LOT There Is no dan
ger of his doing anything 10 level class distinctions
or interfere with ancient privileges, but quite the
reverse. But, Notwithstanding this petty spite
shown against the Nonconformist ministers,
and the obloquy cast at them, they are
daily gaining ground, both in power and
pop ularty of late more rapidly than ever,
through the scare caused by the encroachments of
Ritualism. Instinctively the people know this to
be only Roman Catholicism in form, with
garb little disguised sometimes not at all And as
Enscnr,al clnrat1- nnEn hut fnehln elinrts tn