The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-01-13
HARD TIMES FOR THE ENGLISH
CT 4EpGv


CLERGY.
There are very much fewer fairly
good livings than there used to be.
The fall in the value OF 1.-THE, the diff
Guilty of finding tenants for glebe farms,
the impossibility Of getting any decent
return from such glebe as in land, have
reduced the income of a great many
benefices by something like half Liv-
ings varying from 9400 to $500 a year
have become livings varying from $50
to $500. and this decline may Just make
the difference between comfort and
pinching. We say nothing OF the many
livings which do not reach the lower
of these levels because when a man Is
weighing the advantages of orders as
profession not take much account of
them. What may be called, then, the
smaller prizes of the church are worth
very much less than they were fifteen
years ago The greater prizes among
livings have been equally affected by
this change, and they have also sus-
tanned loss of another kind. Often,
especially in the north. they covered a
great deal of ground, and as the popula-
ton has grown, one daughter parish
after another has been carved out of
the original area and has carried away
a portion of the original income.
But it is not only the parochtal clergy
who have suffered. Dignitarles have
had to hear their share as well. Where
deans and chapters have retained their
lands in preference to exchanging them
for a fixed sum paid them by the
ecclesiastical commissioners, they have
equally had to put up with large reduc-
tons of income Thre are no longer
any golden stalls" and even the in
terror metal that has been substituted
has been further alleged of late years
Still, all this has not as vet prevented
radical speakers and writers from en-
larging upon the rich prizes of the
church, and setting it on q level in this
respect with another great profession.
the law. The Archbishop of Canter-
bury pairs off with the Lord Chancellor,
the Archbishop of York with the Mas
ter of the Rolls, the bishops with the
judges, the deans with county court
judges. There is, no doubt, rough
sort of parallel between these various
offices, but the comparison leaves out
of sight one very important element.
In the church there is nothing answer
ing to the great sums made in practice
at the bar. 1t is not the judgeships and
the few others highly paid offices
that constitute the real prizes of the
bar. They are to be sought rather III
the incomes which lead successful
| advocates to regard judgeships in the
light of retiring pensions. If proprie-
tary chapels brought their clerical
owners 10000 or e15,O00 a year, we
should have a counterpart to this in the
| church. But there is nothing of the
kind, nothing which can hold out to a
| man of exceptional ability the prospect
of a large income dependent on his own
| efforts.
In addition to the dignities which at
the best only answer to the legal posts
| which a successful barrister thinks
| twice and thrice before he accepts,
| there are very few good livings,
. promotion to which is in a great de-
| gree a matter of interest or chance, and
| that is all. With medicine the COM
parison is more equal, because though
| in this also very large incomes can be
| made in private practice, there are alb
| solutely no official prizes. Only one
kind of success is open to the physi-
| clan or the surgeon, and that is the
success which has for its outward and
visible sign a thronged waiting room
and more patients than can be crowded
| into day.-London Spectator.