GENERAL APPENDIX. I. SCHEMES OF REFORM AND INCOMES OF THE CLERGY. Ir is one of the most difficult tasks to ascertain the property of the clergy of the Established Church of England. When we find that the ecclesiastical revenues amount to about £7,000,000 per annum alone, independent of lay property, and that the clergy hold, almost exclusively, the professorships, fellowships, tutorships, and masterships, of the Universities, and the public schools-their revenues and patronage may truly be considered to exceed those of any other corporate establishment on the face of the earth. Admitting that the yearly sum of £7,000,000 is the undoubted property of the Church, and leaving all other items of patronage without calculation, let us see how that vast sum might be more appropriately, not to say more religiously, distributed. Being the Church of the rich, we are desirous to keep it rich and independent; and instead of £7,000,000 of money exacted in the name of " tithe," let the Establishment be placed on a reasonable and popular foundationsomething approaching to the following: 2 Archbishops, at £5,000 per annum, each, £10,000 24 Bishops, at £2,000 16,000 Priests, at £200 48,000 3,200,000 £3,258,000 As it is clear that the Church, having placed itself under the wing of the State, depends solely upon fiscal government, we propose that the State should secure the above sum at the least to the Establishment: to be diminished or increased, as the efficiency of the Reformed Church may prove itself greater, or smaller. We have given this idea in most general terms. We do not know the precise number of the clergy any more than their precise revenues, which probably amount directly to £10,000,000, and indirectly to much more. But we think that their ministry should be apportioned to districts in respect to population. In a thinly populated country, it is true that distauce may be also a consideration; but this would be an exception. We are not prepared to state how many clergymen are necessary to fulfil the duties of the Established Church; but we think that a computation might be made so that one clergyman should generally suffice for 800 persons. Giving 1,000 persons to one pastor, and assuming that there are 10,000,000 of the Established Church, which there are not, we should require 10,000 clergymen, whose salaries, at £200 per annum, would be £2,000,000. Every man would thus be obliged to fulfil his ministry. We see no necessity for the distinctions of rector, vicar, or curate; but would have all ministers, or priests, alike; with the exception of the bishops. We do not meddle with doctrines or forms; but merely reform greedy abuses. A great and simple Church would thus be created. Whilst we think it wrong in principle, we do not attempt at present to interfere with the fact of bishops sitting in the House of Lords; although it is a secular infringement upon their sacred office, better done away with. II. STATE OF SOCIETY ADVERSE TO THE PRINCIPLE OF A DOMINANT CHURCH. The following is the opinion with regard to Church establishment in Canada, contained in the Report of Her Majesty's High Commissioner, 1839. I am bound, indeed, to state that there is a degree of feeling, and an unanimity of opinion, on the question of ecclesiastical establishments over the northern part of the continent of America, which it will be prudent not to overlook in the settlement of this question. The superiority of what is called the "voluntary principle" is a question on which I may almost say that there is no difference of opinion in the United States; and it cannot be denied that on this, as on other points, the tone of thought prevalent in the Union has exerted a very considerable influence over the neighbouring provinces. Similar circumstances, too, have had the effect of accustoming the people of both countries to regard this question in a very different light from that in which it appears in the Old World; and the nature of the question is, indeed, entirely different in old and new countries. The apparent right which time and custom give to the maintenance of an ancient and respected institution cannot exist in a recentlysettled country, in which everything is new; and in the establishment of a dominant Church there is a creation of exclusive privileges in favour of one out of many religious denominations, and that composing a small minority, at the expense, not merely of the majority, but of many as large minorities. The Church, too, for which alone it is proposed that the State should provide, is a Church which, being that of the wealthy, can best provide for itself, and has the fewest poor to supply with gratuitous religious instruction. Another consideration, |