A History of Tithes. By the Rev. Henry W. Clarke,
B.A. (Swan Sonnenschein and Co.)—Mr. Clarke's book bristles with statements, historical, social, political, and financial. We have not space to deal with them. But we may take the last para- graph. Mr. Clarke thinks that he has made out the existence of " immcnse wealth" in the beneficed clergy. The total tithe rent- charge is £4,059,126, of which £2,277,539 is paid to parochial incumbents. This is the nominal sum ; it must be reduced on the average by nearly a quarter. (Taking the figure of 1890- £76 3s. 4:1d.—we get £1,734,696.) Rates, &c., may be safely cal- culated to take off 25 per cent. of this, or, saying 20 per cent.—i.e., a fifth—we get in round numbers £1,400,000. To add to this, £300,000 as the value of glebes, would probably be an exaggerated estimate under present circumstances ; but it may be done. We thus get £1,700,000. "We may safely estimate fees, pew-rents, and Easter offerings at 21,000,000," says Mr. Clarke. This is absurd, considering how large a share of this extra income has to go to defraying the expense of worship. However, it may be conceded for the sake of argument. We thus get £2,700,000. An addition must be made for contributions by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and the interest of invested money (Parliamentary grants, &c.) Let this be put at 41,30,1,000, again largely in excess of the truth. So we have a grand total of £4,000,000. How is it to be divided ? Mr. Clarke says, among "13.979 incum- bents." But there were 21,863 clergy doing duty at the census of 1881. Probably this is increased to 22,000. Take off 1,000 as paid by private persons or Societies (these latter being largely supported by the clergy), and we get 44,000,000 to be divided among 21,000, giving an average of leas than £200 each. Or, putting it in another way, we have about 5,000 curates paid by
the beneficed clergy at the rate, say, of £130 each. This gives a total of .2650,000 to be deducted from the .24,000,000, producing a result of about £225 as the "immense wealth" of the beneficed clergy.
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