£170 A YEAR.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPROTATOR.1 SIR,—It is well known that many clergymen's incomes are small. But your correspondent " Contentns sorts men" (Spectator, Decenther 14th) has had "a large family, all of whom are doing well," and has had some thirty changes of abode. Nevertheless, after forty years on £165 per annum, he owes nothing, has " a small balance to the good," has insured, and if he "were to die to-morrow there would be no worries." As then never was a time when it was more necessary to preach, on a basis not of theory but of fact, true thrift and the simpler life, I hope "Contented with his lot" will set forth how he has been in the habit of dividing up his income. We all know that in Holland, France, and Germany professional and other cultivated men contrive to live the intellectual life and bring up families on smaller incomes than are customary in this country. But by what methods exactly is the same thing done here for forty years in very different conditions ? If " Contentus sorte men" has changed his address thirty times, he cannot have had the advantage of a garden, poultry, bees, or goats. Has he economised in diet ? Have his wife and eldest daughter been contented with their lot P How was the problem of help solved while the "large family" was growing up ? What holidays were there ? How was the question of adequate education met? If the daughters had musical, literary, or artistic tastes, were there opportunities of cultivating them to a reasonable degree ? How did " Con- tentus " manage in the matter of books and papers for his own work ? Into what occupations have his sons and daughters gone ? He says that " apparently necessary and inevitable expenses are not really so." In the opinion of his family and himself, what exactly are they ? I ask as a teetotal, non-smoking, vegetarian cottager living on two meals
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