The Official Year-Book of the Church of England, 1896. Edited
by the Rev. Frederick Burnside, M.A. (S.P.C.K.)—This annual publication furnishes a mass of information, given in figures and otherwise, from which we may learn how much is being done to carry out the work of the Church. If we could only see such a return for, say, the year 1746! On the whole, the present returns are satisfactory. They commonly show an in- crease everywhere where an increase can be looked for. Much remains to be done, but it is manifest that the Church is exerting itself to fill up deficiencies. There are about 21,000 clergy at work in England and Wales, and they receive on an average a little more than £167 per annum each. This number includes between six and seven thousand curates. Tithes and glebe together account for two millions and a half out of the total three millions and a half. (The other day we saw the revenues of the Church estimated at ten millions!) Confirmations in 1895 amounted to 217,743. This is hardly up to the mark, for it has been four times exceeded in the last decade. There were 720 deacons ordained ; this is an increase on last year, in which only 684 were recorded; but it falls short by 94 of the golden year 1886. There are figures which we should like to have. The editor is doubtless right in refusing to include un- trustworthy statistics. Dr. Clifford. in some amazing figures which he gives in the current number of the Contemporary Ben se, puts the number of scholars in Church of England Sunday- schools at 2,628,467. These figures, anyhow, are not official. Is it possible that there are 3,448,070 children in Nonconformist Sunday-schools ? This is more than an eighth of the total popu- lation of England and Wales. As there are thousands of parishes where neither school nor chapel exist, the proportion in many places must be much higher.
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