MIDDLE-CLASS EXPENDITURE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—Strong though my surprise and admiration are at the achievement of " Contentus sorts meit," that twentieth-century successor of Goldsmith's village preacher who was "passing rich on forty pounds a year" and exercised so much hospitality, I must confess to an even greater surprise and indignation at others of your correspondents who portion out their £1,600 or £2,000 a year entirely on themselves and families, as if property had no duties to the Church, the poor, and the sick. (One of them, signing himself " £ s. d.," does indeed reckon £100 out of his £2,000 for charity, which is about one-quarter of what he spends on pleasures and amusements, and exactly half of what the despised Pharisees gave to God.) As your corre- spondents are all anonymous, they might without immodesty have owned that they regarded one-tenth or one-quarter of their abundant means as earmarked for their poor neigh- bours, their poor relations, and their place of worship. Their estimates, however, reveal that what they give away is given on impulse, and not on principle, or to an extent which costs them much, or in proportion to their means. They illustrate the well-known facts that all charities are supported by a very limited number of persons, called, I believe, "the charitable ten thousand," and that the wealthy laity of the Church of England do next to nothing for the support of their clergy. We who live among the working classes know how much more generously they support their poor relations, their place of worship, and those in distress than do the wealthy middle class with their £1,500 or £2,000 a year. And we feel that such people as your correspondents are responsible for some of the strides which Socialism is making.—I am, Sir, &c., E. F. NOEL SMITH.
Marlborough College Mission, Tottenham.
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