30 MARCH 1912, Page 25

The Clergy List. (Kelly's Directories. 12s. 6d.)—This annual volume deserves,

for its completeness and the care with which it is kept to date, the highest praise. It tells us all that we can reasonably expect to know about the organization of the Church (dioceses, arrangement of benefices, patronage, values, &c.), and the status of the clergy. We can see the academical degree or analogous qualification (theological college, &c.) of each clergyman and the charges which he has hold. The value of the various benefices is a subject on which much trouble has been spent—not, wo hope, in vain. There are the strangest ideas current about the amount of remuneration received by the clergy, and those are sometimes exploited for party pur- poses by men who ought to know bettor. The fact is that the average value of livings in England and Wales is something under 4200 per annum. By depreciation of tithe rent charge, expenses of collection, rates, and land tax a living of 4600 is reduced to something like this figure.