THE SUFFERINGS OF THE CLERGY.
IT will not be a matter of surprise to those who know the present position of the country clergy, that their manifold troubles in consequence of the agricultural depression have at last found a voice.* The squires are estimated to have lost 30 percent. of their income in the last ten years, the farmers 60 per cent., and the labourers 10 per cent. The clergy stand in a different position to any of them, and must rank next the farmer in the extent of their loss. The position of the clergy differs from the position of the other sufferers in this,—that there are very heavy calls upon their incomes which, though they do not amount to charges, must be paid, and, in fact, have been paid, except in the moat exceptional cases, daring the whole period. Such outgoings as the stipends of =ales, the conduct of the services of the Church, the repair of chancels, the support of schools, the maintenance of local clubs and societies, and the administration of charities, have been loyally paid by the clergy, even when they hardly knew where to turn for the necessaries of life. The clergyman's is the only income which is and must be spent in and for the parish. It is infinitely to the credit of the clergy that they have often preferred to starve themselves rather than to starve the spiritual agencies which had been started in better times for the benefit of the people. The clergy have endured—we wish we could say passed through—the ordeal with a dignified, and very often, if truth were known, courageous and pathetic, silence. And because they have been silent, it is nattu ally assumed in an agitating and agitated world that things were not very bad with them after all. Indeed, it would not take long to find politicians who would tell one that the clergy were the fattest of middle- men and the worst of landlords. But it is time that the state of !Te dtIturaDtrstioat h iar R. E. roth,iatwofill;Ictuz !oallgw,.
the clergy whose income depends upon agriculture should be thoroughly considered by the country, and especially by those who, from whatever point of view, are desirous of maintaining an Established Church.
The spokesman of the clergy is not one of themselves. Mr. R. E. Prothero, who undertook to make an inquiry into the subject for the editor of the Guardian, and whose letters to that paper are now reprinted in pamphlet form, is a Fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford, and a layman; but by reason of his connection with many of the clergy, by going to the best sources of information, and by the personal in- vestigation he has made, he has produced a most valuable authority upon the present condition of things with regard to tithes and glebe. His inquiry was, indeed, mainly confined to " the districts in which the prolonged depression was known to have produced its most disastrous results." So that the readers of this pamphlet may feel safe in saying that they know the worst, though the evidence is not so reliable as to the extent of the area of the evil. We are glad to say that Mr. Prothero has not yielded to the temptation of "highly spiced literature," and does not pose either as his own or any one else's "Special Commissioner." His statements are probably not the less accurate on that account. "Abstract statements possess at least one advantage,—they preserve the incognito of those who have only given information on the distinct understanding that names shall not be directly or indirectly divulged." Identifica- tion would mean loss of credit, the last straw in many cases.
Clerical incomes from agricultural property are derived from tithes and glebe. Mr. Prothero treats them separately ; but in the present case the result to the clergy is the same. In the case of tithes, the question is complicated by political agitation and sectarian hatred. It is as hard to convince the Welsh Calvinist of the fact that tithe rests on the same title as any other property, as it is to convince the English farmer that, though he hands the money to the parson, he does not in reality pay the tithe. The question of tithe is really a question between the landowner and the tithe-owner, not between the tithe-owner and the farmer. If tithe were abolished to-morrow, within ten years it would all go into the landlord's pocket in the shape of increased rent ; and hard as it is to convince the English farmer of this, it lies at the basis of the whole question. We heartily concur with Mr. Prothero in thinking that the alliance between landowners and tenants in the agitation against tithe would be "short-sighted, if not actually dishonest." It would be foolish, because the same sort of agitation is equally capable of being used against the landlords themselves. It would be dishonest, because, whatever may be the ignorance of the tenant-farmers, the landowners know perfectly well that they "bought their land at a less price because it was subject to tithe; they never purchased or acquired the rent-charge; it can be no grievance for them to pay what never belonged to them; it is no hardship not to receive interest on capital which they have not invested. Their successors inherit what their predecessors bought, neither more nor less ; they are in exactly the same position with respect to the charge, neither better nor worse." As to the present position of clerical tithe-owners, it is "painful to the extreme. They are dependent upon bankrupts for their bread. Their position as spiritual advisers is seriously compromised when they at the same time appear as creditors pressing struggling tenants for the payment of tithe."
The glebe-owner is still worse off than the tithe-owner. He suffers "more than the corresponding losses of landowners." He is accused of being a bad landlord; but the reason is not so much in himself as in the law, which practically forbids him to give his tenant any security of occupation, which weights him with dilapidations, but does not compel him to work the land in a hnsbandlike manner, and which finally renders it absolutely impossible that at death or resignation, either he or his repre- sentatives should be able to get back a penny of any capital he may have spent on the land. Thus, the practical summary of the glebe-owner's position is that he gets the worst tenants, said that his interest is to spend as little as he can on the land. In recent years, many landholders have saved their estates to themselves and their children by bold but judicious expendi- ture of capital during the period of depression. But an incumbent cannot benefit his family, and rarely benefits him- self, by expending capital on the land. Only one instance has Mr. Prothero found of a clergyman who has successfully farmed his own land so as to make it pay for the time being, and even in this ease he can never get back the capital he has expended. It will surprise, and we think it should command the respect of the public to learn, that in spite of this, in the diocese of Peter- borough alone, 275,000 was spent between 1870-80 on the improvement of farms and buildings, of which £37,000 was private capital sank in the land without any prospect of seeing the capital again, and, as things have turned out, without even getting the interest. The private capital sunk for the same purpose since 1870 in the Peterborough diocese alone now amounts to 250,000, and it is probable that as much as £150,000 has been expended in the whole country. This large expend.- tare, though at the most it has been of only temporary benefit to the clergy, and a loss fearful to contemplate to their families, has immensely benefited the property of the Church, and the clergy deserve to get the credit of it. To understand the position the clergy are actually in, take the following, which we know, from other sources than Mr. Prothero, to accurately describe the state of things in many cases :—
"All the temporal advantages of the clerical profession are, at least in the midland counties, entirely removed. The clergy feel the pinch of poverty, not, perhaps, in its mutest form of actual hunger, but in the loss of all those so-called luxuries which in their position and surroundings are really necessaries. First came inconvenience from delay and uncertainty in the receipt of income ; then the humiliating necessity of asking for credit ; then the certainty that rents would not he paid ; then the pressure of creditors and the refusal to give further credit ; then the expenditure of private capital and the mortgage of life insurances ; then the application to friends. The house and Re surroundings are ill-adapted to a constantly narrowing income. The outdoor establishment is reduced, the garden cannot be maintained, the horse and carriage are sold. The same process is followed indoors. Servant after servant is discharged till not one is left ; then follows the careful husbanding of fuel, the severest practice of domestic economy, even
the disposal of books, furniture, and apparel The Church services must be maintained, and the curate's salary is paid by an incumbent who envies his subordinate his salary No one will give more than the parson, and the clergy are still obliged to head anbscriptions The parson is often the only man of education in the pariah; he cannot seek the society of his friends, for he has no means of locomotion ; he cannot solace himself with books, for he can no longer afford to buy them, or even to subscribe to a library ; he cannot, like the squire, shot up his house and leave the neighbourhood. He has no fellow-sufferer with whom he can compare notes ; the farmers may understand his lose, but their well-meant sympathy is often expressed with excruciating frankness ; the labourers grumble that he cannot employ them as he used, and is less able to minister to their wants."
This is a sad picture enough, and is far away removed from the ideal picture of the country parsonage. Mr. Prothero pro- poses remedies which we are not going to discuss at present. The redemption of the tithe rent-charge seems feasible. The alteration of the law in order to put the clergy in a better position with regard to the tenant might easily be effected, and we believe that a Bill is about to be introduced in the House of Commons for that purpose, backed by Mr. Childers and Mr. J. G. Talbot. The sale of glebe lands is a more diffi- cult and complex question, and we are by no means favourably impressed with Lord Cross's Bill on the subject. The redemp- tion of the mortgages of the Land Improvement Companies by public subscription in order to prevent the disendowment by foreclosure, a fate which has already overtaken one living, and "hangs by a thread" over others, would be an excellent object, if the public were not already sick of Jubilee subscriptions. What we wish to point out is the great necessity and the great suffering which have come upon the clergy. What we wish to impress upon the public is that "the turn is still out of sight," that "there is every reason to believe that the year 1886 will prove the most disastrous of a series of ruinous seasons." In fine, that- " The clergy have not only clung to their posts, but borne their heavy trust with an uncomplaining dignity which is worthy of their noble calling. Every temporal advantage of their position is disappearing ; little remains to encourage the parson in a life which has always had more than its usual share of disappointment, except his faith and his sense of sacred duties conscientiously performed. It may be that the result will be to purify and elevate the character of the country clergy. If so, the refining process will ultimately raise their position and extend their influence ; but, meanwhile, the furnace is exceeding hot."
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