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    9 would not avail him a hundredth part as much as a vote at a contested election , interest in a close borough , the introduction of a county member , or the friendship of a noble lord . " The curate may have laboured diligently for years in the important duties of his vocation ; he may have won the esteem and love of his flock ; he may have employed his talents successfully in the service of religion and learning ; he may have defended boldly and

    ably the truths of the gospel ; or he may have adorned his station by that humble and modest merit which shrinks from observation ; and yet a life thus spent <* shall not be able to place him in the stead of the deceased incumbent ; but he shall have the mortification to see a rich pluralist or a titled stripling lifted over his head , and he himself driven iw bis , declining years to seek a shelter from the gathering storm , and tso find a resting-place for the sole 0 / his foot . ''

    " At twenty-three a gentleman may tal-ce holy orders with a nomination to a cure ; and at seventy-three be may die a curate as he first set out ; die perhaps in want , in debt , with a spirit broken by neglect , and his last thoughts perplexed by tlte agonizing reflection that ; the partner of his heart , and the children of his old age , must be left dependent for bread upon the e © ld pity of an unfeeling world . "

    The conclusion of our author from these faefcs is , that the condition of curates ought to be amended . The subject has , indeed , already occupied the attention of government . The late Clergy Act enjoins that a curate ' s salary shall in no case be less than £ 80 per annum ; and that such salary shall not be less than £ 100 per annum in any parish or place where the population , according to the last parliamentary returns , shall amount to three hundred persons ; where the population shall amount to five hundred

    persons , the salary is not to be less than £ 120 per annum ; and £ 150 per annum if the population shall amount to a thousand persons . But there are in this act two exceptions which nearly disannul and annihilate the purpose for which it was passed . The incumbent who was instituted before 1813 , or who is legally resident , that is , resident without doing duty , is permitted to fix the curate ' s stipend at his own pleasure . To illustrate the evil which hence arises , two cases are mentioned . In the first , tbe population consists

    of 1300 souls ; the duty two services on the Sunday , reading prayers at the poor-house , visiting the sick , superintending a Sunday-school , and performing all the surplice duty ; the living is worth at least £ 1200 per annual : the incumbent , a young man , has been instituted since 1813 , is resident , does no duty , and besides this living has two others of considerable value , and a good prebendal stall . The curate is a married man with a family , has no private property , and the stipend of the curacy is only £ 105 per annum , and out of this he has to pay £ i 0 per annum for furnished lodgings , the residence of the incumbent depriving him of the parsonage . In the second case , the town contains 6000 persons ; the duty simjlar to that before named ; the income of the living £ 2500 per annum ; the incumbent was instituted before 1813 , is resident , and does no duty whatever . The curate is a married man with a large family , and the stipend is £ 100 , without a house . These are two instances out of many . In the first case , the dignified incumbent , by his legal residence , deprives the curate of a . stipend of £ 150 per annum and the parsonage-house , and thus diminishes his . income o ne ^ half . The second case is worse than the first ; for in this instance * be the inqumbent resident or not ,, the curate would be no better for it , since institution to the livirjg took place before \ 8 l 3 . To remedy these guiev-

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    $ 30 State of-the Curates of the Church of England .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1829, page 230, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2571/page/6/