The people at war with Kings and Bishops. 107

kept so; and that there are resources enough for finding £200, or even £300, a year for each vicar. Angels nor devils cannot disprove these facts. Neither cunning movements, nor deceptive logic, nor bishop's homily to be content, nor veneration for "holy mother Church," can satisfy the poor vicar's empty stomach.

It really looks as if the Government and Church authorities made it their business to keep some clergymen poor and degraded, that the few heads may appear the grander by the contrast. The masses object to this arrangement or state of things, as it causes nothing else but hunger and disease, misery and ruin to befall the many. Whatever has been done for poor vicars seems to be for saving appearances, and for keeping the worldly system of the Church from being upset by attacks and revolutions. The masses, by demanding Church reforms, and by threatening the safety of the system, have caused inquiries and movements to be made, letters patent to be written, bills to be brought into Parliament, statutes to be passed which do no more than to permit tithe-owners to help their poor vicars, and other such movements and pretended remedies to be adopted.

The masses finding nothing really done for poor vicars became furious at last, and so they forced the authorities to pass the Act 2 & 3 Anne, c. 20, by which a fund called Queen Anne's Bounty was formed for poor vicars. But the fund is rendered comparatively useless by paying nearly the sum of £8,000 a-year out of it to Government lay-officers. Henry VIII. disendowed churches in 1536; so all vicars had to fast

108 Queen Anne's Bounty kept back 78 years.

till 1703, without even a crumb of hope. The law required the governors of Queen Anne's Bounty to secure the old stipend to each Church by means of the bishop's certificate, made according to statute. But in the Flitcham case this was not done, and the certificate was destroyed by some accident, or lost, when it ought to have secured the old stipend of £20 a-year, paid since 1677. No one should be set up for feeding vicars, but those who have a dozen children to support on less than £100 a year, and who move in a position similar to theirs. It was not till 1781 that Flitcham got relief; for it was in this year the vicar got £6 a-year from it. The vicars, therefore, had to fast 245 years, from 1536, when Henry VIII. took everything away from the Church, until 1781. Thus from 1703, when the Bounty money was granted, to 1781, or for 78 years, the vicar of Flitcham got no relief, and had to live on the old £20 a-year paid voluntarily. Even when the relief came it did not exceed 4d. a day. The poor vicars tried to rouse Englishmen from their natural condition of being heavy, slow, and solid. Vicars go to their grave before their time, from being worn out by starvation. I do not call this manslaughter, as poor vicars are not men but animals; nor do I call it murder, as they saw a starving death gradually approaching. It is terrible to think of the number of souls that poor livings have made vicious, or that they have not rescued from vice, misery, and hell-fire.

CHAPTER XVI.

Making provision for the cure of souls by the system of lots at the Bounty Office-The distribution of the Bounty Fund, and keeping the sum of £600,000 on hands undistributed-Keeping Vicars poor on purpose proved from the enormous amount of money given to make new Bishops, and to supply annually various church societies to be props to the Bishops-The origin or motive of having Church Societies, Charitable and Educational Institutions-The Ecclesiastical Commissioners and their distribution of Church revenuesPaying curates, for rectors, out of people's alms, in the hands of the Pastoral Aid and the Additional Curates', &c., Society, as if to spare the enormous revenues of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, while vicars are starving.

Τ'

HE funniest thing is, that the money of Queen Anne's Bounty happened to be distributed in a lucky way, according to "lot," without paying any regard to the poverty of one vicar, compared to the private means of another, or without considering that more money ought to be allowed to the poor vicars who had many poor people to look after, than to those who held two or more parishes, one of which was rich. The lots turned out to be very lucky for those parishes which had the richest and most influential patrons, and for those Livings of which Church Dignitaries were patrons and tithe-owners; for they got so much of it that it greatly increased the value of their saleable property. It appears that the Governors of the Bounty Fund, in doing their best in the fairest way, had cast lots to find

Bishops curing souls by unlucky lots.

out what living was fated to have the best luck. However, it came to pass that parishes, with thousands of souls, had the bad luck of getting but the sum of £200, or £6 a year by the lottery lots; while those with less than 100 souls had the good luck of getting £1000. We read that "the lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord," (Prov. xvi. 33.) As the scripture cannot be broken, the interpretation of this must be, that priestcraft keeps shuffling the lot, and that it is at the end, and in the future, God disposes of it. I have not much hope for the luckiness of the lot of the Established Church, unless she be reformed, or of that of poor vicars either unless they look out for themselves. Fated lots, unlike God or mind, cannot take into consideration the number of souls in any parish, the poverty of the vicar, the degradation of the church cause, the fierceness of the devil's attack in certain parishes, or how some places are on the brink of hell more than others. The system of lots was a battle between church development and fate; and the latter defeated the former by a brilliant victory.

We find by the statute 6, and 7, Victoria, c. 37, that no less than the sum of £600,000 of the money which the unlucky lots had not given to the poor vicars, was handed over about forty years ago to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Keeping back honestly and carefully from poor vicars this frightfully large sum of money, amounting to one hundred thousand pounds, over half-a-million, to avoid a blunder in the distribution thereof, proves, beyond doubt, that they have been kept poor, since there was money lying on

Bishops in danger of cheating poor Vicars. 111

hands to feed them. By this system of unlucky lots, ministers of the Lord were obliged to live in horrible starvation, which ruined the Commonwealth; and it caused souls to be no less than devilish without spiritual supplies. All this took place while Bishops had the sum of £600,000 on hand undistributed. Unitarians believe that hell is a temporary prison: so they must think it is not much loss to get there; but, for all that, for virtue and character they excel most church people, who believe in eternal torments. Our Bishops by not making an effort to provide for souls, and to feed vicars, act as if they thought that hell lasts no longer than the Pope's purgatory.

Queen Anne's Bounty Money was set apart for Livings, which were in existence, at the time it was granted by Queen Anne. It would be, therefore, dishonest, and, consequently, immoral to give this money to any parish which was formed, or to any church that was built, since 1703. I have no reason to believe that it has been given to any such church or parish. But I speak thus in order that the parishes for which it was set apart may have it, and that those who will form new parishes, or build churches, will be good, pious, and honest enough, not to apply to this fund, but to find provision from other sources. was Bishop Judas who took care to have always on hand a good bag-ful of reserved money to give him power, and to secure homage for himself. Our good Bishops should be unlike him as they have no devil in them. The wild Irish clip the wings and tails of their chickens to keep them from flying over hedges into their corn. If all the starved early-dying vicars

It