122 Church systems doing as little as possible.

Statutory definition, I can make the bell do the pastoral calls to Church; for if I ring the bell to call people to pray, I need not call them at their door with my throat. By Statutory definition I can frighten every dissenting parishioner into fainting fits by reading the absolution of the sick, for I am required to say "by the power committed unto me, I absolve thee from all thy sins."

If every body did nothing but what was of Statutory definition, or if we all availed ourselves of our rights and powers to the fullest extent, all England would be in a revolution in a year. Some systems in the Church which want reform, in order to save her, are bringing about her destruction faster than the enemy outside her can keep pace with the enemy within her.

As if the governors of Queen Anne's Bounty and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners were not over earnest, or as if they were not at full leisure, or fully able to help poor vicars, or as if they were not ready to do so with sufficient speed, an effort was lately made to save both themselves, and the souls in disendowed parishes, to perfection, by establishing the Church of England Incumbents' Sustentation Fund, commonly called, "the Lorne Fund." Paying the sum of £200 to the governors of Queen Anne's Bounty (this money being increased by them with another sum of £200), to endow a Church, will yield £13 a year. Paying the sum of £200 to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners will yield £13 13s. 4d. a year. The Lorne Fund offered to add the sum of £100 to the sum of £200 which I proposed to pay to it for my church, and both sums together, that is £300, would be invested in railways to yield

Funds not uniting to help poor Vicars.

123

4 per cent. Paying the sum of £200 to the Lorne Fund would not, therefore, yield £13 a-year at all. This is the new English and anti-Irish way, of course, of saving souls and feeding starving vicars, to supersede all other existing means for them. As the Lorne Fund can give by its rules the sum of £100 for £100 paid to it, that is £8 10s. a-year for both sums together, it is wise and profitable to pay to it the sum of £100 to endow a church. But before offering it more than £100, I should advise vicars to try first how much it, and the Bounty office, and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners would give yearly to meet a vicar's benefaction for Church endowment.

The money paid to the Lorne Fund, and the grant it adds to it, are held in trust by the governers of Queen Anne's Bounty for the Church and Living, in whose behalf the money is paid. Instead of all uniting to help the poor vicars, each of these three funds mentioned above arranges purposely to act independently of the other. If the Lorne Fund were to give the sum of £200 to meet £200 paid to it, and if the governors of Queen Anne's Bounty were to add £400 to both these sums together to make £800, and if the Ecclesiastical Commissioners were to give £800 in addition to make £1,600, then every vicar, by collecting the sum of £200 would have about £1 a week for himself, and the souls in his parish, and for his successors and their parishioners for ever. The Lorne money is collected in alms, and the money paid by poor vicars to it is collected in alms, too; but, yet, the Bounty office, in receiving these alms, for the Church, will add nothing to this money. Is this English or Irish?

CHAPTER XVIII.

Diocesan funds and synods proved to be more in behalf of bishops and rich rectors than of poor vicars-The real motive for having diocesan funds and synods-Fifteen years occupied in proposing a fund for poor vicars-The state of a parish through the delay of bishops to endow it.

F

66

URTHER agitation for church reforms, and the progress of the times, have brought into existence another modern effort, called Diocesan Fund." This was formed in order to have Diocesan Synods, or local Church Parliaments, for strengthening the position of the bishops, and for warding off attacks. Now-a-days every thing in the Church is threatened, whether the big salaries of the bishops or the system of giving large incomes to some vicars, and that of starving others; or giving so much power to bishops, and leaving no voice to the laity in the appointment of their pastor. These new diocesan synods are bulwarks against Radicalism, or Reform; as a whole diocese backs up the bishop. The money for the Diocesan Fund comes from the charity of the right-minded clergy, or from the laity. So the fund does not hurt the bishops, or the Church dignitaries, or the lay-tithe-owners. In these bad times, much money, with its little purchasing-power, will not be given to the vicars. The efforts to endow poor vicars do no more than to counteract the dearness of every thing

The Priest-craft of Diocesan Funds.

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sold in the market at the present day. A relieved vicar is as poor now, or poorer, than an unrelieved one was two-hundred years ago. Moreover, we find the money of these diocesan funds given for school-purposes, and for church stones and ornaments in the parishes of rich rectors. The diocesan fund will not help poor vicars, unless they turn beggars by picking up some money in alms, so as to merit a few pounds from it. The bishops and Church dignitaries turn to good account for applause and homage, for power and promotion, or they use for a cloak for their profitable proceedings, whatever subscriptions they give to these funds. If a fair proportion of the money came from lay-tithe-owners, who take the poor vicar's stipend or tithes, the case would be different.

These diocesan funds, or synods, are for the purpose of setting up two or three in a parish and in a district, as Church princes, so as to keep all of one mind under the bishop. How nicely it is arranged that big men can appear at synods, for applause and honour, without being voted to them at all. By this, influential and thinking men, and Liberals, and their dependents and followers, will not criticise this business or oppose it. In case the Church would be destroyed, like the Irish one, these diocesan synods will be ready to keep all the people in the bishops' power, at a time when every man wants to be master of all he surveys, and to choose his own minister without giving the bishop any voice in the matter, except the honour of inspecting him. These diocesan synods degrade more than raise the poor vicars, by making them to beg their livelihood, instead of finding it for them; and by

126 Diocesan Synods degrade poor Vicars.

being virtually debarred from appearing at them. Those men will be voted to the synod who can give good dinners, or who have most to give to the voters. The case would be different if the synod were open to all clergymen in the diocese, or to those of certain age, or to those who have been ordained a certain number of years, or if every vicar were allowed to be a representative at it occasionally, say every seven years. Impudence, imposition, or even tyranny on the part of the priest whom we venerate, or in the wife whom we love, or in the person whom we do not suspect, will befool the greatest genius : and so common minds never suspect the motives of superiors. Anything, in fact, which is called into existence, even the greatest villainy, seems to endure, as if all nature and every-thing were positive, or as if no negative existed or could exist. Fortune-telling, spiritualism, priestly tricks, and all crafty proceedings are embraced by the masses unsuspectedly as heaven-sent blessings.

It was desirable to get the public to approve of joining together two or three parishes. So it was proposed, and of course approved, at those diocesan synods, to do this for poor vicars. Now it comes to pass that richly endowed parishes get two or more added to them. Unfortunately no friend of the poor vicars insisted that no parish should be joined to a fairly endowed one, in order to secure the joining of a parish to a poor vicar's one. Since the Norwich Diocesan Fund was formed, and a rule made that, in order to help poor vicars, two parishes are to be formed into one, Appleton, which is a part of Flitcham for civil purposes, and West Newton, which