616 Lord Mountcashcl and the Church. 



ment that has a show offeree, and yet this too is a fallacy. If the farmer 

 lays out fifty pounds additional in any new culture, the clergyman who is 

 undoubtedly entitled to his share in the product of the land, may claim his 

 tenth. But, in the first place, the farmer has made his calculations of 

 profit with this knowledge; and in the next, if he involve himself in any 

 difficulty on the point, the evil lies at his own door, for nothing is more 

 easy, and, indeed, nothing is more common than that amicable agreement 

 between the clergyman and the farmer, by which a regular rent is paid, 

 let the improvements for the time be what they may. That after a limited 

 period the clergyman's means should rise with the general opulence of 

 the country is a matter of public policy, for it is essential to the use- 

 fulness of a clergy, that they should keep up their level with the coun- 

 try; and, that, while the people round them are growing rich, they 

 should not be growing poor. In all countries, a pauper loses public respect, 

 let the' colour of his coat be what it may; and a beggared clergy would 

 be scorned as teachers, or perhaps, in the natural course of things, might 

 be driven to uphold their influence by fanaticism, and the arts which sus- 

 tained the mendicant orders of popery ; or lie tempted to the obvious 

 alternative of hostility to a state which sank them below the less edu- 

 cated ranks, and, like the struggling French vicars, look for a change of 

 situation in general overthrow. But so far as agricultural interests are 

 concerned, the bill introduced in this session by the Archbishop of 

 Canterbury, allows of a composition for twenty years, a period which 

 gives the most anxious improver more than time enough to pursue his 

 plans without let or hindrance to the full extent of speculation. 



One of the most frequent sources of popular outcry against the establish- 

 ment is theassertion, that though the church confessedly possesses a right 

 to a provision ; yet that it has usurped more than the original grant, that 

 the tithes were originally divided into four parts, of which but one was 

 for the priest, the other three being, severally, for the repairs of the 

 church, for the maintenance of the bishop, and for the support of the 

 poor. But this, too, is a fallacy, founded on the ignorance, actual or wil- 

 ful, of the orators. It arises from confounding transactions of the Ro- 

 man age of the church with periods later by some hundreds of years ; 

 and the transactions of the church in foreign countries with those of the 

 English establishment. 



The first revenues of the church were voluntary subscriptions. 

 The apostles sanctioned and directed the laying up of a weekly sum in the 

 hands of deacons, or other officers of the congregations, for the necessary 

 expenses of the church, for the claims of charity, and for the support of 

 the preachers ; who had in general abandoned all claims to their heathen 

 property, and in some instances had given up productive professions. St. 

 Paul constantly insists on the right of the preachers to be subsisted by 

 the congregations ; though he refuses to avail himself of it, from a wish 

 to avoid burthening the infant and persecuted churches. Our Lord in 

 sending forth the twelve Apostles (10 Matthew) expressly declares their 

 right to be subsisted by the persons to whom they brought the Gospel, for- 

 bidding them to make any preparation for their own expenses ; " neither 

 purse nor scrip, for the labourer is worthy of his hire." This mode of 

 provision seems to have prevailed during the whole time of the great 

 persecutions, or nearly 250 years ; the church having received its first 

 endowments only a short period previously to the accession of Con- 

 stantine. 



