30 



508/.; the average rental for the last three years was 1881. 

 Oa this glebe the incumnbet has expended 800Z. of private 

 money. (6) Another benefice consisted of 411 acres of glebe 

 land. The former rental was 578/. 10s. The present rental 

 received is only 179/. ; the ratable value of the land is 240/., but 

 it has not been realised. If the incumbent were asked to make 

 a return of the value of this benefice he would probably return it 

 at the ratable value for the vacant land plus the rent actually 

 received for the land occupied by tenants. But the result would 

 obviously be misleading. The living, it may be added, is 

 charged with the annual payment of 158/. 10s. Thus the rent 

 actually received covers the annual charge and leaves a margin 

 of 20/. 10s. (7) The gross annual value of a benefice consisting 

 of 589 acres formerly realised 1,100/. a year. In 1886 the rental 

 has fallen to 771/. The net value of the living now amounts 

 only to 274/. More than 3,500/. has been invested in the 

 improvement of the land from private sources, if that can be 

 called an investment, which pays little or no interest and offers 

 no security for the principal. (8) Another living consists of 

 150 acres formerly let at 318/. The farm is now vacant, and it 

 is offered at 25s. an acre. If this rent could be obtained, it 

 would show a reduction of 130/. The living is subject to a 

 charge to Queen Anne's Bounty of 64/. a year. 



These instances will suffice to illustrate the terrible deprecia- 

 tion in the value of glebe livings which has resulted from 

 prolonged agricultural depression. Some glebeowners have 

 escaped the full effect of the storm, because their land is accom- 

 modation land or possesses a sporting value, and thus the old 

 rental has been maintained. Others, again, have not suffered in 

 proportion to their neighbours because a part of the income of 

 their benefice consists of tithe rent-charge, or has been 

 augmented by the proceeds of sales of land to railways, or of 

 wayleaves over the glebe granted to ironstone companies. Bnt 

 where an incumbent is solely dependent for his income on the 

 rental or the produce of glebe farms, and where the land is heavy 

 and possesses no exceptional value which raises it out of the 

 category of purely agricultural districts, his position is one of 

 disaster if not of ruin. He has felt in an acute form the pinch 

 of poverty. He lives without servants, without fires, without 

 books, and on the food of an ordinary labourer. The per-centage 

 of the loss sustained by glebeowners exceeds that of ordinary 

 landowners, and as a rule they have less to fall back upon and are 

 less able to afford the diminution of income. Any practical man 

 who considers the peculiar disadvantages under which incumbents 

 labour in the management of their land would expect their 

 losses to be exceptionally severe. The blow was unexpected ; 

 found glebeowners wholly unequipped for the coming stx-uggle 



