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I am well aware of the importance of the secular side of the 

 position of the clergy, and of the value of maintaining in each 

 parish an independent landowner. I also recognise the pos- 

 sibility of a steady increase in the value of land. Yet on the whole 

 I think that the interests of the Church, the clergy, and the 

 nation would be best served by the disentanglement of clerical 

 incomes from the soil. If this is, for the sake of argument, con- 

 ceded, I propose very briefly to consider the various schemes 

 which have been suggested to effect the change. 



The tendency of modei'n agricultural legislation sets strongly 

 against the accumulation of large properties in single hands. 

 It is still more opposed to the tenure of land by corporations. 

 The proposal to transfer glebe lands to the Ecclesiastical Com- 

 missioners appears to be in fatal conflict to these tendencies. 

 The advantages to the clergy would be great, but, apart from 

 the expenses and difficulties of management, any scheme which 

 contemplates the accumulation of large estates in the hands of 

 corporations can hardly be considered as practicable. 



It would be unjust on the part of the Legislature to compel 

 the sale of Church lands at the present moment. The large 

 quantity of land thrown npon the market, the compulsoi-y 

 nature of the sale, the low prices of agricultural produce all 

 combine to render the policy of a forced sale in the 

 highest degree prejudicial to the interests of the Church. 

 If the land is to be sold at all, it must be offered gradually 

 and without compulsion. It is impossible to suppose that the 

 value of land has been permanently reduced ; in course of time 

 it will most certainly revive. To sell in a panic is simply 

 financial suicide. There is force in the arguments which 

 are used to obtain for patrons a right of pre-emption ; but the 

 object of a sale is to improve the position of the rural 

 clergy. To this consideration it appears to me that the 

 claims of patrons must yield. If a clergyman finds a 

 buyer at a fair price, fixed by a competent valuer, he 

 ought, in my opinion, to be able to convert his land into 

 Consols. Incumbents would most easily obtain increased 

 facilities for the sale of glebe lands if they were placed in the 

 position of tenants for life under Lord Cairns's Settled Estates 

 Act. This was in fact the principle of a Bill introduced into 

 the House of Commons in 1885, to which the names of Mr. 

 Courtney and Mr. Ince, Q.C., were appended. The Bill, which 

 proposed inter alia to give increased facilities for the sale of 

 Church lands, was subsequently dropped. But the principle on 

 which it proceeded seems to deserve the support of Churchmen ; 

 it has already received the sanction of a committee of Convoca- 

 tion, though additional restrictions on the power of sale were at 

 the same time rightly recommended. 



