GN RECENT CHANGES IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. 359 
Average amount of salaries of certificated teachers 
Masters Ci tp Oy \ Dia me Re. 
1855 1881 Per cent. 
increase 
or Saag oe oe 5: aa 
Church of England . : 87 19 3 114 8 10 29 
British Schools . ; a 101 16 7 1B) Bs a: 29 
Roman Catholics : : 75 125 99 15 0 32 
88 6 0 115 0 O 30 
School Board Schools = — 125 53." -0 | 43 
The economic condition of teachers has, therefore, immensely im- 
proved within the last twenty-five years. Of the income of clergymen 
I have few reliable facts, but we know that considerable efforts have been 
made, and with tolerable success, to increase the stipends of curates, 
whilst in every religious community the learning and piety of their 
religious teachers are better appreciated and remunerated. An evidence 
of this may be given in the rise which has taken place in the stipends of 
ministers in a comparatively small church—the Presbyterian Church of 
England. In 1866 the average stipend of its ministers was 213]. In 
1883 their stipends had risen to an average of 3101., showing an increase 
of 45 per cent. The income of commercial and banking clerks may be 
taken to have increased about 15 per cent., and from facts contributed by 
two important houses, I learn that the higher salaries of heads of depart- 
ments have increased considerably more. I have no data to estimate 
what rise has of late taken place in the income of small shopkeepers, 
but judging from the houses they live in, and the rate of their household 
expenditure, their position must have improved in full proportion to the 
economic improvement of the people. Nor must I forget the increasing 
facilities now open to girls and women of the lower middle classes in the 
Civil Service and other professions to earn at least sufficient for their 
‘own maintenance, and so diminish the burden of their parents. Taken 
altogether, if the average income of the lower middle classes was 90/. in 
1851, we may fairly take it in 1881 at 110/. per family. 
§ 8. Incomes of the Labouring Classes. 
The income of the labouring classes is determined by the wages pre- 
vailing in agriculture, building, the manufacturing districts, mining, and 
in domestic service. Extensive data upon each of these different branches 
of labour would be necessary in order to estimate carefully the average 
rise over the whole field. But a few well-recorded facts may be given. 
In Mr. Coleman’s Report on Agriculture in Northumberland, appended 
on the Report of the Royal Commission on Agriculture, the single hind’s 
wages per week is given as follows :— 
Wages per week : Wages per week 
s. d. Sd. 
1851 . - A alice A lpetalD) aS Cd Le : : ald} 
1861 . : - oel6n* 6 SSI: - E ohI8e Oo 
—showing an increase from 1851 to 1881 of 63 per cent. In Shropshire 
the price of labour in agriculture was reported as follows :— 
