86 CHURCHES. [CHAP. XXV. 



individuals, with eight negro servants, told me that 

 he could not live respectably for less than 1700 

 dollars a year (340 guineas). Yet he paid no less 

 than 40 dollars, or eight guineas, a year, for a pew in 

 the Presbyterian church, holding six persons, which 

 will give some idea of the liberal support afforded, 

 under the voluntary system, to the ministers of re 

 ligion. Among the professors here, there are Bap 

 tists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and I was told of 

 one that he was not a member of any church, but a 

 regular attendant at the Baptist or Presbyterian 

 meeting. On Sunday, we heard the Bishop of Ala 

 bama preach, the congregation here being reckoned 

 the second in the State. The first is at Mobile, and 

 there are about ten in all. The service was read by 

 another clergyman, and as, according to the usual 

 custom in America, there was no clerk, the Bishop 

 read the responses and gave out the psalms, seeming 

 to us, at first, to be performing the office of clerk. 

 It often struck me as an advantage in the United 

 States, that the responses are never read by an il 

 literate man, as happens not uncommonly in our 

 country parishes, and the congregation joins in the 

 service more earnestly when the part which pro 

 perly belongs to them does not devolve on a regular 

 functionary. A few days later, when I was on my 

 way, in a steamer, to Mobile, I conversed with an 

 Episcopal clergyman, a high churchman, whose pro 

 fession I had recognised by the strictness of his 

 costume. He told me he meant to visit England, 

 and, with that view, had for some months abstained 

 entirely from the chewing of tobacco, having been 



