The Rev, R. Valp xfs Sermcgis, 
conduct. So attached are the people 
lo ilie performance of their religious 
duties, that more than one thousand 
persons have presented themselves at 
the altar, on the two Easter Sundays in 
a country parish in Jersey, and have all 
received'^the Sacrament from the hands 
of one clergyman. Nor ar6 the public 
services of the clergy contined to their 
clerical functions. The invasion of that 
island in 1779 was chiefly defeated by 
the skill of one clergyman, and that of 
1781 by the spirited conduct of ano¬ 
ther. It is not generally knovvn, but 
the Government should be oiten re¬ 
minded, tiiat the great tithes constitute 
the salary of the governors, and that 
the clergy are therefore reduced to an 
income very inadequate to their merits. 
The present funds for the increase of 
small livings are incommensurate to the 
magnitude of the object. The tentlis, 
which were originally received by the 
High Priest from the Levites, were levied 
by the Pope on ecclesiastical livings, 
and, after the reformation, fell, together 
with the first fruits, to the crown. These 
funds were, hy the pious munificence 
of Queen Anne, appropriated to the 
increase of small livings. But the 
amount of these, fixed in the reign of 
Edward I, is at present little more than 
iiomitial. The abolition of the first 
fruits would relieve the clergy from a 
burden, which in the case of small livings 
is often borne with difficulty. Instead 
of a tenth, if a twentieth of the net 
produce of tithes were impartially levied, 
every living would soon be provided 
xvlth a decent subsistence. But this 
could not be done with justice, unless 
some equivalent advantages, or some 
proportionate exemptions, were granted 
to the clergy.—If no clergyman under¬ 
took the care of more than one church 
with double, or of two with single, duty, 
the salary of perpetual curacies in the 
patronage of laymen would soon be 
raised to a reasonable amount -without 
any Episcopal or Parliamentary inter¬ 
ference. 
IV.—The internal causes of some of 
the difficulties, under which the clergy 
often labor, arise from the changes, 
which time has kitroduced into the 
exercise of the offices of society, and 
into the mild spirit of our courts of 
Jaw, since the enactment of the eccle- 
feiastical canons. The gentleness of 
liberality, of candor, and of conciliation, 
has gradually smoothed the featuj-es of 
institutions, in their origin necessarily 
strict and severe. But a clergyman is 
sometimes perplexed in the adoption of 
the letter or the spirit in his practice. 
It happens not unfrequently that he is 
convinced of the propriety of following 
the canon and the rubric: but the fear 
of singularity and of obloquy deters him 
from his purpose. The offices of Bap¬ 
tism, of Burial, and of the Commu-: 
nion, enjoin precautions and conditioirs, 
of which the conscientious observer 
might be involved in legal discussions* 
The wholesome strictness of the primi¬ 
tive Church, the relaxation of which is 
lamented in the rubric to tlie office of 
Commination, prevented by the fear of 
public exposure the commission of many 
sins, which is tolerated by the false de¬ 
licacy of the age; which the clergy la¬ 
ment, but %vhich they cannot expose 
nitliout the danger of more than evil 
report. 
V.—Another inconvenience, to which 
the Establishment is exclusfively subject, 
is the difficulties which obstruct the 
erection of new places of worship. 
Among the sectaries, no sooner is the 
want of a hleeting-house suggested, than 
a commodious edifice greets the sight; 
no delay can arise, if the funds are 
supplied. But the erection of a new 
Church or Chapel demands the previous 
assent of the Bishop, Patron, and the 
Incumbent: and the private interests of 
the two last are sometimes opposed to this 
division, not only of the right of pre¬ 
sentation, hut of the income of the be¬ 
nefice. Chapels are indeed frequently 
built in the metropolis by private spe¬ 
culation ; but these are of partial be- 
• & 
refit, for few persons can be admitted-^ 
who do not pay for their seals a price 
adequate to the fair expectations of the 
proprietors. The Gospel is not preach¬ 
ed to the poor. And disputes some¬ 
times arise between the incumbent of 
the parish and the proprietors of the 
chapel, on the appointment of a preaclj- 
er. The proper accommodation of all 
ranks of people on a scale graduated by 
the increase of population cannot be 
committed, consistently with the inte¬ 
rests of religion, into any hands but 
those of the bishoos, whose knowledsiQ 
of their dioceses, and whose zeal in the 
cause of Christianity, render them pe¬ 
culiarly qualified for this purpose. 
These causes might perhaps be re¬ 
moved by external regulations. But 
caution and firmness are equally neces¬ 
sary, 
