There is also a charge peculiar to the United States*, which is the sum paid to the Indian tribes, and this alone amounts to about one-twentieth of the whole American budget, and is not likely to increase in the same ratio as the population of the country.

But the errors and misconceptions on all that relates to the statistics of the United States in this article of the Quarterly, are nowhere more conspicuous than in that part where the annual expense of the clergy is estimated. The reviewer founds his calculations upon the statement of Dr. Cooper†, from which he estimates the aggregate amount paid throughout the Union to the clergy of all sects at £3,081,650‡; and as on the same authority he states the number of clergymen to be about 13,000, he obtains 2377. 10s. as the average annual stipend of each clergyman (1000 dollars, according to Dr. Cooper), exclusive of occasional emoluments (“irregular exactions and fees," &c.). This he contrasts with the sum of the tithes in the hands of the clergy "in England, which," he says, "from very satis

* The government of our North American colonies have a similar item in their expenditure.

+ Dr. Cooper is, or was, professor at one of the colleges in the United States, and is, I believe, no relation of Mr. F. Cooper.

The Revue Britannique, not wishing to understate, gives as the revenue of the clergy in America 30,000,000 francs, or about £1,200,000.

factory evidence, does not much exceed £2,215,000;" and that, "if the tithes were equally divided among all the livings," each clergyman would have but

200; that by adding the cathedral property, and the income of the bishops, you cannot establish an aggregate of more than £2,673,500.

If the accuracy of this statement could be admitted, it would at once do away with an objection that has been sometimes made to the church system in the United States, viz.-that unless the provision for the church were compulsory, and its support established by law, the clergy would starve. But, although I can fully bear witness, as far as my observation goes, to the fact that the clergy of the Episcopalian and some other forms of worship in America are not only respectably maintained, but that they, in fact (whatever may be their nominal income, or the comparative cheapness of their place of residence), live in comfort and competence, and that I never either saw or heard of clergymen being in want or distressed, so as not to be able to support and provide for their families with more than the mere necessaries of life; yet the rate calculated by the reviewer is much too high. It is extremely difficult to form an accurate estimate of either the number of the clergy in the United States or the amount of their emoluments.

If one were required

in this country to make out an exact schedule of the

income enjoyed by the clergy of the established church, notwithstanding the assistance afforded by the Liber Regalis and the Clerical Guide, it would not be easy to get the precise amount of the real income of the clergy, including cathedral property, Easter offerings, glebes, oblations, dues, pews in the church, fees, &c. &c. A proof of the difficulty of obtaining a true estimate may be found in the various sums at which the revenues of the Anglican church have been valued. The Quarterly says £2,673,500 in one place, and £3,872,138 in another*. But other valuations certainly have been made, and many published in the various London journals, which vary from four to even nine millions and more. As it is no part of the object of this work to examine into the real amount of the temporalities of the church of England, but to show what is the probable sum of the income of the clergy in the United States, I shall not take any other valuation than that of the Quarterly reviewer, certainly not likely, from the tenor of his argument, to be exaggerated.

* Vide Vol. XXIX. of Quarterly Review, p. 555

CHAPTER XV.

Ecclesiastical revenues of the United States.-Valuations of the Quarterly of church of England revenues, and those of the clergy of America.-Probable real amount of church emoluments in the United States.

BUT if it be not easy to form a correct estimation of the revenue of the church of England, what must be the difficulty of getting at the true value of all the sums appropriated throughout Great Britain and Ireland to the support of the clergy of all denominations? In Scotland it would be comparatively easy, and in Ireland, as far as the legally established church is concerned; but, to put the question on fair grounds, we must include not only the Catholic clergy of Ireland, but the Presbyterians, and all the dissenters of the United Kingdom. The reviewer admits this, with regard to the dissenters, in speaking of England only, and allows that it might be more than sufficient to make up the difference between his estimate of the relative amounts of the incomes of each clergyman in the two countries, i.e., between 2,673,500/.* in England and 3,081,6507.

* This is the estimate in the 92d vol. of the Quarterly; that in the 29th being above a million more.

in the United States. It must be remembered, also, that in this comparative estimate the church of Ireland, that is to say, the established church, is not included, nor is Scotland taken into account; whereas, in the calculation of 13,000 clergymen in the United States, all denominations are included in all parts of that extensive country.

Thus allowing the correctness of the above estimate, the annual income of the church, or rather of the clergy, in the United States would at once appear to be infinitely below that of the clergy of the United Kingdom; and this is to be expected as a matter of course, from the totally different circumstances of the church in the two countries. In America the clergy have no connexion with the government, or with any political party, directly or indirectly; they are not magistrates, nor do they take part in any of the lighter recreations of society that in this country are looked upon as at least harmless amusements. Clergymen are rarely, if ever, seen either at a ball or party; nor do they mix much in general and large companies, unless when brought together for the promotion of some charitable measure, or some association connected with their religious duties. It is not intended to institute a comparison between the habits and principles of the American clergy and those of the Church of England, but to mention facts that account for their total difference of position in