as Barsetshire—a fact well known to those few of my readers who are well acquainted with their own country.
Mr. Crawley, whose name has been mentioned in these pages, was the incumbent of Hogglestock. On what principle the remuneration of our parish clergymen was settled when the original settlement was made, no deepest, keenest lover of middle-aged ecclesiastical black-letter learning can, I take it, now say. That the priests were to be paid from tithes of the parish produce, out of which tithes certain other good things were to be bought and paid for, such as church repairs and education, of so much the most of us have an inkling. That a rector, being a big sort of parson, owned the tithes of his parish in full, or, at any rate, that part of them intended for the clergyman, and that a vicar was somebody's deputy, and therefore entitled only to little tithes, as being a little body—of so much we that are simple in such matters have a general idea. But one can not conceive that even in this way any approximation could have been made, even in those old mediæval days, toward a fair proportioning of the pay to the work. At any rate, it is clear enough that there is no such approximation now.
And what a screech would there not be among the clergy of the Church, even in these reforming days, if any over-bold reformer were to suggest that such an approximation should be attempted? Let those who know clergymen, and like them, and have lived with them, only fancy it! Clergymen to be paid, not according to the temporalities of any living which they may have acquired either by merit or favor, but in accordance with the work to be done! O Doddington! and O Stanhope, think of this, if an idea so sacrilegious can find entrance into your warm ecclesiastical bosoms! Ecclesiastical work to be bought and paid for according to its quantity and quality!
But, nevertheless, one may prophesy that we Englishmen must come to this, disagreeable as the idea undoubtedly is. Most pleasant-minded Churchmen feel, I think, on this subject, pretty much in the same way. Our present arrangement of parochial incomes is beloved as being time-honored, gentlemanlike, English, and picturesque. We would fain adhere to it closely as long as we can, but we know that we do so by the force of our prejudices, and not by that of our judgment. A time-honored, gentlemanlike, English, picturesque arrangement is so far very delightful.
