number is less now than in days gone by, as these figures show, but it means that the Church is fully alive to its duties, and that it desires to provide additional clergy according to the increase of the population. In the year 1836 the number of curates employed by resident incumbents was 1,006, but in the year 1890 there were 6,457. This shows how the needs of the parishes of England in late years are better provided for by the residence of more than one clergyman in each parish.
From the following facts you can gather also that one of the old abuses of the Church is fast dying away. I mean the abuse of non-residence: that is the abuse of clergy drawing the stipends of their parishes without doing the work in them themselves. In 1836 there were 4,224 curates employed by non-resident rectors and vicars, but in 1890 there were only 228 men so employed. Look at these facts, and draw the inference that the clergy to-day are more conscientious than in days gone by.
Now for much of the good work done in the Church to-day we have to thank the labours of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. We must not forget, as Mr. Hore says of this corporation, that the work done by it is invaluable. [1]"They have constituted 3,079 new districts, they have augmented and endowed with ₤3,000 a year all parishes in public patronage which have a population of 4,000 or upwards, and have largely contributed towards the building of parsonage houses. They have endowed about 300 new benefices created since 1871; they have raised to ₤300 a year many parishes with a smaller population than 4,000;
- ↑ Hore, pp. 418, 419.
