MR. LLOYD-GEORGE AND THE EDUCATION BILL.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Mr. Lloyd-George, anxious to prove that there was a danger of clerical predominance in local Boards of Manage- ment, said in the House of Commons : "As a rule, the clergy- man in country parishes had one curate." I was myself a country clergyman for some years; I have always had many friends and acquaintances among the class ; and I cannot recall a dozen instances of what Mr. Lloyd-George says is the rule. Let me give some figures. I took at random nine pages of the list of benefices and clergy in " Crockford." These nine pages contained the names of four hundred and thirteen country parishes. In twenty-eight cases the incumbent bad a curate. I did not observe in how many instances he was compelled to do so by baying more than one church to serve. Taking no account of these considerations, I find that Mr. Lloyd-George's ride "possibly held good in not quite one case in fourteen. I then applied another test. I selected the diocese of Salisbury as being largely rural, and took as coming first in the " Clergy List " the deanery of Bridport in the archdeaconry of Dorset. Ex- cluding the small towns of Bridport, Lyme Regis, and Beaminster, I found that there were fifty-four country parishes, and that in eight of these the incumbent has a curate. In five out of the eight there are two or more churches to serve, and the incumbent has no choice, all parishes with more than a certain population having a right to two Sunday services. Mr. Lloyd-George's rule works out as one case in sixteen. Mr. Lloyd-George is a lawyer. He knows all about books of reference. If he were engaged in some business where a country clergyman was concerned, be would look out the name, and would note—at least every other lawyer in England and Wales would note—the unusual circumstance of a country clergyman employing a curate. He would say : `This is a man of means—or his living is sequestrated—or he is an absentee—or he is in bad health.' But, as a Member of Parliament, anxious to make a point, he says something to an exactly contrary effect. This is worse than rash speaking, or I might quote the proverb, temere logui proximum mendacio.
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