THE INCOME OF THE CHURCH.
ITO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:I
Sin,—In correcting Mr. Martin, Canon Browne has himself fallen into error, when he tells us, " Deans, Canons, &c., have no lands ; their lands are in the hands of the Ecclesiastical Com- missioners, and form part of the common fund out of which the dignitaries are paid."
As the mistake is a common one, perhaps you will allow me to state briefly what has been the actual course of dealings between the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Deans and Chapters. In doing this, I shall be repeating an explanation which I gave in a letter to one of your contemporaries some years ago, on the occa- sion of the controversy whether or not it was desirable that Universities and Colleges should be compelled to sell their lands, and to invest the purchase-moneys in the Funds.
It is notorious that when the Commissioners began their opera- tions, the capitular lands of the Church were, for the most part, let on beneficial leases at nearly nominal reserve rents ; and that the emoluments of the Deans and Chapters were precarious, being in a great measure derived from the fines on renewals. What the Commissioners did was to enter into arrange- ments with particular Deans and Chapters that the capitular estates, subject to the existing leases, should become vested in the Commissioners ; and that in lieu of their estates, the Dean and Chapter should receive an annuity of agreed amount until the Commissioners restored to them real estates in possession, calculated to produce an income equal to such annuity,—the surplus which it has estimated the arrange- ment would yield the Commissioners being their profit on the transaction. The Chapters of York, Peterborough, Carlisle, Chichester, Chester, Gloucester, Canterbury, and Winchester had had their permanent landed estates reassigned to them before 1868, and the same process has since, I believe, been going on un- interruptedly. In some cases—for instance, Durham—capitular lands which were already free from the trammels of beneficial leases were never transferred to the Commissioners at all, but have always remained vested in their ancient owners.
The Commissioners thus took from the Deans and Chapters lands which were of comparatively little advantage to their owners, and either have already transferred or will eventually transfer to them lands from which the full rack-rental can be ob- tained now, and from which the progressive increment in the value of land will be obtainable in the future.—I am, Sir, &c., Grosvenor Mansions, SAT:, May 30. Trromit
s WEBSTER.
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