REVENUES OF THE CHURCH. TO THE EDITOR OF TIIE SPECTATOR.
SIR,—As your journal it at all times open to the discussion of matters of public interest, I beg leave to trouble you with the following statement, which, as Junius used to say, I have this day met, in the course of my reading.
It appears that the total income of the Clergy of the whole Of the Christian world, exclusive of this country, is not more than (say, in rabod numbers), 9,000,000/.; whereas that of the Clergy of the Established Ohureh of England and Ireland alone is reckoned at (say,) 9,440,000/. The number of hearers, or laymen, for whom duty is performed for the lastmentioned sum, is calculated at 6,400,000. The number of Christians for whose instruction the smaller sum is appropriated, is estimated at 198,700,000. I give you also an outline of the Church Property in Ireland, from undoubted authority.
The Primacy of Ireland is worth, per annum £140,000
Derry 120,000
Kilmmre • • • • 100,000
Clogher 100,000 Waterford 70,000 Total £530,000
Your insertion of the foregoing, in hopes it may meet the eye of those in whose power it is to remedy an abuse which must one day be attended to, will oblige, Sir, your constant reader, andisubscriber,
London, SOth July, 1829. W.
[The estimate of the revenues of the Irish Church has frequently been questioned.—En.)
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