It was never anticipated by Sir Robert Peel, Lord Russell, and other Church reformers, that the net income of the Common Fund of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners would be over one million per annum. Any person who would have said so then would have been considered insane. In 1840 the idea of enfranchising all the leasehold property of the church was not for one moment thought of, and if it were, that it could never be realized.

Without going into the history of the Ecclesiastical Commission, it is essentially necessary to state that this Commission has cleared away, as far as public patronage is concerned with Acts of Parliament, the gross, yes, the disgraceful waste of church endowments. For instance, the present Archdeacon of Surrey, instead of receiving about £6,000 a year, of which £4,539 came from the tithe-rent charges, has a canonry in Winchester Cathedral, gross income £1,000 per annum, and the vicarage of Frensham, with net income £400 and house. An Order in Council divided, respecting vested interests, the Archdeacon’s enormous income among poor benefices and endowed new churches in the parishes where the tithes arose. This is a good specimen of all the operations of the Commissioners. Incumbents possessing enormous incomes, whose benefices were in public patronage, have been dealt with by Orders in Council, and by private Acts of Parliament, in a similar manner, on the next avoidances, when the new incumbents were appointed, on very reduced incomes, and the residue divided among the poorer incumbents in the same parishes. Then as regards the episcopal, capitular, and prebendal revenues, the Commissioners allow the bishops and chapters their incomes as set forth in Acts of Parliament and Orders in Council, and with the residue of the immense property, they satisfy local claims of parishes where the tithes arose or landed estates were situate. As for the prebendal properties, separate estates of capitular offices, sinecure rectories and dissolved canonries, the Cathedral Act of 1840 vested them in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for the good of the Common Fund, but Parliament allowed local claims on the tithes only. In a subsequent Act (1860), the local claims were extended, rather unwisely, to all kinds of church property. Hence we find many country parishes, with a population of a few hundreds, richly endowed and furnished with comfortable, well-built parsonages. The incumbents claim this by virtue of the extension clause of the local claims. The Commissioners have therefore been bound to satisfy local claims of hundreds of parishes with populations varying from 150 to 300, while the teeming populations of the town parishes have to go without help from the above resources. About £360,000 per annum has been given out of the Common Fund to satisfy local claims up to 1890. The Commissioners were opposed to this extension clause, and it was not in the Bill, but was inserted and carried by members of Parliament after the Bill was introduced, who had churches on their own estates, and in their neighbourhood, where large church endowments existed. The clause included all the landed estates and house property of the bishops, chapters, prebendaries, sinecure rectories, etc. In London there are lamentable cases of small incomes in parishes where there are no local claims, and large incomes of adjacent parishes, arising from local claims.

For example, the Finsbury estate in London consists of three acres of land, which were given, in the fourteenth century, by a layman to St. Paul’s for the support of one prebendary. The Corporation of London leased this estate from the dean and chapter, and built valuable houses upon it. The Act of 1840 vested this property, on the expiration of the lease, in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. In 1867 the lease expired, and the Commissioners came into possession of £60,000 per annum from the rentals of this property. By the Act of 1840, there would be no local claim, for none of this revenue came from tithes. But by the Act of 1860, there was a local claim. Hence eighteen district churches within the parish had their incumbents’ incomes raised to £500 a year each; new costly parsonage houses were erected, and large annual sums are allowed to the churchwardens of all these churches for the church services and repair of churches. But not a shilling was given to the poor incumbents in the adjacent populous parochial districts.

APPENDIX E.

The Septennial Average Prices of Wheat, Barley, and Oats from 1835 to 1890, or 55 years, taken from Willich’s Tithe Commutation Tables.

Per London Gazette WHEAT, per imperial bushel. BARLEY, per imperial bushel. OATS, per imperial bushel. Value of Tithe-Rent Charge of £100.
s. d. s. d. s. d. £ s. d.
To Christmas 1835 on 9th Dec. 1836 7 0¼ 3 11½ 2 9 100 0 0
To Christmas 1836 6 8½ 3 11¾ 2 9 98 13 9¾
do. 1837 6 6¾ 3 11¼ 2 8¾ 97 7 11
do. 1838 6 6¼ 3 9¾ 2 8 95 7 9
do. 1839 6 9 3 11¼ 2 9¼ 98 15 9½
do. 1840 6 11¾ 4 1 2 10¾ 102 12 5¼
do. 1841 7 3¾ 4 2 2 11¼ 105 8 2¾
do. 1842 7 7½ 4 1¼ 2 10½ 105 12 2¼
do. 1843 7 7¾ 4 0½ 2 9½ 104 3 5¼
do. 1844 7 7 4 1¼ 2 9 103 17 11¼
do. 1845 7 4 4 1½ 2 9 102 17 8¾
do. 1846 7 0½ 4 0 2 8½ 99 18 10¼
do. 1847 7 1¼ 4 1½ 2 9¼ 102 1 0
do. 1848 6 10¼ 4 1¼ 2 8¾ 100 3 7¾
do. 1849 6 7½ 4 1¼ 2 8½ 98 16 10
do. 1850 6 5¼ 4 0 2 8 96 11 4¾
do. 1851 6 2¾ 3 10¼ 2 7½ 93 16 11¼
do. 1852 6 0½ 3 9½ 2 6¾ 91 13 5¾
do. 1853 6 0 3 9½ 2 6¼ 90 19 5
do. 1854 6 0¾ 3 7¾ 2 6 89 15 8¾
do. 1855 6 6 3 8½ 2 7½ 93 18 1¼
do. 1856 6 11¼ 3 11¼ 2 9¼ 99 13 7¼
do. 1857 7 2¾ 4 3½ 2 11 105 16 3½
do. 1858 7 4 4 5½ 3 0¼ 108 19 6¼
do. 1859 7 4½ 4 6½ 3 1¼ 110 17 8½
do. 1860 7 4½ 4 7¼ 3 2 112 3 4¾
do. 1861 7 0¾ 4 7¼ 3 1 109 13 6
do. 1862 6 8¾ 4 7½ 3 0 107 5 2
do. 1863 6 3½ 4 5¾ 2 11¼ 103 3 10¾
do. 1864 6 0 4 3¼ 2 10 98 15 10½
do. 1865 5 11½ 4 2¼ 2 9½ 97 7 9¼
do. 1866 6 0¾ 4 3 2 9¾ 98 13 8
do. 1867 6 3¼ 4 3¾ 2 10¼ 100 13 3
do. 1868 6 5¼ 4 5¼ 2 11 103 5 8¼
do. 1869 6 3½ 4 6¼ 2 11¾ 104 1 0¼
do. 1870 6 4 4 6¼ 3 0¼ 104 15 1
do. 1871 6 7½ 4 7¾ 3 1¼ 108 4 0¼
do. 1872 6 10¾ 4 9¼ 3 1½ 110 15 10¼
do. 1873 7 0¾ 4 10 3 1¾ 112 7 3
do. 1874 6 10¾ 4 11 3 2¼ 112 15 6¾
do. 1875 6 6¾ 4 10 3 2½ 110 14 11
do. 1876 6 6¼ 4 9 3 2½ 109 16 11½
do. 1877 6 8½ 4 10¼ 3 3¼ 112 7 5¼
do. 1878 6 6¼ 4 11 3 3 111 15 1½
do. 1879 6 3½ 4 10¼ 3 2¾ 109 17 9¼
do. 1880 6 0½ 4 8¾ 3 2¼ 107 2 10½
do. 1881 5 10¼ 4 6 3 0¾ 102 16 2
do. 1882 5 10¼ 4 4½ 2 11¼ 100 4 9¾
do. 1883 5 9¼ 4 3¾ 2 10¼ 98 6 2¼
do. 1884 5 4¾ 4 1¾ 2 9 93 17 3
do. 1885 5 1¾ 3 11¾ 2 8¼ 90 10 3½
do. 1886 4 11 3 10 2 7½ 87 8 10
do. 1887 4 8½ 3 8½ 2 6¼ 84 2 8¾
do. 1888 4 5½ 3 7½ 2 5 80 19 8½
do. 1889 4 2¼ 3 6¼ 2 4¼ 78 1 3½
do. 1890 4 0¼ 3 5¾ 2 3½ 76 3 3¾
5536 6 5
General average for the last 55 years £100 13 2½

APPENDIX F.

Summary of Tithe-rent charges, copied from the Parliamentary Tithes Commutation Return, 1887.