DOI issue:
August 11, 1860
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16866#0067
59
August 11, I860,] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI*
.MEETING
Vo
Ofpose
CKURGH
rates
THE RAGGED CLERGY.
oo&ing before and after, the
mind of man (the mind of
woman is nearsighted and
regards only the present)
at Midsummer, naturally
both reverts aud adverts to
Christmas. Whilst we are
consuming ice, and refrige-
rating our interiors with
shandygaff or champagne
cup — supposing ourselves
to be blest with a modest
competence—we are think-
ing of roast beef, and plum-
pudding, and hot spiced
elder-wine and ale. The
coal merchant sends round
his circular to say that his
goods are getting as cheap
as they can be, and in the
midst of the dog-days—the
cat-and-dog-days being now
at last over—we lay in our
winter’s stock. As we kick
off sheet and counterpane
in composing ourselves to
slumber, we remember what
a load of bed-clothes we
required during the frost,
and wonder if we shall want as much this time six mouths. Coals
and Blankets being thus brought within the scope of our considera-
tion, suggest the subscriptions which the benevolent are called upon
to disburse in order that their destitute fellow creatures may be
provided with fuel and bedding. Ideas of soup-kitchens also
present themselves, and, in connection with them, the unhappy
people who want them, that they may not starve, and who must be
supplied with firing and flannel, lest they should freeze to death.
The present warm and sunshiny portion of the year is that which
•especially obtrudes on the thought of reflecting persons the fact
that large multitudes of our fellow creatures are hungry and naked, and
will therefore, also, in half-a-year’s time or sooner, be wretchedly cold.
Heated as it were thus by the solar rays. Imagination beholds a vast
•crowd of lean, wan, sallow, sunken-cheeked, hollow-eyed, shivering,
groaning, paralysed, convulsed, contorted, shrunken, tumid, and alto-
gether miserable men, women and children, who are not only fellow
creatures but fellow Christians most of them. Working people out of
employ, with their families, constitute the reality which thus fore-
shadows itself in a Midsummer Night’s Dream. Working people—
but not all underpaid journeymen tailors, or distressed needlewomen, or
even well-paid bricklayers’ labourers on strike. These same working-
people out of employ, or in employment at starvation prices, include a
very considerable number of those labourers whose work lies in what
is called the vineyard. It is a fact that many of them are working
clergymen. These fellow Christians of ours comprise a very large
number of Christian pastors—who may feed their flocks indee’d with
spiritual nutriment, but themselves actually want bread. Numerous
fellow clergymen may be contemplated among these scarecrows by the
bloated or the beneficent pluralist.
The above statements will be found to be warranted by the contents
■of a little blue book which has lately been written by the Rev. W. G.
Jervis, M.A., and published under the title of Startling Facts. Mr.
Jervis is Secretary to the Poor Clergy Relief Society, which advertises
for cast-off apparel wherewithal to clothe naked Priests and Deacons.
The demand for such aid may well be presumed from the fact, pro-
claimed in this work, that there are more than 5,000 Curates ministering
in the Church of England whose incomes do not average above £30
per annum, and as many as the same number of beneficed Clergymen
whose clerical incomes are under £150 a year. Poor angels! This
something like apostolic poverty—isn’t it"?
The following are specimens of the entreaties and supplications of
various poor clergy for alms, as cited by the Rev. Mr. Jervis:—
“ Within the last three months I have been wearing a coat in rags, and shoes
which, from inability to get them mended, let in water every time I put them on ;
and for weeks together we have not been able to have a dinner from Sunday to
Sunday, but have been compelled to allow ourselves but two meals a day, and those
two composed of tea without sugar and bread without butter." “ I solemnly assure
you, that I have not food for more than to-day, and that I have not the means of
procuring it till Friday next.” “They” (an Incumbent's twelve children) “cannot
attend divine service on the Sabbath-day for want of clothes and shoes.”—“ I ask to
be supplied gratuitously with a donation of clothing.”—“We never can afford
animal food more than once a week.”—“ Frequently” (this wa3 a clergyman whose
wife was starved to death) “we have not had a mouthful of butcher’s meat for
months together, and have felt really thankful that we had a potatoe.”—“ I have a
wife and seven ciiildrc- dependent on an income of £52 per annum, which I find
inadequate for the maintenance of my largo family ; and I am in great distress."
Bishop, have you got a copper to relieve a poor clergyman?—a poor
clergyman, bishop, who has not tasted food all this blessed day.
That’is the style of solicitation to which scholars and gentlemen are
nearly reduced by clerical poverty. We shall have ministers of the
wealthy Church of England lying about on the pavement, and illus-
trating the Gospel, which it is their vocation to preach, in coloured
chalk, and writing under the picture thus delineated “I am starving.”
Or, perhaps they will perambulate Cathedral closes in torn surplices,
singing psalms, in hopes to get a sixpence tossed to them out of the
dean’s window.
Statesmen object, that if the Church revenues were divided equally
amongst the clergy of all ranks, there would be only £240 a-year for
each parson; so that if there were no “blanks” in the Establishment,
there would be no “ prizes.” But what necessity is there for prizes ?
What harm would be done if the clergy were levelled down to £240
a-year a-piece ? Is it credibie that one soul the less would be saved
in consequence of that pecuniary arrangement ? Rich bishops and
deans are great ornaments to society, but they might be as useful as
St. Paul on £240 per annum, as far as their utility depends upon their
incomes. In the meantime, could not dignitaries, who generally leave
large fortunes behind them, afford to endow a few ragged churches, to
be served by ragged clergymen, provided by Mr. Jervis’s society with,
old clothes? “Startling Facts” is a book which ought to lie on every
prelate’s library table.
THE BLOCKADE OF THE SESSION.
The Obstructives have been having a rare time of it in Parliament.
Not content with having put a stopper on Reform, they have impeded
every useful measure of the Session, and the car of legislation has
been brought quite to a stand-still through the quantity of spokes—or,
more correctly, speeches—they have put into its wheels. The Savings
Banks Bill easily they knocked upon the head; and though the Bank-
ruptcy Bill loudly was called for by the country, the Obstructives inter-
posed, and would not let it pass. Quite early in the Session they stopped
the measure for reforming the London Corporation; and now the same
fate seems to threaten the Bill proposed for strengthening our forces
in India. There is little doubt, iudeed, they would have ended it long
since, had not the Premier somewhat awed them by his dreadful
threat that the House should sit till Christmas rather than not
carry it.
Chief of the Obstructives is the clever Mr. ITorsman, whose powers
of obstruction are really quite remarkable. If there be any truth in
the science of phrenology, we think were Mr. Horsman’s bumps to
he examined, he would be found to have a wrondrous organ of obstruc-
tiveness. “ Mr. Horsman’s speech stops the way,” may be taken as
a summary of all the late debates, when anything important has been
ripe to be discussed. What his constituents may think of him is a
point which “hath no magnitude” (as saith Euclid) in his eyes, and
which apparently he keeps out of sight as much as possible. Certainly
were justice done to Mr. Horsmax, it would be only fair to charge
him with having done more to prevent the course of legislation than
any other Honourable Member of the House: and the damage he has
caused to the interests of the country might be laid before him in the
shape of a small Bill, which should enumerate as items the Bills lost
through his means. Mr. Horsmax might be credited with the speeches
he has made (some of which, in point of eloquence, have been really to his
credit), and per contra might be debited with all the valuable time which
he has taken up in talk, and the many useful measures he has thus
obstructed. The account we think should then be shown to his consti-
tuents, that they may see exactly what it is he owes to them. We
think were voters saddled with the legislative debts which their Mem-
bers owe the country, most probably when next he asked them for a
seat there would be some talk of unhorsing the Horsman.
The Diggings of Suez.
At a late meeting of the Suez Canal Company, on the production of
its accounts 1,000,000 fr. were found to have been spent in the costs
of direction. Of this sum 500,000 fr. had gone for the journeys of
M. Lesseps. To this was added a further sum for furnishing that
gentleman’s rooms at Paris; and, withal 400,000 fr. for the salaries ol
the members of the direction, namely, of M. Lessees and one or twc
associates. If M. Lesseps does not make a caual out of the Suer
excavation, he will have found it a mine.
A Spiritual Calling.
A Mr. Hume professes to have the power of calling spirits from tha
vasty deep, and shallow-minded persons put belief in his profession.
As profession is not always accompanied by practice, it would be well
if they would look a little deeper in the matter, for it may possihi?
turn out that they are being Hume-bugged.
i
August 11, I860,] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI*
.MEETING
Vo
Ofpose
CKURGH
rates
THE RAGGED CLERGY.
oo&ing before and after, the
mind of man (the mind of
woman is nearsighted and
regards only the present)
at Midsummer, naturally
both reverts aud adverts to
Christmas. Whilst we are
consuming ice, and refrige-
rating our interiors with
shandygaff or champagne
cup — supposing ourselves
to be blest with a modest
competence—we are think-
ing of roast beef, and plum-
pudding, and hot spiced
elder-wine and ale. The
coal merchant sends round
his circular to say that his
goods are getting as cheap
as they can be, and in the
midst of the dog-days—the
cat-and-dog-days being now
at last over—we lay in our
winter’s stock. As we kick
off sheet and counterpane
in composing ourselves to
slumber, we remember what
a load of bed-clothes we
required during the frost,
and wonder if we shall want as much this time six mouths. Coals
and Blankets being thus brought within the scope of our considera-
tion, suggest the subscriptions which the benevolent are called upon
to disburse in order that their destitute fellow creatures may be
provided with fuel and bedding. Ideas of soup-kitchens also
present themselves, and, in connection with them, the unhappy
people who want them, that they may not starve, and who must be
supplied with firing and flannel, lest they should freeze to death.
The present warm and sunshiny portion of the year is that which
•especially obtrudes on the thought of reflecting persons the fact
that large multitudes of our fellow creatures are hungry and naked, and
will therefore, also, in half-a-year’s time or sooner, be wretchedly cold.
Heated as it were thus by the solar rays. Imagination beholds a vast
•crowd of lean, wan, sallow, sunken-cheeked, hollow-eyed, shivering,
groaning, paralysed, convulsed, contorted, shrunken, tumid, and alto-
gether miserable men, women and children, who are not only fellow
creatures but fellow Christians most of them. Working people out of
employ, with their families, constitute the reality which thus fore-
shadows itself in a Midsummer Night’s Dream. Working people—
but not all underpaid journeymen tailors, or distressed needlewomen, or
even well-paid bricklayers’ labourers on strike. These same working-
people out of employ, or in employment at starvation prices, include a
very considerable number of those labourers whose work lies in what
is called the vineyard. It is a fact that many of them are working
clergymen. These fellow Christians of ours comprise a very large
number of Christian pastors—who may feed their flocks indee’d with
spiritual nutriment, but themselves actually want bread. Numerous
fellow clergymen may be contemplated among these scarecrows by the
bloated or the beneficent pluralist.
The above statements will be found to be warranted by the contents
■of a little blue book which has lately been written by the Rev. W. G.
Jervis, M.A., and published under the title of Startling Facts. Mr.
Jervis is Secretary to the Poor Clergy Relief Society, which advertises
for cast-off apparel wherewithal to clothe naked Priests and Deacons.
The demand for such aid may well be presumed from the fact, pro-
claimed in this work, that there are more than 5,000 Curates ministering
in the Church of England whose incomes do not average above £30
per annum, and as many as the same number of beneficed Clergymen
whose clerical incomes are under £150 a year. Poor angels! This
something like apostolic poverty—isn’t it"?
The following are specimens of the entreaties and supplications of
various poor clergy for alms, as cited by the Rev. Mr. Jervis:—
“ Within the last three months I have been wearing a coat in rags, and shoes
which, from inability to get them mended, let in water every time I put them on ;
and for weeks together we have not been able to have a dinner from Sunday to
Sunday, but have been compelled to allow ourselves but two meals a day, and those
two composed of tea without sugar and bread without butter." “ I solemnly assure
you, that I have not food for more than to-day, and that I have not the means of
procuring it till Friday next.” “They” (an Incumbent's twelve children) “cannot
attend divine service on the Sabbath-day for want of clothes and shoes.”—“ I ask to
be supplied gratuitously with a donation of clothing.”—“We never can afford
animal food more than once a week.”—“ Frequently” (this wa3 a clergyman whose
wife was starved to death) “we have not had a mouthful of butcher’s meat for
months together, and have felt really thankful that we had a potatoe.”—“ I have a
wife and seven ciiildrc- dependent on an income of £52 per annum, which I find
inadequate for the maintenance of my largo family ; and I am in great distress."
Bishop, have you got a copper to relieve a poor clergyman?—a poor
clergyman, bishop, who has not tasted food all this blessed day.
That’is the style of solicitation to which scholars and gentlemen are
nearly reduced by clerical poverty. We shall have ministers of the
wealthy Church of England lying about on the pavement, and illus-
trating the Gospel, which it is their vocation to preach, in coloured
chalk, and writing under the picture thus delineated “I am starving.”
Or, perhaps they will perambulate Cathedral closes in torn surplices,
singing psalms, in hopes to get a sixpence tossed to them out of the
dean’s window.
Statesmen object, that if the Church revenues were divided equally
amongst the clergy of all ranks, there would be only £240 a-year for
each parson; so that if there were no “blanks” in the Establishment,
there would be no “ prizes.” But what necessity is there for prizes ?
What harm would be done if the clergy were levelled down to £240
a-year a-piece ? Is it credibie that one soul the less would be saved
in consequence of that pecuniary arrangement ? Rich bishops and
deans are great ornaments to society, but they might be as useful as
St. Paul on £240 per annum, as far as their utility depends upon their
incomes. In the meantime, could not dignitaries, who generally leave
large fortunes behind them, afford to endow a few ragged churches, to
be served by ragged clergymen, provided by Mr. Jervis’s society with,
old clothes? “Startling Facts” is a book which ought to lie on every
prelate’s library table.
THE BLOCKADE OF THE SESSION.
The Obstructives have been having a rare time of it in Parliament.
Not content with having put a stopper on Reform, they have impeded
every useful measure of the Session, and the car of legislation has
been brought quite to a stand-still through the quantity of spokes—or,
more correctly, speeches—they have put into its wheels. The Savings
Banks Bill easily they knocked upon the head; and though the Bank-
ruptcy Bill loudly was called for by the country, the Obstructives inter-
posed, and would not let it pass. Quite early in the Session they stopped
the measure for reforming the London Corporation; and now the same
fate seems to threaten the Bill proposed for strengthening our forces
in India. There is little doubt, iudeed, they would have ended it long
since, had not the Premier somewhat awed them by his dreadful
threat that the House should sit till Christmas rather than not
carry it.
Chief of the Obstructives is the clever Mr. ITorsman, whose powers
of obstruction are really quite remarkable. If there be any truth in
the science of phrenology, we think were Mr. Horsman’s bumps to
he examined, he would be found to have a wrondrous organ of obstruc-
tiveness. “ Mr. Horsman’s speech stops the way,” may be taken as
a summary of all the late debates, when anything important has been
ripe to be discussed. What his constituents may think of him is a
point which “hath no magnitude” (as saith Euclid) in his eyes, and
which apparently he keeps out of sight as much as possible. Certainly
were justice done to Mr. Horsmax, it would be only fair to charge
him with having done more to prevent the course of legislation than
any other Honourable Member of the House: and the damage he has
caused to the interests of the country might be laid before him in the
shape of a small Bill, which should enumerate as items the Bills lost
through his means. Mr. Horsmax might be credited with the speeches
he has made (some of which, in point of eloquence, have been really to his
credit), and per contra might be debited with all the valuable time which
he has taken up in talk, and the many useful measures he has thus
obstructed. The account we think should then be shown to his consti-
tuents, that they may see exactly what it is he owes to them. We
think were voters saddled with the legislative debts which their Mem-
bers owe the country, most probably when next he asked them for a
seat there would be some talk of unhorsing the Horsman.
The Diggings of Suez.
At a late meeting of the Suez Canal Company, on the production of
its accounts 1,000,000 fr. were found to have been spent in the costs
of direction. Of this sum 500,000 fr. had gone for the journeys of
M. Lesseps. To this was added a further sum for furnishing that
gentleman’s rooms at Paris; and, withal 400,000 fr. for the salaries ol
the members of the direction, namely, of M. Lessees and one or twc
associates. If M. Lesseps does not make a caual out of the Suer
excavation, he will have found it a mine.
A Spiritual Calling.
A Mr. Hume professes to have the power of calling spirits from tha
vasty deep, and shallow-minded persons put belief in his profession.
As profession is not always accompanied by practice, it would be well
if they would look a little deeper in the matter, for it may possihi?
turn out that they are being Hume-bugged.
i