possible for them and their families literally to exist. Nor is their poverty, as amongst mendicant and ascetic orders of former times, a circumstance to be avowed and gloried in; but to be concealed as something criminal: something, the acknowledgement of which must lead to a loss of worldly respect, and to an actual degradation of rank; and the attempts at concealment must produce what is worse than degradation of rank, degradation of character. Placed in such difficult situations, curates may be tempted to have recourse to all the petty subterfuges, which arise from servile habits of dependence. This is the extreme line of human misery; in comparison with these evils, the privations and humiliations to which a poor man is exposed, who owns his poverty, are easy to be endured.

"Do you know," said a country curate, “I " am so intimate with my Lord ****'s butler, that "I can say any thing to him?"

This state of degradation is very different from the rector of Houghton's felicity, or from any of the descriptions of Chaucer, Pope, or Goldsmith: therefore poetry must not make us forget realities. How far it may be consistent with the policy of the legislature, and how far it may be for the interests of the church, to meliorate the present condition of curates, and of the lower orders of clergy, it is not the object of this essay to discuss. It was necessary, however, to advert to facts,

which ought to be full in the view of all parents, who have thoughts of educating their sons for the church. Prudence should prevent them from choosing the clerical profession for a son, unless they are fully able not only to defray the very considerable expenses of his education at a university, but to add to his income, perhaps for many years, what may be sufficient to render him at least independent whilst he continues to be a curate. Some exceptions may be made, where extraordinary indications of talents and application, joined to a decided preference for the clerical profession, are seen in a young man of inferior rank or fortune: where this is the case, his parents will do wisely to let him follow his own wishes; for probably he will have fortitude and exertion to endure or overcome all difficulties:

he may raise himself and his family from indigence and obscurity to affluence and honourable stations; and it is within the verge of possibility, though not of probability, that this may be accomplished without the aid of parliamentary connexions.

The share, which parliamentary interest is known to have in disposing of ecclesiastical preferments, is, according to the manner in which it is obtained, either beneficial or injurious to the church, and to national morality. Parliamentary interest, influencing the distribution of clerical honours and emoluments, is beneficial, as it tempts

parents of good families and fortunes to educate younger sons for the church; they give, as it were, a family pledge for the good conduct of their children, who at the same time may, by their manners and rank, raise the whole profession in the esteem and respect of the public. Church benefices may thus be considered as a fund, for the provision of the younger sons of our gentry and nobles; and in this 'point of view, it cannot surely be a matter of complaint to any of the higher and middle classes in the community, that the clergy enjoy a large portion of the riches of the state. If this wealth, if these benefices are bestowed as rewards to merit, it is well employed for the nation, and none have any cause to be dissatisfied; and if we look at the present bench of bishops, and at the highest dignitaries of the church, it must be acknowledged, that, with few exceptions, the public has just reason to approve of the manner in which clerical honours have been dispensed: and though parliamentary influence may have had considerable share in the selection, yet still, where the persons rewarded are of eminent merit, upon the whole, candidates for church preferments have no just cause to be dissatisfied.

But parliamentary interest is not always em. ployed in this manner; it is sometimes exerted to obtain livings for the mean hanger-on of one lord, or the drinking, or the profligate companion

1

of another. Wherever this species of influence is permitted, it is extremely injurious, both to the immediate and the remote interests of the church; injurious, by introducing into it men, whose morals disgrace religion, and whose example lowers its members in the esteem both of the pious and the unbeliever; injurious, by lessening the confidence, which prudent parents and meritorious young clergymen ought to feel, that they shall meet with temporal rewards proportioned to the labour and expense of their education, and their talents, and moral conduct. Those who educate sons to be dependant on such patronage, and to employ any of the mean arts of servility and flattery, by which some have risen in the world, deserve the obloquy and disappointment which they frequently. experience. By dependance is not meant that deference, which the subordination of rank, of wealth, of age, and of merit requires in all professions, and in all society. Where the connexions of any family put it into the power of parents, or even give them reason to hope, that they may be able to provide for their sons, after a due season of probation, according to their merits, it is perfectly reasonable, that this should have its weight in determining them in favour of the clerical profession.

To put a young man of dull understanding, or of unfixed principles, into the church, would be folly or wickedness: but those who are con

vinced, that education can form the habits and principles, and successfully cultivate the understanding, will feel little apprehension, that a youth, judiciously educated, should fail to do honour to that sacred profession, for which he has been early destined.

Before education can be adapted to a given purpose, a clear and precise idea must be formed of the object to be attained. The object of clerical education is to produce men, who shall be worthy members of the established church, as curates, rectors, and prelates. These offices and dignities have appropriate duties; and it may be useful to consider, what are the characters most desirable in each of these situations.

A good curate is not the man who boasts of being the boon companion of the jolly squire, who is seen following him and his hounds at full cry, leaping five-barred gates, the admiration of the hallooing heroes of the chase, or, floundering in the mud, their sport and derision: he is not the man set officially at the foot of his patron's table, "to smack his wine, and rule his roast:' he neither drinks nor swears: he scorns to be the buffoon, and never can become the butt of the company, Indeed, he does not feel it absolutely necessary to be continually in company. Far from thinking, that it is only the wicked, who love to be alone, he is convinced, that it is only the good who can endure solitude. He does

F