In a work at the British Museum, published in 1717, under the title of "A Summary of all the Religious Houses in England and Wales, with their titles and valuations at the time of their dissolution"-the number of such houses of all classes at that time-in the reign of Henry VIII.-is stated at 1,041; the aggregate annual valuation of them at the same period was £273,106, reckoning only the rent of the manors and produce of the demesnes, and excluding fines, heriots, renewals, dividends, &c. This sum would be represented in 1717, a little less than 200 years afterward, as stated by the same authority, by £3,277,282, as a consequence of the decrease in the value of money. Assuming that the decrease has been in the same proportion for the last century, it would now be represented by about £20,000,000, or $96,000,000.

The proportion of the land of the country, held by the church at that time, and of which the monks were lords, is stated at fourteen parts in twenty. In 1815 the annual assessed value of the real property of England and Wales, as stated in parliamentary records, was £51,874,490. Fourteen twentieths of this sum, being the ancient proportion of the church revenue, would be about £34,500,000, or $166,987,168! a sum three fourths as large as the present annual revenue of the government of Great Britain, from all its sources and for all its purposes! It should be borne in mind that the assessed value of property in England is many times (I know not how many) below its real value. Besides this amazing absorption of the public wealth by the regular orders of the priesthood, there were four orders of mendicant monks, who not only lived on the residue of the property of the country, but abstracted large sums for their pious purposes.

It is stated by the same authority that the Grand Duke of Tuscany-which is a district of Italy 150 miles by 100 -once ascertained and published, that the Church of Rome absorbed seventeen parts in twenty of the revenue of the land within his jurisdiction. These two items may go to show the expense of an established religion to the public two and three centuries ago, as sustained in Roman Catholic countries. It might be more or less in different parts of Europe. If we take the fourteen twentieths as an average, it will be no trifling matter to think of in these days, as a condition of society to which civilized nations have long submitted. Italy, Spain, and Portugal are not much better off even now-except as the latter, since the expulsion of Don Miguel, has taken some thorough-going measures of relief.

In France, under the old regime, in 1789, the annual revenues of the church were 405,000,000 of francs, or £16,200,000, or $77,760,000. Now it is 32,200,000 francs, or £1,288,000, or $6,182,400, and divided among Catholics and Protestants according to their numbers.

It is calculated that one fourth of the soil of Spain is still in possession of the church. According to a very moderate estimate, much probably below the mark, it is said that this ecclesiastical portion yields a rent, or at least would yield a rent, of £5,000,000, or would bring, if sold at 25 years' purchase, £125,000,000. This is independent of the value of the buildings, of the live stock, and of the rent of houses in cities, which belong to the beneficiaries of cathedrals, to the higher clergy, or to monasteries, and which may probably amount to £40,000,000 more. In this estimate we speak only of the real property of the monastic orders, and of the high secular clergy with its appertenances, and make no reference to the tithes of the secular clergy, to the income arising from masses and offerings, or to the other more spiritual sources of their income. These would be more than necessary to support in affluence the clergy of the most extensive and wealthy countries of Europe, exceeding by four or five times the sum allotted to the French church, which extends its spiritual sceptre over more than double the population of Spain. Though by the very oppressions of the church itself-though by the enormous sweep of the domainial and ecclesiastical property, which, according to M. Canga Arguelles, has grasped one third of the lands of the kingdom, the tithes from the remainder have been calculated at the gross amount of £7,500,000.

The sum which the church property of Spain would yield, after providing for the decent maintenance of the clergy, was calculated by the cortes of 1822, when joined to certain royal domains lying useless to the state, to amount to £92,000,000, or $441,600,000.

The present entire annual revenue of the Spanish church is £10,514,000; that of the state, as lately reported by Count de Toreno, is about £5,000,000, and liable to a deficit of £3,000,000 by the plunder practised in the modes of collection, &c. This estimate of the annual revenues of the Spanish church is made, first, from the rents, &c., as ascertained from the cadastral bases of the 22 generalities of Castile and Arragon; and next, from the tithes and casual incomes, as reported by the minister, Martin de Garay, and other economists.

According to the census of 1826, the ecclesiastics of Spain were as follows:-61 archbishops and bishops; 2,363 canons; 1,869 prebends; 16,481 parish priests; 17,411 superior incumbents; 9,411 inferior incumbents; 3,497 postulans; 27 candidates for livings; 11,300 hermits; 61,327 monks; 31,400 nuns; 4,928 curates; 15,015 sacristans; 3,225 servitors of churches; 20,346 lay members, performing divers religious functions; and 7,393 secular ladies;-making a total of 206,002; or 160,043 ecclesiastics properly, and 45,979 incumbents of other descriptions, The ecclesiastics of

France, before the downfall of the Bourbons, were more than 400,000; they are now reduced to 40,000. The present population of Spain is 14,186,000; of France, less than 33,000,000.

The process of converting the national religion of Great Britain from Popery to Protestantism, which was principally a political measure, made it quite convenient for the new and self-appointed head of the church to appropriate to himself and to his dependants large proportions of those immense endowments of a church, which was dissolved by his authority. Of course the Church of England has since been less wealthy; but what she lost in this particular, she gained in dignity and domestic influence. The Church of England from that time became a Dissenter, under the name of Protestantism. She set up for Independence, and by the help of her princes and heads, with some little exceptions, has maintained it, so far as her relation to the pope is concerned. The separation has greatly magnified her importance. Before, she was a distant, provincial department of a church universal and apostolic; her priests were all subservient, and the prince at the head of the British government was an abject. The new system of Independence raised the priesthood at once to a dignity and importance which they had never enjoyed before. If it could be maintained, both the king and the church had every reason to be satisfied: the king, not only because he could then be a king, but because he was greatly enriched by the spoils of the church; and the church, now a Dissenter and Independent, because she could organize a domestic system of hierarchy, more splendid and more magnificent, than any thing she could enjoy as a mere dependant branch of a head, whose glory emanated from the triple crown at Rome. England, the first of nations, rising in respectability and extending her influence, could better satisfy the aspirations of "the Primate of all England," and of his dependant clergy, than could the waning power of the Pope. It was better to sacrifice a moiety of the wealth, and receive in compensation the privileges, dignities, and power of an independent condition-independent so far as respected a foreign spiritual supremacy. None can doubt that the domestic influence and dignities of the Church of England have been greatly enhanced by a separation from the Church of Rome. The religious houses and the whole system of popery had fallen into great disrespect. The change of system was in all respects more agreeable to the parties in England. The clergy might marry; they might have all reasonable indulgences without tax or penance. The archbishops and bishops could be princes, and have been so ever since. Lambeth Palace, for every thing that flesh could desire, is as good as

the Vatican; the Episcopal sees of England and Ireland are better than the rule of the smaller states of Europe, because they have all the wealth that could be wished, under the shadow and protection of a throne, without a throne's responsibility; and the numerous rich livings still left are enough to satisfy a love of ease and independence for scores and hundreds of high and influential candidates.

It is proper, however, here to observe, that Episcopacy, whether it be an Apostolic institution or not-whatever be its merits in the abstract, as an ecclesiastical polity and government has no responsibility in the character, operation, and results of the Church of England, as an establishment set up by the state. It was the monarchy of England that made it in this particular a political institution; and it is the monarchy and aristocracy which have used it as such. It is the misfortune of the Episcopacy of Great Britain, and not its fault, that it has been allied to the state.

The following is a statement showing the mode in which the revenues of the Church of England, supposed to amount to £9,459,565, are distributed among the different orders of clergy. It has been furnished by the Reformers:

Of course the poor curates-who for the most part con

stitute the working clergy, in number 5,282, and supply the places of the aristocratic and other incumbents, who can well afford, and who are disposed to be absent from their livings —are paid the aggregate and annual sum of £424,996, out of the £9,459,565.

The people of England belonging to the established Church have not the power of choosing their own ministers, but with the exception of perhaps 1,000 congregations, they are appointed as follows:

There are 649 other chapels and churches, not parochial, making the total number of livings 11,349. Total number of preferments, including those not appertaining to churches and chapels, is 12,327. These do not include some two or three hundred churches, erected under the church building acts. It may also vary slightly from some other statements that are published, as there are changes occasionally occur. ring. But it cannot differ materially from the present state of things. About 5,000 of the livings of the church of England and Wales are in the gift of the aristocracy, and are of course conferred upon their younger sons and family connexions, whatever may be their character. The aristocracy depend upon the church, the army, and the navy, to provide, first, for their younger sons, and sons-in-law; and next, for collateral connexions, and such as are in favour with them. Church livings are so many pieces of property, not at the disposal of the respective congregations, but to be conferred by those who have the gift of them, on their friends. In this way, two, three, four, or more rich livings are often bestowed on a single individual. For example, the eldest son of the Bishop of Ely has held six preferments at the same time, from his father's hand, worth £4,500, or $21,600 annually. His son-in-law has been presented with three by the bishop, worth £3,700, or $17,760. Another son has held six at the same time by his father's gift-worth £4,000, or $19,200. The total annual income of the family from these sources, including the bishop's, is quoted at £39,742, or $191,721; and this appropriated by a father, his two sons, and a son-in-law. The Beresford family, in all its branches, at the head of which is the Archbishop of Armagh, in Ireland, is said to realize annually from the