aware that some break down even in mid-life, while others, and many of them by no means "superfluous veterans," can do good service to a later period in life. Due provision is made for both alternatives. If permanent disablement should happen to a subscriber at 50, he would receive the lesser annuity belonging to that age, together with a proportionate pension; if, on the other hand, he should retain his benefice until 70, and then retire, he would receive the larger annuity belonging to that age, together with the pension due at 65.

I do not propose to enter into the minuter provisions which our scheme comprehends. The fullest information is contained in the prospectus that has cost much time and labour to prepare, and which has received on all sides encouraging marks of approval. We offer the best terms to those who, by joining the institution at once, really help to launch it, and, as the invitation to membership will be issued to the clergy individually, none will be left in ignorance of its objects and its advantages. I could give you the names of many of our bishops who have carefully examined the scheme, and deliberately expressed their approval of it; I could tell you also of not a few of the laity whose liberal co-operation is ready to be given at once. But these are matters which are best left for another occasion. The Clergy Pensions Institution ought to need no such notes of commendation. It has a claim, I venture to say, to the support of every member of the Church. It claims the support of the heads of the Church, because none know better than they the sufferings of conscientious clergy, when disabled by age and infirmity; their limited opportunities of saving, and the injury done by an inefficient ministry. It claims the support of the beneficed clergy, because it places within their power the means for relinquishing posts of labour, which they feel themselves no longer competent to fill. It claims, even more, the support of the unbeneficed, because it will help to accelerate promotion, or, if promotion never comes, to make their lot less anxious and harassing. It claims, lastly, the support of the laity, because their best interests are inextricably bound up with the interests of the clergy, and because whatever tends to promote the efficiency of the Church as a body must react favourably upon all its members. It claims their support as a measure of justice, no less than as an expression of sympathy and good-will.

What then is wanted in a great movement such as this ought to be, is united action upon the part of clergy and laity. If that be given, its success is assured. If that be withheld, the only alternative that remains is a new tax or a new charity. I do not know which should be regarded with the greater disfavour.

[The office of the Clergy Pensions' Institution is at Arundel House, Thames Embankment, W.C.]

ADDRESSES.

The Rev. the Hon. AUGUSTUS LEGGE, Vicar of St. Mary, Lewisham, Hon. Canon of Rochester.

It is difficult to make an interesting speech with such uninteresting and uncertain things as facts and figures to deal with. But I shall endeavour to bring before the Congress an aspect of the question which has not yet been touched upon by Canon

Blackley or Mr. Robinson. They have amply demonstrated the urgent necessity of some scheme for providing pensions for aged and infirm clergymen of the Church of England. At the risk of repeating some of their arguments, let me at the outset emphasise some of their statements in connection with this point. The Church of

The

England has not the funds at her disposal for making the necessary provision. Ecclesiastical Commissioners have no monies which they could legally apply to the purpose of pensions; neither have the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty. Existing endowments are inadequate. It has already been stated that the gross average income of beneficed clergy is under £250 per annum. There are 1,000 livings under £100, and 3,000 under £200 per annum. There are 24,000 clergy anxious to occupy 14,000 livings; promotion, therefore, must be slow. The already inadequate incomes of the beneficed clergy are further reduced by the payment of the largest portion of the stipends of 7,000 assistant-curates; by the diminution in the value of tithe-rentcharge; by the decrease in the rental of glebe farms, often by the impossibility of letting them at all in these days of agricultural depression; and by the decrease of income arising from seat-rents or offertory in district parishes in populous places, in these days of commercial depression-a decrease which is soonest observed where the incumbent's powers of work, both inside and outside the Church, are diminishing through advancing years. It is generally true, both of incumbents and assistantcurates, that their incomes decrease with increased length of service. It is to remedy this evil that the proposal which you have heard is made to establish a "Clergy Pensions Institution." With the principles of the scheme that has been laid before you, and which will be explained in detail by Mr. Duncan, I fully agree. And I see in the scheme the elements of success; for I believe it makes it possible to accomplish the object which we have in view. A scheme to be successful must propose to obtain a benefit for the Church generally ;-for the laity by facilitating the removal of infirm incumbents, and the substitution of active and more vigorous men in their place ;-for the clergy, by holding out to the aged amongst them the hope of a certain pension, and to the younger the prospect of a more rapid flow of promotion. And to attain this object it is necessary that the pensions should be adequate, i.e., of sufficient amount to render retirement possible; that they should be accepted not as charity, but as the reward of service in the Church, and therefore that they should be claimable by every clergyman irrespectively of his private or previous professional income. But we can hardly expect the Clergy Pensions Institution to secure at once so large an amount of support as to provide within the next few years that pension of £200 a year which Canon Blackley holds out as the desideratum. And the point which I wish specially to take up is this. How can an adequate pension be secured at the earliest possible date, for the poorest of the clergy?

The answer, I believe, is this-By the application of a proportion of the income derived from the invested funds of the existing Clerical Charities, both Diocesan and General, to assisting clergymen of limited means to purchase deferred annuities. Such an application of funds would be an advantage to poor clergymen, liberating them from the necessity of repeated applications for relief "in formâ pauperis," and enabling them to preserve that sense of independence which always accompanies selfhelp; for the assistance would only be given to such as are willing to do something for themselves and an advantage, too, to the administrators of the charities, who would be enabled gradually to reduce their doles, to feel that every shilling granted in the way of aid to insurance was well granted, and to observe a steady diminution in clerical pauperism. Let me add that the plan is equally applicable to the purchase of Life Insurance policies for the benefit of widows and orphans a secondary object which we all, no doubt, have at heart. The plan of Aided Insurance is no novel one.

So long ago as 1810 Bishop Barrington founded the "Durham Clerical Insurance Fund," which pays the expense of a policy, the first year's premium, and half the premium in subsequent years to assure £500 for married clergymen (or widowers with children) with incomes under £300. In Ireland, in the Dioceses of Armagh and Connor, pensions are secured to the widows of clergymen who subscribe the necessary premium, which in the Diocese of Connor is compulsory. Under a scheme which is due to the indefatigable labours of the Rev. T. Warren Trevor, and which is to be commended as a model for the purpose, the poorer clergy of the Diocese of Bangor are aided in insuring from the funds of the "Bangor Charity for the relief of widows and orphans, and disabled and necessitous clergy; while within the last few weeks the Bishop of Worcester has founded, with a munificent donation of £2,000, a "Worcester Clergy Pension and Life Insurance Fund" (thus covering both objects), on the sole condition that the fund should not contribute more than half the premium payable for the sum insured. To understand the method of co-operation between existing Clerical Charities and the Clergy Pensions Institution, let me point out the three different sources from which the pension would eventually be derived, viz.: Ist. The deferred annuity, for which the clergyman himself has paid the premium, in the ordinary way of insurance, and of which he derives the benefit on reaching the age of 65. 2nd. The pension or augmentation granted by the Institution, and which will be of such an amount as its funds will permit. This to be granted in the case of the beneficed clergy only on retirement, and only for augmenting so much of the annuity as is secured by the minimum premium accepted by the Institution. It would be granted, however, in every case, independently of the clergyman's means, because it would be claimable as the reward of service, and would not be a charitable donation. 3rd. The additional annuities, which in the case of clergymen of limited means, would be secured for them by the payment of the premiums by the Diocesan and General Clergy Charities (and which, of course, well-to-do clergy could purchase for themselves), so as to ensure a sufficient income to enable the clergyman to retire. The mode of procedure in the case of a clergyman of limited means would be as follows. The managers of the Diocesan Charity would receive applications for aid, would investigate, and if satisfied, recommend. The funds of the General Clergy Charities would supplement the grant of the Diocesan Charity. The Clergy Pensions Institution would receive the payments and manage the business of insurance. Thus the Clergy Pensions Institution accepts a minimum premium of £2 2s. from a clergyman aged 26, entitling him to a deferred annuity of £25 at the age of 65. This annuity (on his retirement if beneficed) the Institution will augment with a pension say of £25 (it is hoped that it will be soon be much more than this, but I take this amount by way of illustration only). But an income of £50 is insufficient to enable the insurer to retire. If, however, the Diocesan Clergy Charity has purchased for him a second annuity of £25, and the General Clergy Charities have purchased a third, his income on retirement will be £100 instead of £50 per annum. If only I have succeeded in impressing on this Congress not only the urgent need of providing pensions for our clergy, but also the practicability of the scheme put forth for the purpose by the Clergy Pensions Institution; and if I have succeeded in impressing on the administrators of Clergy Charities, Diocesan and General, the advantage of directing the flow of some portion of their income into the channel of aided insurance, I shall be thankful to have been allowed to speak on this subject this afternoon, and to have done something towards improving the position of the clergy of our dear old Church.

J. DUNCAN, Esq., F.I.A., London.

My part in the procedings of to-day is to give an explanation of the scheme which the Clergy Pensions Institution is intended to carry into practical operation. It is desirable that it should be understood at the outset that this scheme is not a thing of sudden growth, nor of independent growth, but has been elaborated during many months out of materials which have been accumulating for a considerable time. During several years past a variety of suggestions have been made, in a great many different quarters, with a view to providing some system of superannuation for the clergy. At the conference on the subject, which was held at Westminster last January, no fewer than eleven schemes were advocated and discussed, and since that time the committee have had a considerable amount of correspondence with persons interested in the subject all over the country. Every proposition has been carefully considered with a view to meeting every legitimate wish so far as practicable, and the outcome of all this is the scheme which I have now to explain. I mention this at once, so that it may not be supposed that this scheme is merely a crude hint or suggestion, brought forward by one person or a small body of persons and presented to the Congress for discussion as such. It is respectfully presented as a finished product, and as focussing the best ideas of men who have studied the subject.

Its leading characteristics as compared with the other schemes which have been proposed do not consist in the originality of its details,—because these have been borrowed from all available sources, but in its comprehensiveness and in its systematic arrangement. As regards comprehensiveness, it either already includes or is capable of including, every feature that has been mooted in connection with the subject, it can dispense every kind of benefit, including provision for widows and orphans, and allowance during sickness, it admits of income from all sources, voluntary and compulsory, and embraces the elderly clergy of the present time as well as of future years: while, as regards its systematic arrangement, it makes the numerous details fall into proper rank and sequence so as to show readily the relation in which they stand to each other, and to dispel all confusion of ideas, which is one of the greatest hindrances to successful action.

The Scheme is divided into four Sections, A, B, C, and D. Section A, or selfsupporting fund, under which definite benefits will be bought by definite payments on business terms. Section B, or augmentation fund, derived from extraneous contributions, to increase in certain cases the definite benefits purchased under Section A. Section C is a tontine fund, the whole proceeds of which will be divided exclusively among the unbeneficed survivors of those who subscribe to it. Section D is a benevolent fund for furnishing gratuitously to clergy who are already over 65 years of age benefits of the same nature as can be bought in Section A by those who are under that age.

The two most important Sections are A and B. At the outset the benefits which will be purchaseable under A will be deferred annuities to clergymen. Whatever other definite benefits are added, such as provision for widows and orphans, or sickness allowance, they will all come under Section A so far as payments for them on business terms are concerned, and the augmentations of all of them by contributions from extraneous sources will come under Section B. These extraneous sources will be chiefly donations, legacies, and offertory collections, and wealthy persons will be invited to become founders of endowments and benefactors, for the purpose of providing pensions just in the same way as their ancestors endowed livings. Founders

of endowments will be those who contribute in one or more payments sums of £1,000 or upwards, and benefactors those who give sums between £100 and £500.

The deferred annuity bought under Section A will belong to the beneficiary as a matter of right and in any circumstances, without reference to his being unbeneficed or engaged in parochial work. The augmentation under B, however, will be granted only to those members who may be or become unbeneficed after a continued period of service as parochial clergy. It is to be understood that the fundamental principle of the scheme being Self-help, no clergyman will derive any benefit under Section B who has not purchased a benefit under Section A.

A deferred annuity, then, of any amount may be bought under Section A, and the rates charged will be those shown by the recently published Government tables. There will thus be perfect freedom under Section A ; but when we come to deal with augmentation under B, we perceive that it will be necessary to adopt some plan by which those who are able to purchase the largest annuities under A will not carry off the largest augmentations under B.

If we were to do as Insurance Offices do when they give five times as much bonus to a man who is insured for £5,000 as to one who is insured for £1,000, we should award augmentation most liberally to the rich, necessarily and inevitably to the disad vantage of the poor.

To meet this, it has been suggested that the clergy should be divided into groups, and that augmentations should be granted by a scale according to which those clergy who have had the poorest livings would get say a fourfold augmention, the next group a threefold augmentation, and so on. But the difficulty of deciding what in effect the values of livings are, and the inquisitorial nature of the researches which this plan would involve, render it undesirable as a basis for operations on a large scale.

To meet the object in view, the following course has been decided upon. Apart from what any members may choose to do individually, every member will need to enter on a common basis, and pay a certain normal sum yearly under Section A. Then, while each will still be at liberty to purchase more under Section A, it is only the benefit purchased by that normal sum that will receive augmentation under Section B. The normal sum has been fixed at a moderate rate for all clergymen who elect to enter at once as "original members" without entrance fee, but all who delay will have to pay more. The rate is two guineas yearly for all entering under 40 years of age, three guineas for those between 40 and 45, and so on, increasing one guinea for each five years of age, and being seven guineas for all between 60 and 65 years of age. Now, although those payments are greater for the older ages, the cost of deferred annuities is still greater, so that the older the age at entry the smaller will be the deferred annuity which those payments will purchase under Section A. But the augmentation under Section B will be so allotted as to rectify this inequality, and to yield uniform pensions at the age of 65 to all members alike who at that age may be or become unbeneficed after a continued period of service as parochial clergy. This plan of uniform payments under Section A for all original members of the same age at entry, together with augmentations under Section B so graduated for the different ages at entry that the sums drawn under A and B combined will constitute uniform pensions, is what will be called for brevity the common basis.

After the list of " Original Members " has been closed, future ordinees, aged 26, will be admitted on the common basis at an annual subscription of £2 28.; but it would not be equitable to permit existing clergymen to delay joining the Institution, and to accept them at any time at which it may please them to join, granting them full benefits in return for two or more guineas a year, as above explained, from the date of entry. Such a course would be inequitable as enabling them to escape