CHURCH DESTITUTION AT BIRMINGHAM. SIR,—As I know that you are anxious to obtain the most accurate information possible, I send you a copy of a letter I addressed to the Editor of the leading Birmingham newspaper last week, and as it contains more accurate information than that given in your tables, as far as relates to that town, perhaps you may wish to communicate its contents to the public:-* By this you will see that we agree in population, as it stood in 1831; but that the church accommodation is much under-rated. It should stand thus :Population of Birmingham, Aston (not Ashton), and Edgbaston, 146,986. Number of Sittings in Churches, 24,432. Unfortunately this gives much too favourable a view of the state of those parishes as they are at present. From 1821 to 1831 their population increased 38 per cent., and I am sure, from my own observation, they must have increased at least in the same ratio since. This will oblige us to add 19 per cent.; and, leaving out the distant parts of the parish of Aston, (some parts of The Editor begs to offer his best thanks to Mr. Bedford, for this letter. which are nine miles from Birmingham,) and taking only the population of Birmingham and its suburbs, the statistical account will stand thus: Persons for whom there is no accommodation...101,292 How long the government of this country will allow such a state of things to continue, I do not know; but I am sure that it is their bounden duty, before God and man, to endeavour to remedy it. The plan I would propose is this :—Wherever, in a populous district, the inhabitants are willing to raise one-third of the cost of a church, let government provide the remaining twothirds, on condition that one-third of the sittings shall be let as a provision for the minister, and the other two-thirds either entirely free or let at a very small sum, (which is perhaps the better system,) to be applied to the repairs of the fabric. If this plan were adopted, I have no doubt that the population of Birmingham would soon be much better supplied with church accommodation than it is at present. Yours, obediently, W. RILAND BEDFORD. Sutton Coldfield Rectory House, Jan. 4th, 1836. STATISTICS OF THE ROMAN SCHISM IN ENGLAND. SIR, The increase of Roman chapels in England during the last year, according to the tables furnished by the " Laity's Directory," amounts to 13. I subjoin the names of the places and the counties in which they occur: There is only one station which has appeared before, which does not appear in the Directory for 1836. This is Bungay, Suffolk. The following list may perhaps be interesting to some of your readers. It contains the strength of the Roman schismatics in England, arranged according to the counties: Beds, 1; Berks, 6; Bucks, 1; Cambridgeshire, 1; Cheshire, 8; Cornwall, 2; Cumberland, 6; Derbyshire, 7; Devonshire, 8; Durham, 15; Essex, 5; Gloucester, 7; Hants, 12; Hereford, 4; Herts, 1; Kent, 6; Lancaster, 86; Leicester, 9; Lincoln, 11; Monmouth, 7; Norfolk, 8; Notts, 3; Northampton, 5; Northumberland, 18; Oxon, 7; Salop, 8; Somerset, 10; Stafford, 27; Suffolk, 4; Surrey, 2; Sussex, 7; Warwick, 15; Westmoreland, 2; Wilts, 3; Worcester, 11; York, 56; Wales, 6; Channel Islands, 2; Isle of Man, 1. Besides these, there are in London and its suburbs, 25; but of these, 6 belong to the foreign embassies. Total 423; which are served by 6 bishops, and 472 clergy. They have also 8 colleges, and 17 nunneries. SPECTATOR. SUBSCRIBERS TO THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. THE following is a comparative statement of the numbers of the clergy, the laity, and the females, (most of whom are relations of the clergy,) who are on the list of subscribers to our venerable Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge for the years 1834 and 1835: INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE ENLARGEMENT, Among other business transacted, grants, varying in amount, according to the exigency of the case, were voted towards enlarging, by rebuilding, the chapel at Selside, in the parish of Kendal, Westmorland; building a church at Street, in the parish of Blackawton, county of Devon; building a church at Witton, in the parish of Blackburn, county of Lancaster; restoring the church at Tufton, in the county of Southampton (damaged by fire); building chapels at Bell's Close and Dissington, in the parish of Newburn, county of Northumberland; increasing the accommodation in the church at Louth, county of Lincoln; re-pewing the church at Hope, in Dinmore, in the county of Hereford; enlarging, by rebuilding, the church at Putney, in the county of Surrey; building a church at East Donyland, in the county of Essex; extending the gallery lately erected in the church at Bassingbourne, in the county of Cambridge. TITHES. THE following circular has been just issued from the Home Office, with a view, it is said, of obtaining information for a measure to be brought forward in the approaching session : "The favour of an answer is requested to the following queries; which answer you will please to fill in, in the columns on the other side, according as the tithe is taken in kind, or compounded for on view of the crop just before harvest; or compounded for by a money-payment per acre; stating whether let on lease, and for what term, or only compounded for from year to year. And if any part is subject to a modus, or composition real, or prescriptive payment, you will be pleased to state the quantity and culture of land so subject, and the amount per acre, under the proper column. "1. Quære. The county in which the parish or estate is situate to which these queries apply. "2. State the name of parish, and name and distance of market-town usually frequented for sale of produce. "3. State how many acres does the said parish or estate contain, distinguishing the numbers of acres of arable, meadow, pasture or sheep-walk, and wood land. "4. Is the parish or estate the property of a lay or ecclesiastical impropriator? "5. State, under the appropriate head on the other side, whether the tithe is taken in kind, or compounded for on view of each crop every year, or compounded for by an annual average money-payment, or by a corn rent; and state, in either of the two last cases, whether on lease, or the payment varied from year to year. 6. In the first case, state the amount of average market value of the tithes so taken in kind during the last seven years, without any deduction what soever. "7. State the scale of prices at which the above value is calculated. "8. State whether the whole parish or estate is subject to rectorial and vicarial tithes; and if to vicarial tithes, state the amount in value of each description separately, and (if any) the quantity and culture of land subject to any modus, composition real, or prescriptive payment, and the amount of any such payment per acre. "9. If the tithe is taken in kind, state the expenses of collecting, threshing, and carrying the same to market. "10. State the amount of all rates and taxes to which such tithe is subject; and the two sums referred to in Nos. 9 and 10, when subtracted to the marketable value of the tithe, will give the net value of the tithe. "11. If compounded for on view of each crop, state the average annual value of the whole of the produce during the last seven years, without any deduction whatsoever; and also the prices on which each value was calculated; the amount of such composition for such description of land, and whether same has been made subject to rates; and if so, state the amount of such rates, which, deducted from the composition, will give the net value of the tithe. If you cannot answer such question in detail, give the whole composition. "12. If under composition by a money-payment, or on a corn rent for several years, or from year to year, state the amount of such composition, when such composition was made, and for what term. "13. What was the scale of prices on which such composition was calculated? "14. Is such composition received clear of all rates, or subject to them? and, if the latter, state the amount of such rates, and the net value of such composition received by the tithe-owner." Prussia.-During the last fifteen years the number of births in the Prussian dominions, exclusively of Neufchatel, has amounted to 7,583,017; among these there were 257,068 still-born children,—namely, 147,705 boys, and 109,363 girls. In the same interval there were 5,457,209 deaths, including the still-born children; and 26,576 of the entire number had attained to upwards of ninety years of age. Between the years 1826 and 1834, 430 individuals died of hydrophobia; and, during the last six years, 38,733 of various · casualties. In 1831 the cholera carried off 32,647 persons. During the last fifteen years 16,680 persons committed suicide, amongst whom were 2981 females; 44,699 fell victims to the small-pox; and 70,215 females died in the pains of child-bearing. Number of Emigrants from the United Kingdom during 1832, 1833, and 1834:— Wheat.-Annual average prices of wheat from 1815 to 1834: Number of Unions formed, with the Agency of each Assistant Commissioner, the Number of the Parishes united, and the Average Amount of Poor's Rates: Up to August 8, 1835, there had been 111 unions formed, including 2311 parishes, 1,385,124 people, and 1,221,543l. rates. Since the above statement was drawn up, there have been 103 additional unions formed, making 214 in all, up to the present time, (Dec. 1835.) Mr. Tufnell has succeeded Sir F. Head in Kent, and Sir John Walsam is appointed to Dorsetshire. If any other appointments have been made, perhaps any person who has observed them will have the kindness to send them. VOL. IX.-Feb. 1836. 2 E |