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of both these labourers, therefore, supposing them to havebeen constantly employed, were much superior to those ofthe curate. The wages of the master mason, supposing' himto have been without employment one third of the year,would have fully equalled them. By the 12th of QueenAnne , c. 12, it is declared, “ That whereas for want of suffi-cient maintenance and encouragement to curates, the cureshave in several places been meanly supplied, the bishop is,therefore, empowered to appoint by writing under his handand seal a sufficient certain stipend or allowance, not exceed-ing fifty and not less than twenty pounds a year.” Forty-pounds a year is reckoned at present very good pay for acurate, and notwithstanding this act of parliament, there aremany curacies under twenty pounds a year. There are jour-neymen shoemakers in London who earn forty pounds a year,and there is scarce an industrious workman of any kind inthat metropolis, who does not earn more than twenty. Thislast sum indeed does not exceed what is frequently earned bycommon labourers in many country parishes. Whenever thelaw has attempted to regulate the wages of workmen, it hasalways been rather to lower them than to raise them. Butthe law has upon many occasions attempted to raise thewages of curates, and for the dignity of the church, to obligethe rectors of parishes to give them more than the wretchedmaintenance which they themselves might be willing to ac-cept of. And in both eases the law seems to have beenequally ineffectual, and has never either been able to raisethe wages of curates, or tp sink those of labourers to the de-gree that, was intended; because it has never been able tohinder either the one from being willing to accept of lessthan the legal allowance, on account of the indigence of theirsituation and the multitude of their competitors; or the otherfrom receiving more, on account ot the contrary competitionof those who expected to derive either profit or pleasure fromemploying them.

The great benefices and other ecclesiastical dignities sup-port the honour of the church, notwithstanding the meancircumstances of some of its inferior members. The respectpaid to the profession too makes some compensation even tothem for the meanness ot their pecuniary recompense. InKngland, and in all Roman Catholic countries, the lotteryof the church is in reality much more advantageous than isnecessary. The example of the churches of Scotland , of