Patronage and Sale of Livings.

Lay and Private Patronage, which system led to the disruption of the Scottish Church in 1843, continues unchecked, with all its attendant abuses, in the English Establishment. Over 8,000 benefices are private property, bought and sold systematically, and one-fourth of the number are always in the market, as many as 1,497 having been publicly advertised at a time in the Ecclesiastical Gazette.

Legislative sanction has been given to the system. In 1836 an Act of Parliament compelled the sale of all livings held by Municipal Corporations: in 1863 another Act ordered the disposal of a large number of poor livings in the Lord Chancellor's gift, with a view to enhance their value by the addition of the funded purchase-money. In the first case the Liverpool Borough Fund alone received £20,000 for some 18 Advowsons; in the second case £250,000 has been paid over by the purchasers of about 200 livings.