Page:The Parochial System (Wilberforce, 1838).djvu/46

 still required, would rather be ready to wonder and regret that so few are annually undertaken. Now he measures the work done; then he could not withdraw his eye from that which remains.

But besides adequate churches, the parochial system requires the residence of the clergy. In the country districts this can of course be secured only by providing a house as near as may be to each church; but in our great towns it seems possible to adopt a plan at once less costly and more efficient. That every parish should have its appointed pastor is indeed essential, but not that in every instance he should reside within its bounds. In many parts of our great towns, where immortal beings are crowded with unexampled density, the proposed parishes will be of very small extent. The existing evil is in their population, not their size; and were 30,000 souls assigned to ten separate cures instead of one, the present house of residence would very often be not inconveniently situated with regard to each of them. In these situations, meanwhile, every inch of land is sought with so eager a competition, that the rental or erection of a house in each parish would be peculiarly onerous. Many advantages, then might be united, if something of a collegiate establishment were provided for the clerical body, open to as many of them as chose to avail themselves of it, and leaving to all others the liberty of a separate residence. That such a plan would be highly economical is