, and clergy! What proportion this sum
bears to the present annual income of the Church property confiscated
under the first Republic it would be interesting to ascertain. A
Protestant friend of mine in the south of France, who has made some
investigations into this subject, tells me that it cannot possibly
represent above _ten per cent_. of the present actual product of the
former property of the Church. Of the whole sum, 228,000 francs were
spent on the civil servants of the ministry. There are seven sub-chiefs
of bureaux in this ministry, all of them now doubtless good atheists,
who receive salaries of from 3,400 to 5,400 francs a year. The highest
salary paid to a Protestant pastor even in Paris is 3,000 francs, or
120_l._ a year. The cure of Notre-Dame de Paris receives 2,400 francs,
or less than 100_l._ a year. There are 580 cures of the first class who
receive from 1,500 to 1,600 francs a year; 275 cures of the second class
receiving 1,500 francs a year, and 2,527 cures of the third class
receiving from 1,200 to 1,300 francs a year. The thirty-one clerks in
the Ministry receive from 1,800 to 4,500 francs a year. The
Vicar-General of Paris receives no more than 4,500 francs a year. The
Archbishop of Paris receives, like all the other archbishops, 15,000
francs, or 600_l._, a year, which is the salary paid to the Director of
the Ministry! The Grand Rabbi of the Central Consistory receives 12,000
and the Grand Rabbi of Paris 5,000 francs a year, and the salaries paid
to the Israelitish ministers of religion range from 2,500 down to 600
francs, the latter amount being less by 300 francs than the wages of the
servants in the Ministry. The Muftis and Imams in office receive from
300 to 1,200 francs a year. All these salaries, with the outlay on the
construction, rent, or maintenance of buildings of all kinds used for
religious purposes, pensions, and travelling expenses, are comprised in
the total appropriation of 45,337,145 francs, or a little more than
1,800,000_l._ for the year 1889. During the same year 12,760,745 francs
were appropriated for the Fine Arts service. I do not say that the sum
thus devoted to the Fine Arts out of the pockets of the taxpayers of
France was at all too large. But I do say that it is out of all
proportion large as compared with the sum voted out of the pockets of
the taxpayers to the maintenance of religious institutions, which an
overwhelming majority of the people of France regard, and ri