on I June, 1779, being in number 247, and also of all those who subsequently became incumbents of the same livings in regular rotation from 1 January, 1779, to 1 January, 1849, being in number 809—making a total of 1056. Obs. has been made by me upon these during a term beginning in the case of the 247 incumbents on 1st Jan., 1779, and in the cases of the 809, at the several dates of their appointments to their livings, and ending with regard to 587 who died previously to 1st Jan., 1859, at the dates of their respective deaths; and with regard to the remaining 469, at the dates of their livings becoming vacant otherwise than by death in the cases of those who vacated them previously to 1st Jan., 1859, and on 1st Jan., 1859, in the cases of those who remained incumbents at that date. 2. Incumbents of 522 livings in the Diocese of Lincoln, before its recent dismemberment, all of whom were ordained by Bishops of Lincoln. My obs. has been made upon these during a term commencing with the several dates of their appointments to their livings between the years 1750 and 1842, and ending with regard to 325 who died previously to 1st Jan., 1857, at the dates of their respective deaths; and with regard to the remaining 197, at the date of their livings becoming vacant otherwise than by death in the cases of those who vacated them previously to ist Jan., 1857; and on 1st Jan., 1857, in the cases of those who remained incumbents at that date. 3. Contains 772 incumbents of livings in various parts of E. and W., all of whom were Graduates of Oxford, and of whom dispensations to hold two livings were granted by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the years 1760, 1761, 1762, 1763, 1764 and 1776, and in every subsequent year up to 1836: My obs. has been made upon these during a term commencing with the several dates of their respective dispensations, and ending with regard to 690 who died previously to 1st Jan., 1860, at the dates of their respective deaths; and on 1st Jan., 1860, with regard to the remaining 82 who then remained incumbents, except in the cases of a very few of them who vacated their livings before 1st Jan., 1860, and upon such occasion took no other preferment. 4. Contains 640 incumbents of livings, all of them being Oxford Graduates, and is composed of three smaller groups, viz. (A) 144 incumbents of various livings in the County of Northampton, some of them having been such incumbents on 1 January, 1760, and others having been appointed to their livings at various times subsequently. (B) 430 incumbents of various livings in the Diocese of Lincoln, some of them having been such incumbents on 1 January, 1760, and others having been appointed to other livings at various times subsequently. (C) 66 incumbents appointed to livings in the Diocese of Lincoln during the episcopate of Bishop Lowth: My obs. has been made upon these 640 incumbents during a term commencing in the case of some on the 1st Jan., 1760, and in the cases of the remainder with the dates of their respective appointments, and ending with regard to 447 who died previous to 1st Jan., 1857, at the dates of their respective deaths; and with regard to the remaining 193, ending at the dates of their livings becoming vacant otherwise than by death, in the cases of those who vacated them previous to 1st Jan., 1857; and ending on 1st Jan., 1857, in the case of those who remained incumbents. 5. Containing 213 incumbents of livings, all of whom were Graduates of Oxford, or had been ordained by Bishops of Lincoln: My obs. has been made upon these during a term commencing with regard to some of them on 1st Jan., 1829; and with regard to the remainder on 1st Jan., 1836; and ending with regard to 149 who died previous to 1st Jan., 1861, at the dates of their respective deaths; and with regard to the remaining 64, at the dates of their livings becoming vacant otherwise than by death in the cases of their having vacated them previously to ist Jan., 1861; and on 1st Jan., 1861, in the cases of those who remained incumbents at that date. 6. All those Scholars of Westminster School, being in number 437, who in Phillimore's Hist. of the Scholars of such School are noticed as being incumbents of stated livingstheir names and ages at admission into college being specified therein, and the dates of their appointments: such appointments beginning to be made in the early part of the 18th century, and continuing up to the middle of the present : My obs. has been made upon these from the dates of their respective appointments, during a term commencing with the dates of such appointments, and ending with regard to 320 who died previously to 1st Jan., 1859, at the dates of their respective deaths; and with regard to 117, at the dates of their livings becoming vacant otherwise than by death, in the case of those who vacated them previously to 1st Jan., 1859; and on 1st Jan., 1859, in the case of those who remained incumbents. 7. Contains 123 Heads of Houses in the University of Oxford, viz. those who were such on 1st Jan., 1760, and those who severally succeeded to them from time to time until the year 1854. Two or three of these Heads of Houses were laymen. Judge Blackstone was one of these, and died early. My obs. has been made upon those who were Heads on 1st Jan., 1760, during a term commencing with that date, and upon all others during a term commencing with the dates of their respective appointments, and ending with regard to 109 who died previous to 1st Jan., 1863, at the dates of their respective deaths; and with regard to the remaining 24, on 1st Jan., 1863, at which date they continued to hold their offices. 8. Contains 1325 incumbents of livings, who, upon invitation made by me to the clergy in general, in the public journals and by letter, forwarded to me their names, dates of birth, and the names of their livings. My obs. has been made upon 1014 of these during a term commencing with the dates at which the information was given, either in the year 1838 or 1839 or 1840, and upon the remaining 311 during a term commencing with May, 1851, and ending, with regard to 495 who died previous to 1st Jan., 1861, at the dates of their respective deaths; and with regard to the remaining 830, at the dates of their livings becoming vacant otherwise than by death in the cases of those who vacated them previous to 1st Jan., 1861, and on 1st Jan., 1861, in the cases of those who remained incumbents at that date. We have given these minute details, because the great care indicated therein gives confidence to those who understand the subject; or as the author says:-"As the value of the results of so important an investigation as the present depends entirely upon the accuracy of the information obtained by me whilst following it up, I now proceed to estab. my claim to full confidence in this respect." The information he obtained exists in diocesan regis. and other ecclesiastical offices; and to these he appears to have had ready access. He tells us, "Having had access to the Ordination papers of nearly 2000 clergymen, I made copies of the baptismal regis. found in them." Further information as to the dates of deaths and resignations "was supplied by obituaries in magazines and newspapers, and by communications from friends, as well as by means of the copies of diocesan returns in the Queen Anne's Bounty Office," of which his brother was Sec. In many other ways he vouches for the care he has exercised in the progress of his work. The most scrupulous care has been taken that no incumbent shall be brought under obs. in more than one group at the same time. If the same incumbent be found in two or more groups, it is to be taken for granted that he was withdrawn from obs. in any one group before he was introduced for obs. into any other. Out of 5088 incumbents under obs., it may be considered that 5000 were distinct individuals. Finally : I cannot too emphatically declare that throughout the whole of my investigation I have been well aware how necessary it was to avoid forming specious conjectures or eluding difficulties, or in any way putting what might be thought a better appearance upon the inquiry, and I have most carefully abstained from anything of the kind. No labour has been spared to trace out a life, a death, or an age; and, except in a very few cases, with success. Dr. Hodgson, reviewing the results of his labours, finds "that which for various reasons was to be expected has been realized. The average duration of life amongst clergymen is now proved, by decisive evidence, to be longer than amongst large bodies of persons taken indiscriminately." He volunteers a suggestion not to be disregarded: It is my opinion that the lives observed upon, though of course gathered together without any knowledge of the health or constitution of the parties at the time of their first being brought under observation, are not to be viewed altogether in the light of" unselected." The two facts of their having incumbencies bestowed upon them by patrons, and of their accepting them when offered, warrants the inference that at such time health prevailed amongst them rather than otherwise. At the same time I am bound to say that in former days it was not a very unusual proceeding, for the sake of the sale of an advowson or next presentation, to present an ailing man to a living with a view to the occurrence of a not very remote vacancy. My opinion as above given is strengthened by a somewhat earlier mort. being found, I think, amongst those incumbents and others who are brought under obs. at a particular date during their incumbency, and not at the date of their appointments. These, however, are comparatively few in number. The following T. embodies all the more important results of Mr. Hodgson's investigations; and also shows in quinquennial divisions the rate of mort. p.c., according to obs. made during the years of age comprehended within such divisions; and also, for the sake of comparison, the rate of mort. p. c. as deduced from the Experience of the Clergy Mut. Assu. So.; the Equitable Assu. So.; and that of the 17 Life Assurance offices [Experience T. No. 1], as well as that set forth in the Carlisle T. of Mort. From the preceding data, Mr. Samuel Brown has constructed a T. of the mort. experienced by clergymen, which we shall give under CLERGY, MORT. T. FOR. In the U.S. some attention has been drawn to the longevity of the clergy. According to statistics compiled in Massachusetts by order of the Legislature, about 1857, it was found that the mean age attained by clergymen was about 56.72 years. Another tabular statement compiled from statistics of that State, and of New York and Rhode Island, gave the average longevity of clergymen from 389 deaths at 55.36. The 22nd Regis. Report of Massachusetts gave the average at death of 472 clergymen as 59′25 years. In the Ins. Monitor (U. S.) for August, 1872, its ed., Mr. Hine, presents some obs. on the duration of life among the clergy in the U. S., possessing great interest. We shall furnish a condensed outline of the leading features. The writer says: No class of insured have enlisted so much interest regarding the duration of life among them as the clergy. That the clergyman enjoys a longer lease of life than those engaged in any other calling, except the agriculturist, has been shown by the high average age they both attain in this country and elsewhere. But beyond the it perfect comparison thus instituted between the members of the different professions, we do not know that any effort has been made to note the special mort. among those engaged in the sacred calling. The ministry furnishes a large per-centage of the applicants for ins.. We are then informed of the sources from which the present information has been obtained : Andover and Princeton contain the two oldest and most prominent theological seminaries in the U.S. The former was opened for instruction in 1808, and the latter in 1812. Andover is Congregational, and Princeton is Presbyterian; so that the great majority of those observed upon belong to those two large branches of the Reformed Church, and their homes have been scattered through every section of the Union. Down to 1870 Princeton had educated no less than 2895 students; and Andover 2474. In both inst. careful records have been kept of the subsequent movements of their alumni-embracing all the changes they have assumed, with the dates and occupations of such as either temporarily or permanently retired from their profession. The career of each man is thus traced down to the present time, or to his death. The date of each death is recorded, and in the records of Andover the age of the party at the time of his death. These statistics are very complete. Less than 30 of all the students at Andover have been lost sight of since they left the inst. We have thus secured the three data necessary for obtaining the statistics of mort.—the number who entered or graduated from the seminaries in each year, and the dates and ages of such of them as have died. Proper deductions have been made for the few whose subsequent career has not been traced. The average age of those graduating at Andover has been 27 18 years, of whom all but about 8 p. c. were between 22 and 32; 25 p. c. were between 23 and 25; 34 p. c. between 26 and 28; and 29 p. c. between 29 and 31. The average age at Princeton has been 27 17, and the distribution is similar. The results of the mort. at each age after matriculation are given in detail. We must be content with the following summary, placed in comparison with the mort. shown by the American Experience T. 1868 (Homans): The value of these statistics is much enhanced through their being drawn from two independent sources; and their comparison will show at once that the law observed by these per-centages is not due to accidental fluctuations arising from a limited number of obs. The comparison of these figures with those of the American Experience, which above 30 is more favourable than any other standard in use among us, shows that the same law of mort. has ruled among the members of both inst. that this law is one essentially different from that observed in the American T., and differs still more widely from the English. . . Taking the sum of the total [per-centages] from 25 to 70, they are 71'92 and 72'51, against 88 67 according to the American T. Such is the close correspondence observed between the mort. of the two inst.: the accidental fluctuations of one age being so closely bal. by those of another, that the difference between the sum of the per-centages of the two seminaries amounts to only fifty-nine hundredths of a year. We next have a mort. T. deduced from the combined results (which at the earlier ages embraced nearly 5000 individuals, and more than a 1000 at age 60), starting at age 25. The number surviving at that age, out of 100,000 at the age of 10, according to the American Experience T., 1868, is 89,032; and according to the Experience T. No. I [English] 89,835. The same radix therefore has been adopted for the American Clergy Mort. T. We add the " ‘Expectation” at quinquennial periods, given by the compiler in a separate table. Mort. T. of the American Clergy, showing the numbers surviving at each age, and the "Expectation" at quinquennial ages, compared with the American Experience, and [English] Experience T. No. 1. Amer. Clergy. American Exp. [English] Exp. No. 1. Amer. Clergy. American Exp. [English] Exp. Age Sur Expec. Sur- Expec- Sur- Expec- Age Sur- Expec- Sur- Expec- Sur- Expec. viving. tation. viving. tation. viving. tation. viving. tation. viving. tation. viving. tation. 25 89,032 40'9 89,032 38.8 89,835 38°0 55 66,533 20'I 64,563 17'4 63,469 16'9 26 88,293 88,314 27 87,547 87,596 89,137 88,434 56 65,553 63,364 62,094 57 64,493 62,104 60,658 28 86,632 86,878 87,726 58 63,411 60,779 59,161 29 85,608 59 62,430 59,385 57,600 30 84,652 38.0 85,441 35°3 86,292 3424 60 61,409 16.2 13.8 31 83,738 184,721 85,565 61 60,124 84,831 83,277 84,089 34 81,252 82,551 83,339 64 55,861 35 80,471 3427 81,822 31.8 82,581 30°9 81,090 81,814 66 52,948 47,361 44,693 80,353 81,038 42,565 79,611 80,253 68 39 77,740 78,862 79,458 40,890 38,128 78,106 28.2 38,569 8.5 35,837 8.5 41 76,510 12 43,308 36,178 33,519 43 75,128 44 74,358 74,985 28,738 26,439 74,435 23'7 75 34,398 6°3 24,100 6'5 73,526 76 32,072 72,582 77 29,898 48 71,601 27,672 70,580 25,323 16,670 15,277 69,804 20°9 69,517 68,842 68,409 12,383 11,424 | 67,841 67,253 166,797 66,046 82 18,247 64.785 This table, we are told, is based entirely on the per-centages, and adheres rigidly to the facts as there exhibited. The only adjustment attempted is the removal of the " grosser inequalities" by means of a simple formula; and this adjustment has been carried but one step. The author says: It appears from these extended statistics that the greater longevity ascribed to the clergy is not a mistaken idea. But this higher longevity does not cover the whole period of life. On the contrary, the life of the clergyman may be divided into two epochs, from age 24 to 35-and from that age onward. During the first of these periods, so far from enjoying a reduced mort., the rate is much higher than that exhibited by our own or any of the English standards. Instead of increasing, the rate actually diminishes with advancing age until 35 is reached, and remains nearly stationary until past 40. So that it actually costs more to insure a clergyman's life between 25 and 35 than it does for the ten years following. The mort. at the earlier ages is so much greater than that of the American [Experience] T., that the more favourable mort. afterwards does not suffice to make good the loss until the age of 47. Nor is this feature an anomaly in the statistics of American life. More than a year ago we called attention to the same fact as shown in the experience of the Massachusetts Cos., collated by the Hon. Elizur Wright. The experience of the Mutual Benefit, pub. during the first 11 years, also exhibited the same high mort. at the younger ages. That the unadjusted experience of the Mutual Life was of a somewhat similar character, we judge from the higher mort. of this T. during the same ages compared with the English standards. The writer is of opinion that future experience may show that the period between 15 and 30 is a much more critical one in America than in England. "The extremes of temperature, and its sudden changes, it is not unlikely, will be found to operate with more fatality on the formative period of life in America than in England." He continues : The members of this profession, as a class, are peculiarly subject to influences productive of such a result. They pass directly from the school to the college, and from the college to the seminary, where their life is extremely sedentary, and in many cases almost monastic. From the seclusion of student life they enter upon the active duties of a profession which imposes its heaviest labours on the beginner. Under these circumstances, it is a notorious fact that a heavy per-centage of our young men break down just when they are entering on their work. From 35 onward, however, the superior longevity of the clergyman tells strongly in his favour, and the advantage increases with age. Between 35 and 50 the advance is but little more than enough to make up for the losses below 35 so that a pol. issued at 25, and terminating at any time before that date, would gain nothing on mort. if issued on the American Experience. Beyond 50 the breach rapidly widens. At 60, 61,409 are living, against 57,917 in the American T., and only 55,973 in the Actuaries [Experience T. No. 1]. At 70, 45,479 survive, against 38,569 and 35,837 in the other T.; while at 80 the difference amounts to more than a third of the entire number. Here we discover the source of the high average longevity so often noted. It arises from the larger number of those surviving at the advanced ages. This is fully shown in the "Expectations" at the higher ages in the T. last given. The concluding obs. deserve attention, for they serve to show some of the points wherein the American clergy differ from our clergy,"-limiting the term strictly to those associated with our Estab. Church,—and prob. approximate more nearly to our Dissenting ministers: The mort. among the Methodist clergy, from all that we can learn, is much more unfavourable than VOL. i. 37 among the other branches. Taken as a class, their life is radically different. A large proportion of them are lay preachers, or engaged in other vocations. The emotional element enters more largely into their services, and the strain on the nervous system is greater. Their life is subjected to greater hardships, and every two years they are trans to a new field. These statistics, therefore, would not prob. represent the Armenian branch of the Church. The American clergyman, like the farmer, has a life of privation and often of hardship; but, by way of compensation, both are granted a longer lease. If successful in passing the critical years, when a harsh climate and confined study combine to break down the constitution, and act with special energy against the lungs, the American minister may anticipate a green old age, unsurpassed in vigour and duration even by the agriculturist. From 35 onwards no better life can be secured by the Cos. than his. We hope that further obs. and statistics on this interesting subject may in due time be forthcoming. CLERGY, MORTALITY TABLES FOR THE.-It will be more convenient for reference if we give the Mort. T. which have resulted from the preceding obs. in a distinct form. There is indeed only one complete T., viz. that prepared by Mr. Brown from the Rev. John Hodgson's data (1864). For purposes of comparison, we give Mr. Neison's T. of "Expectations," deduced from the data of Dr. Guy (1851). In chronological sequence this stands first, and we so place it. We do not bring forward the American Clergy T., for the reason already indicated--that we do not think its results can be put in comparison with the results deduced from obs. on the "clergy" in this country. The following is Mr. Neison's Table : EXPECTATIONS OF THE LIFE OF THE CLERGY-1834-39. In 1864 Mr. Samuel Brown deduced from the data prepared by the Rev. John Hodgson, and of which we have given a full account under CLERGY, LONGEVITY OF THE, a very complete T. of the mort. experienced by the clergy of England. Mr. Brown in the first instance condensed Mr. Hodgson's T. into the following form: OBS. OF MORT. Amongst the CLERGY OF ENGLAND AND WALES, FROM 1760 TO 1860, MADE BY THE REV. JOHN HODGSON. Then follows his mort. T., of which the following are the leading features, arranged in conformity with other tables presented in this work-the expectations being shown in comparison with those of several other tables. |