lived from hand to mouth, and that the men who suffered most during
the period of which we write were those whose livings were of moderate
income. The favored individuals, who enjoyed the rich and larger
incumbencies, the calamity did not reach, or if it did, only in
a slighter degree, and with but comparatively little effect. The
cessation, therefore, of only one year's income to those who had no
other source of support on which to depend, was dreadful. In many
instances, however, their tithes had been refused for two, and, in
some localities, for nearly three years, although the opposition to
the payment had not for such a length of time assumed the fierce and
implacable spirit which had characterized it during the last twelve
months. These observations will now enable our readers to understand
more clearly the picture with which we are about to present them.

On entering the house of this truly pious and patient pastor, the first
thing that struck you was the sense of vacancy and desolation united. In
other words, you perceived at a glance that everything of any value was
gone. You saw scarcely any furniture--no clock, no piano, no carpeting,
no mahogany chairs or tables, or at least none that were not of absolute
necessity. Feather beds had gone, curtains had gone; and all those
several smaller elegancies which it is difficult, and would be tedious,
to enumerate here. Seated at a breakfast-table, in an uncarpeted parlor,
was the clergyman himself, surrounded by his interesting but afflicted
family. His hair, which, until within the last twelve months, had been
an iron gray, was now nearly white, and his chin was sunk in a manner
that had not, until recently, been usual with him. Servants, male and
female, had been dismissed, and those whose soft, fair hands had
been accustomed only to the piano, the drawing-pencil, or the
embroidery-frame, were now engaged in the coarsest and commonest
occupations of domestic life. Nor were they, too, without their