/ y 2*-xJ r ~isv<—~' ^ * ^ THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH OF IRELAND, PAST AND FUTURE. WITH A REPRINT OF “IRELAND AND HER SERVILE WAR," 1866 . BY COLONEL ADAIR, F.R.S., LATE A ROYAL COMMISSIONER ESTABLISHED CHURCH, IRELAND. DUBLIN : HODGES, SMITH AND FOSTER, 104, GRAFTON STREET. LONDON: W. RIDGWAY, PICCADILLY. 1869 . THE ESTABLISHED CHUBCH OE IRELAND, PAST AND FUTURE. THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH OE IRELAND, PAST AND FUTURE. “IRELAND WITH A REPRINT OP AND HER SERVILE WAR,” 1866 . BY COLONEL ADAIR, F.R.S., LATE A ROYAL COMMISSIONER ESTABLISHED CHURCH, IRELAND. DUBLIN : HODGES, SMITH AND FOSTER, 104, GRAFTON STREET. LONDON : W. RIDGWAY, PICCADILLY. 1869 . "Si *k <28 5.415 W 3 b £ « THESE PAGES ARE DEDICATED TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION ‘ESTABLISHED CHURCH OF IRELAND’ IN RECOGNITION OF THE CANDID AND CONCILIATORY SPIRIT WHICH ANIMATED THEIR DISCUSSIONS. BY THEIR FAITHFUL FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE, THE AUTHOR. 40.U ou CONTENTS. PART I. The Established Church will be judged by results The question is of large dimensions The intense devotional feeling of Ireland Renewed Agitation i n Ireland And in England Use of ‘Irish Church ’ as a political war cry Royal Commission—brief notice of Report Civil and Ecclesiastical application of confiscated lands Reconstruction of Irish Episcopal Reformed Church Such change a novelty in Christendom Her character and attributes Has failed in the task forced upon her by the State Disestablishment Disendowment House of Commons incompetent to the decision as to Church property A Commission of Tenures to be appointed Difficulties of adjustment Church property derived from three sources Commissions of Enquiry temp. James I. Results of Cromwellian occupation Amount of See and Glebe lands Probable recommendations of Commission of Tenures Commission of Administration to be appointed by the Crown, and Commission of Sustentation by Free Episcopal Church Surplus not applied to Religious Endowment, nor to Poor Law Relief But to National Education ... ... Equivalent for relief to Imperial Exchequer Formation of funds by capitalizing life interests ... The hard case of Curates Future organization of the Church Convocation as a Constituent Council ... Subjects for consideration—An Elective Episcopate—Headship General appointments Presbyterian Church Church Congress Usefulness of Parochial Clergy is recognized by English Non¬ conformists The Canadian Church and the parallel ... Respectful advice to the Episcopate of the Established Church in Ireland PAGE. 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 12 14 .15 15 16 17 17 18 18 18 21 22 23 27 28 30 31 35 37 38 38 39 40 42 43 44 48 50 52 viii Contents. PART II. Ireland and her Servile War ... APPENDIX A. MSS. in Lambeth Library APPENDIX B. Endowment Debate. General Assembly APPENDIX C. Income and Expenditure of the Roman Catholic Church ... APPENDIX D. Suggestions by Colonel Adair for a Re-arrangement of Bishoprics and Dioceses, submitted for the consideration of the Commission ... APPENDIX E. The Principal Royal Commissions and Committees of the Houses of Parliament in connection with the Irish Branch of the United Church of England and Ireland, and Legislative results PAGE. 57 iii v xix XX xxvi INTRODUCTION. “ For there is no nation of people under the sun that doth “ love equal and indifferent justice better than the Irish; or “ will rest better satisfied with the execution thereof, although “ it may be against themselves, so as they may have the “ protection and benefit of the law, when upon just cause “ they do desire it.”— Sir John Davies. For the first time in her history England has failed of Governmental success, because, for the first time, England has delegated power to a class. This work has been written to show the chief, but not the sole, source of error, whence evil has flowed through the two centuries of Ireland’s existence as a nation. It is intended to suggest possible action, the reason for which must be sought in many writings, though familiar to every Irish mind. And the deduction "to be enforced is, that as diverse causes have contributed to the evil state of Ireland, so from dissimilar appliances, from much active labour, and much endurance, relief must be sought. In consequence of the publication this day of the Second Appendix to the Report of the Royal Commissioners, it has seemed desirable to prefix the results of inquiry into the character of property devolved on the Established Church since the Reformation by royal grant, or private endowment, so far as time has allowed. X Introduction. Class A. — App. pp. 169-73, Extracts from royal grants of land and tithes to ecclesias¬ tical persons and corporations, from the first year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth to the present time, as the same appear upon the Patent Rolls of Chancery in Ireland. List ends with Queen Anne, 1702. 119 Grants of Lands, Procurations. Glebe Lands, Rectories. Tithe Lands, Vicarages. Tithes Impropriate, Prebends. Houses in city of Cashel, Residences. Class B. — App. pp. 203-9. Grants of glebes included in patents granting lands to laymen in the reign of James I. One hundred and twenty-eight grants in the dioceses of Dromore, Ferns, Derry, Ossory, Armagh, Ardagh, Clogher, Kilmore, Raphoe, varying from 1^ to 120 acres, plantation measure. “ From the limited time, the inquiry for grants of glebes in grants of lands to laymen, has not been carried on subse¬ quent to the reign of James I.” The following statutes of Charles II. require a certain proportion of forfeited lands to be reserved for glebes:— 14 & 15 Charles II., cap. 2, sec. 100, provides that “out of every 100 acres of forfeited and escheated lands vested in his Majesty by this act, which are not yet actually disposed and distributed, two acres shall be allowed and set apart for glebe, in every parish, barony, and couuty,” &c., and provides for purchase, where requisite. 17 & 18 Charles II., chap. 2, sec. 27, provides that “ In lieu of such provision for glebes as was by the former act intended, the said Commissioners shall likewise set out so many acres of lands more, as may be sufficient to endow or Introduction. xi supply all and every the parochial churches in this kingdom, with ten acres of glebe at the least,” &c. “ They (these extracts) cannot be considered as a complete or exhaustive account of the royal grants since the Reforma¬ tion. The index to the original rolls are not perfect; an important portion of the rolls, from 8 Charles II., to 18 Charles II., has not been printed; the time also within which the inquiry should be closed was limited.”—Cf. Harris’s “ Hibernica,” fob Ed. p. 68, and “ Inquisitionum in Officio Rotulorum Cancellarise Hiberniao asservatarum Repertorium,” 1829. Class C. — App. pp. 209-213. Churches and chapels wholly or partially maintained by endowments or annual contributions from private funds, including contributions towards the cost of parsonage houses, and the amount contributed from such private sources, so far as same are known to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners:— Government Stock, or cost of Parsonage House, ... £132,063 15 10 Annual charge on Lands, &c., ... ... ... 5,727 18 3 Stipends paid by Impropriators, ... ... ... 1,116 10 2 The foregoing private endowments do not include either Primate Boulter’s, or Primate Robinson’s funds: nor the impropriations purchased by Archbishop Bramhall, nor the large sums expended from time to time by the Clergy in the erection of Glebe-houses. The following sums appears to have been repaid on loans for building Glebe-houses: — £ s. d. The Board of First Fruits from year ending 31st December, 1860, to 31st December, 1863, ... 110,867 7 0 Ecclesiastical Commissioners, from year ending 1st August, 1834, to 1st August, 1868, ... ... 120,984 14 2 £231,802 1 11 Class D. — App. pp. 214—229. To the foregoing should be added the sums repaid by the Clergy on foot of Glebe-houses, Mortgage loans, Churches Xll Introduction . or Chapels Built, Rebuilt or Enlarged, since the abolition of Church Rates in Ireland, in 1833, wholly or in part from Private Funds, with the amount expended or contributed for these purposes from Private sources, so far as the same respectively are known to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. In Five Classes. 1st—Churches and Chapels, built exclusively from Private £ s. d. Funds 2nd—Contracted for by the Parishioners, but towards which 378,698 11 1 the Commissioners made grants. Private Funds ... 3rd—Part I.—Rebuilt by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners 41,457 18 11 or with their aid. Private Funds Part II.—New Churches built by Ecclesiastical Com¬ 130,710 6 6 missioners. Private Funds 4th—Enlarged by Ecclesiastical Commissioners, or with 29,478 6 6 their aid. Private Funds. 5th—Churches in which additional accommodation has been 51,381 9 4 provided in Plans and Fittings. Private Funds ... 10,851 15 6 £642,587 7 10 The above total does include every part of the Expendi¬ ture of the late Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness, Bart., M.P., in the rebuilding and erecting St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin; the cost of which is not now accurately ascertainable, but which is valued at £150,000. Class F.—App. p. 249. (Amended Calculation.) Annual Revenues of the Established Church in Ireland (exclusive of the value of Houses, Residences and Lands, in the occupation of the Ecclesiastical persons), after deducting Poor-rates, Expenses of Collections and Quit Rents. £ s. d. From Lands let to Tenants ... ... ... ... 204,982 19 7 ,, Tithe Rent-Charge ... ... ... ... 364,224 16 11 ,, Other Sources, ... ... ... ... 15,530 6 1 £584,688 2 7 Dublin, Feb. 4,1869. THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH OF IRELAND, PAST AND FUTURE. It has been justly observed that few works on Ireland con¬ vey such information, specific or general, as shall he gene¬ rally applicable to all the wants, wishes, excellencies or defi¬ ciencies of the country. But the present crisis is of so large a relation to the past and future—the present is of transition, and scarcely realized—that no such consideration should prevent a clear declaration of opinion, at a moment where abstract reason, based on some extended experience, compels decision—the hour of controversy is past. The specific act of legislation adopted by the Liberal party as the first evidence of renewed energy, and accord, will be directed to the condition of the Irish Church. No consideration of the value and weight of this Church as a Church Christian, of dogma and discipline, will be entertained; but the question will be raised, whether, by that Church as a material engine of government, the work has been done for which the influence and authority of Government were bestowed upon it; and upon this argument alone a foregone conclusion will be maintained, by either party in the State. In this debate constitutional precepts will not receive the jnysterious and unrestricted reverence which originally B 2 The Established Church of Ireland , surrounded them; the Coronation Oath has received a larger interpretation in consonance with new ideas, than that which perplexed the conscience of George III. The guaran¬ tees prescribed by Roman Catholic Jurists and Eccle¬ siastics to the Roman Catholic members of the House of Commons, are understood to be no longer of force, as restraining them from direct legislation in Church matters; and the logical consequence is found in the proposed dises¬ tablishment and disendowment of the Irish Branch of the United Church of Great Britain and Ireland. It might be supposed that the cause of debate so distinctly adoptedby both of the great divisions of political party, without reservation or hesitation, would be of a nature simple and easily apprehended; yet from the moment that the Premier advances beyond the hard line that separates privilege from disestablishment, the numerous difficulties of adjustment will be realized, and gather palpable and ominous around his path. And his adversary, in his unreasoned defence, much confused by assumption of danger accruing to the English Establishment, has not, it must be hoped, accurately measured the results flowing from persistence in a system of Hierarchical Administration heavy with the condemnation of that great national party, which inherited their policy from the thoughtful thinkers of past generations. Again, the question in issue is not limited in its purview to the narrow island where its temporary home is placed, for if Ireland were agreed, the Reformed Churches to adopt, and the Roman Catholic Hierarchy as representatives of the Papacy to admit, a change in their relative positions less severely marked, the public mind of Great Britain would reject the compromise. This movement is but the curling crest of the great wave, which shews that the depths are pro¬ foundly stirred. A mere accident—some explosion in the metropolis—a daring violation of ordinary law in a provin¬ cial town—has prepared the great drama. Actors and audience—say rather advocates and judge—have been found, Past and Future . when the time for solemn pleading had arrived, and the event, than which none has been more pregnant with change in men’s thoughts, and modes of thought, since the Refor¬ mation, is about to manifest itself in stupendous might. Principles of progress, unconsciously exerted, have doubt¬ less done much to intensify zeal “ ab utraque parte but, the direct bearings and final consequences of the policy now respectively proposed, cannot possibly have been realized by the masses of men who are arbiters of the strife, or combatants. A further moving cause was probably to be found in the weariness which besets the pure Saxon mind at the prolonged disquiet of Ireland. There was the utter inability to dis¬ tinguish where the fault lay, and on whom responsibility rested—a distrust of plans prepared for relief, so alien in their manipulation from the sobriety of English thought —a sincere desire to do effectual justice, combined with a marvellous ignorance on the subjects proposed—and, above all, the threatening stimulus of an uneasy conscience. Add to this, the spectacle of the Reformed Churches, established and endowed, on the one hand, and the followers of the Papacy on the other, each pursuing the primitive idea of their respective churches with such ardour and inten¬ sity of thought, such singleness and devotion to practical purpose as have not glowed in England for more than two centuries. That country in which devotional feeling is coexsistent with national life, furnishes the most repulsive chapter of Ecclesiastical History ; but from that very feeling blessed hope springs of a more happy future. For freedom of con¬ science has always found welcome on Irish ground. Ireland has always given space for persecuted Churches. The revo¬ cation of the edict of Nantes filled the Liberties with Huguenot industry: the expelled Palatinate found a home which re¬ minded him of the plains by the Rhine; the Scottish whig exchanged his western counties for the levels of the north- B 2 4 The Established Church of Ireland , east; and the peaceful Hernhutter, vexed by German perse¬ cutions found a place of refuge beside him. It is now more than two years since I submitted to the judgment of the Irish Public especially, some remarks on the general constitution of that country; and particularly with reference to the disturbance then caused by the Fenian out¬ break. This pamphlet was widely circulated, and received the general attention and criticism of the Irish Press;—and I gladly take this early opportunity of expressing my convic¬ tion, that amongst the instruments that may concur to the establishment of a healthier order of things in Ireland, the Irish Press, without distinction of party, is in its improved tone and liberality of sentiment, destined to a high place. Re¬ membering also the rancour with which religious and political questions were formerly discussed by the public Press in that country, it was to me a subject of the purest satisfaction to observe, that criticisms on points of exceeding interest and importance were characterised by a liberality of spirit which proved the writers to be actuated by a high sense of their re¬ sponsible position and penetrated by sel f-respect. An obj ection has been urged, that I had little to offer in the way of sugges¬ tion. In that criticism lies the weightiest negation of my postulate, and its correlatives and deductions,—that Ireland should rightherself by her own efforts, with comparatively little interference by legislation, or control of external influence. I have constantly asserted, that the future of Ireland lies in her own hands. The failure more or less marked of each succes¬ sive plan that has been proposed for improvement by those who are unfamiliar with the real condition of the country they would serve, confirms my belief,—first, that power and knowledge must be found in Ireland adequate to trace a general scheme of national organization of Irish resources, intellectual, scientific, and material, and secondly, that a va¬ ried familiarity with Irish thought is requisite in order to determine the national genius to beneficial ends. It might have been supposed that the evidence of over- Past and Future. 5 whelming governmental power in repression of the Fenian insurrection would have discouraged from a repetition of similar attempts. The equable and steady operation of law would, it might have been thought, have discredited amongst the uneasy classes of the population, that com¬ plicity in treasonable projects, which were founded on the hope of aid from foreign sympathizers, and the activity of the British Government in the employment of military force, might well have intimidated emigrants native born,or invaders of other races, from encountering the issue of an appeal to arms. Those hopes, however, were disappointed; and al¬ though in the second outbreak, March, 1867, but little fight¬ ing was witnessed in the field, yet it was made clear that large and general sympathy with enterprises hostile to the British Government afforded tacit and not ineffectual support throughout the country. The desperation that prompted the rising in the west of Ireland was soon to shew its results in identical spirit amongst the industrious population of London and Manchester;—and it is not to revive the remembrance of the tragedies there enacted that these catastrophes are referred to—but to impress this certainty, that men who make profit of Irish agitation, can command the aid of dupes and tools for projects the most insensate, and in the quarters most unlikely to produce them. It would seem, then, that up to the present moment little has been done practically in diminution of the evils of which so much complaint has been made. As of old, and from all time, the church and the land form the principal points of discussion—of attack, and of defence. A singular concur¬ rence of circumstances has re-united the “ Liberal Party” on one salient point of attack, and has combined the Con¬ servative Party in advocating an uncompromising policy of resistance. It is proposed then, in the first place, to set forth distinctly the causes which have led to the actual position of the Established Church in Ireland;—aiid they are more various 6 The Established Church of Ireland, and difficult of appreciation than the general student of history would conceive;—her present and actual condition; a suita- able policy, and the remedies that appears to befit the occa¬ sion :—for it may be insisted on, that no single element, is so essential towards the settlement of Irish questions, as a plain statement of facts; and then to leave unfettered by pre¬ judice, the power of inference to those to whom those facts are for the first time it may he made accessible and patent. No conclusions referrible to either of the leading schools of political thought are designed as corollary to the arguments that may he advanced. The occasion is too grave, considered from an imperial as well as a social point of view, and the subject matter of an importance far too absolute, in connexion with the reli¬ gious organism of Christendom, to be associated with the struggles of party. As regards Ireland, men may fairly be weary of party strife, although no considerations will prevent the political handing together of partizans. Yet it should he deeply im¬ pressed on politicians that there is no political crime, short of those which tend to the disorganization of society, more dangerous or more abhorrent from a healthy spirit than to employ agitation on the question of the Established Church in Ireland as an instrument of party action. I shall not, therefore, dwell upon the imputations of pre¬ cipitation and undue haste which have been fastened upon the Liberal Party in the House of commons, during the late session; and shouted from the hustings at the general election; nor shall I be hasty to infer that stubborn resistance to change has alone been the motive power in the action of the Conservatives. To my colleagues and myself engaged, in the discharge of of our duty as Royal Commissioners on the Irish Church, it has occurred to obtain information, not only of a documentary kind, such as appears in the Report and Appendix, but also to receive such personal communications from all ranks of Past and Future . 7 the Clergy upon this important subject, as have been available to shew the distinct opinion of the Ecclesiastical members of the Establishment on the general outline of the changes pro¬ posed. I may here say, that the opinions that I advance are those for which I alone am responsible. I labored with satis¬ faction and confidence with my colleagues—men of politi¬ cal views differing widely each from each, and of divers schools of thought,—to one common end. I adopt their general opinions as expressed in the Report except where my dissent is pointedly marked; but as regards the arrangements for future policy,—which was not and could not be included in the terms of commission,—I speak only for myself, and with a general purpose of pointing out such a course as should be just to the State, and honest to the Church. But perhaps it will here be not inappropriate to answer an objection urged occasionally in a somewhat contemptuous tone, to the continuance of the labors of the Commission, when the great principle of thorough change in the constitution of the Irish Church had been already decided in the House of Commons by resolution. It will be remembered, that when the Commission was issued, no specific plan of disestablish¬ ment or disen do wment was in suggestion. So far as public opinion was to be consulted, some development of the last plans of adjustment of revenue to service was alone intended; and that in fact, according to the original motion of Earl Russell, the Resolution of 1836, on which was based “the Appropriation Clause,” was thus to be revived. The Com¬ mission was to be in force for twelve months,—too brief a space for the labor to be undertaken;—but this brief space was anticipated by the prompt action of the House of Com¬ mons. The Commissioners, it was said, might then have declared themselves incompetent to an investigation, of which the results must be obtained and promulgated too late for legislation. It might have been held disrespectful to the Crown, whence the authority of the Commissioners was deri¬ ved, to prosecute enquiries which must be tardy. But it was 8 The Established Church of Ireland , felt, that the duty proposed to the Commissioners was obvious —to persevere in their trust; and it could not fail to be per¬ ceived, that the information collected in the course of their investigation, so far as time and opportunity allowed, would give a reliable account of the organization, revenues and duties of the Established Church in Ireland, indispensable to future legislation. In adverting briefly to the Report of the Royal Commis¬ sioners the accuracy with which the religious census of 1861, has been taken as compared with that of 1834, will be re¬ marked. The Constabulary who were the enumerators under the Census Act of 1861, state that, without exception, every individual desired to enrol himself under some mode of faith. Consequently, it may be assumed that the question of reli¬ gious connexion has presented itself determinately to the entire nation in Ireland. The report of the Royal Commission, as expressed in the Summary of Recommendations, furnishes useful suggestions for the future Episcopal Church—disestablished; and it is in the first paragraph alone of this Summary that exception need be taken. Episcopal supervision is of the essence of an Episcopal Church, as was at the Church Congress insisted on. The Papal Church observes this distinction, and with large parishes has more bishops. The suspension of appointments in all cathedral corpora¬ tions follows the consolidation of sees. But it may be doubted whether this suppression of cathe¬ dral chapters and dignities should not precede in all but the provincial sees. A consolidation, or useful development of the system of circuit ministration, would arise from their suppression. The recommendation to suspend appointments to all cures whereof the congregation is under forty, being in royal or ecclesiastical patronage, shows the necessity of a new order in the ecclesiastical body. Past and Future. 9 These scattered congregations must not be abandoned; and I should therefore have suggested that in the cathedral cities certain centres of missionary action be established—a system analogous to what prevails amongst the Wesleyans and the Primitive Methodists. The approximate statistical returns furnished to the Royal Commissioners give an indication of the proportional expen¬ diture of the sums that would have been required, had the Established Church been reformed, and not disendowed. In suggesting a scale of payment for Archbishops, the Commissioners kept principally in view—first, to dissociate all ranks of the clergy from personal striving after the sources of income; secondly, to secure an income suitable in amount, and of a fixed character; thirdly, to [make harmonious pro¬ portion run through the entire body, from the decent and adequate subsistence of a Christian pastor to the larger mea¬ sure which would enable the highest dignitary of the Church to dispense discreet charity, and practise the due and becom ing hospitality incumbent on his office. For Bishops.—Regard must be had to the fact that money on articles of first necessity goes nearly one-half further in Ireland than in England; and when the prelates are relieved from the necessity that now presses on them of borrowing money to pay for their see houses, the increase will fairly be considered according to schedule annexed, in gradation.* For Deans.—Adequate to the purposes mentiond above. By the reduction of capitular bodies, the number of offices of dean is limited; so that but few of these special rewards of learning would have existed; and the income will show an extravagant disproportion to the incomes of the junior class of suffragan bishops. Of the Archdeacons’ incomes but little notice need be taken. It is an office of high administrative importance; but * A custom introduced into the English Church by the division of the prelates into eight classes, with incomes ranging from £15,000 to £2,000, with dilapida¬ tions in full. ESTABLISHED CHURCH REFORMED,—GENERAL ACCOUNT.—APPROXIMATE ESTIMATE. 10 The Established Church of Ireland, <©«£!« CO © 00 hJH t>T O CO CO coo cToTo O l-H l" rH r a Qh c tra SCO ►4 A. « S 003 £ Ph H • a <73 '7n T -dT ocT hjT of o ^ l-' O CO O o o o o lO w IO IO o XXXXX o 00 TH CO CO CO © T © vO CO (M © o © Cl impartiality between English favorites and the Anglo-Irish families. The power of the great nobles thus augmented, tempted them, as if in obedience to a fixed law, to ever recurring domestic revolt and rebellion, aggravated in the reign of Elizabeth by the introduction of the new element of foreign invasion, and the first appeal to religious hatred, in claiming the countenance of the Bishop of Rome against the Crown. As an inveterate habit of rebellion swayed the fickle reci¬ pients of the bounty of the Crown, the provident ministers of the later years of Elizabeth, and at the beginning of the reign of James, gradually conceived the idea of trans¬ ferring confiscated properties to hands from which civil support rather than armed insurrection might be expected. Hence, the appropriations made to the Church, and espe¬ cially in the Episcopal or See-lands; wherefore, in those dioceses where the confiscations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were most numerous, notably in the north, the See-lands are more extensive than elsewhere. At length, however, it was probably observed, that by such alienations of Crown property, ecclesiastical power would become too predominant; and the government of James, upon this hypothesis, then resolved to apply this mass of wealth to the encouragement of a settled order of civil cor¬ porations, as in the great companies which still hold large tracts, or by the introduction of individual colonists from the neighbouring maritime counties of Scotland. But the same maxim of administration which assumes to have in¬ fluenced the councillors of Elizabeth and of James found acceptance with those of Cromwell and of William the Third, in the appropriations made after each successive dis¬ comfiture of Irish rebellion. The historical proofs which confirm these inferences may seem novel; but as mainly derived from statutes and re¬ corded history of Irish transactions, they must be admitted to express, in the most decisive manner, the consistent Past and Future. 13 tendency of English governments in different periods, and under every contingency. For instance, by the 11th of Eliza¬ beth, cap. 17 (a remarkable statute), “ authority is given to the Primate of all Ireland—that is, of Armagh—to alienate fora term not exceeding one hundred years, without the assent of the Dean and Chapter, at a fixed rate per acre, any See-lands lying without the English, and within the Irish, Pale.” It is noticeable, that this is the first occasion in which the Irish Pale is distinguished from that of the English; and for reason assigned, “ that whereas the Dean and Chapter are probably either Irish, or so affected to the ‘Irishry,’ that they would not facilitate the introduction of English settlers, it is advisable that this exceptional power should be given to the Primate.” Again, the records of William and Mary’s reign shew with what earnestness the clergy sought from the sovereign the fulfilment of the promises by which not only forfeited lands, but forfeited tithes also, had been assigned for the susten- tation of the Church. At the same period, the records of Episcopal visitation declare what terrible desolation had fallen on the churches and places of Protestant worship in Ireland. Those which are recorded in the year 1662 to be fit for Divine worship, are very few compared with those abandoned in a condition more or less ruinous. And not only were many parochial benefices obliterated by lay impro¬ priations, but in this work of destruction ecclesiastical appro¬ priations for the benefit of capitular bodies, or of individual clergy, or of remote grammar schools, deprived the parish whence tithes were derived of the opportunities of religious ministration, and of secular education, for which the tithes were assigned; and it is to be remarked in the records of the first apportionment of tithes, with what care and exact¬ ness the original grants were made, and maintained by a succession of local officers, answering very nearly to the churchwardens and the archdeacons of the existing Estab¬ lishment. 14 The Established Church of Ireland, In the “ Inquisition of Ulster,” it will be found that the Great Lords in Fermanagh gave the Herenagh lands, in order that the saints should maintain the Church, celebrate Divine service, and keep hospital. Some were Confessors, some Deacons, and some Virgins. But before proceeding to give in extenso the historical and statutory references on which I have, remarked, it is indispensable to state clearly the terms of the problem which we are now seeking to evolve. The question is no less than absolute reconstruction of the Church of Ireland as a Christian church: it is the most important event that has taken place since the diversities of Christian thought formed congre¬ gations by creeds into churches, and placed those churches in relation more or less.direct with the people, and later with the State. Changes there have been many in the ecclesiastical condition of the members of the Church Catholic of Western Europe. Some established churches, after a long period of accord with State policy, have perished, either in the ruins of the political organization with which theirs was bound up, as in France, or through the inherent vices which power, wealth, and the ascendency of political connection generate. In some countries where Reformation has obtained, as in Spain, and Southern Italy, the corruptions of the Regular Orders, and a forgetfulness of the original conditions of their institution, have infected the parochial churches, and prostrated them, for a time, amidst the ruins of convent and monastery. In other States, necessity has forced the leaders of a revolutionary policy, or at least of constitutional change, whether autocrat or demagogue, as now in Poland, and in Central and Southern America, to place the privileged churches in a condition absolutely subservient to the civil purposes of the State, while they retained the connection which made the Estab¬ lishment eminent in privilege and place above all other national churches. This was the position enforced upon the See of Rome, when religious worship was re-estab¬ lished in France by the First Consul; and elsewhere, the Past and Future. 15 Churcli has been swept away to make place for an estab¬ lishment more consonant with the political ideas to which the country, through periods of revolution, fluctuation, and change, had attained, as in Scotland and the Protestant States of continental Europe. But it was never yet seen that a church framed in order to develop a State policy, was to be disjoined from that asso¬ ciation, through inability thoroughly to confirm an idea, which nevertheless remained unaltered as a governing prin¬ ciple of the State, which here means the identification of Ireland with Great Britain. It has never yet been seen, that a church, the purity of whose principles of ecclesiastical life was above censure or cavil, against the practice of whose clergy’s walk, no slanders could live, and (with the exception of the Episcopate), the possession of whose wealth, in the parochial class, was the reverse of excessive, should be compelled to accept a decisive change in relation to the government of the country, through inability to discharge a task, the difficulties of which had been made, aggravated, and perpetuated by the deliberate and continuous action of the State. And again, other churches have undergone trials and penalties for their opposition to the leading idea of the civil Government. Here, however, the Government and the Church are still in accord; but it is on account of a lack of power to complete the task which had been assigned to this Church, that it is now designed from hencefor¬ ward to dispense with its agency, or to employ it as it had previously been within very restricted limits. It is well then that the causes of an action so novel, and to be justified only by the strictest and most severe exami¬ nation of evidence, and accumulation of proofs, should be distinctly, fairly, and dispassionately submitted to final discussion. It is clear that in one main point the success of the Church has not been commensurate with the extent of tern- 16 The Established Church of Ireland. poral power with which she had been clothed. The Protes¬ tant Church in Ireland was established to make the country protestant. In reference to the wide schemes projected by the political founders of that Church, that expectation, which, before the invasion by a Spanish force, was not unrea¬ sonable, has been deceived. Yet not wholly; for the Church established in Ireland has directly and indirectly made the country eminently Protestant in Ulster, Avith a large result in the great towns, and in isolated congregations through¬ out. Nor is it any discredit to this Church to affirm that the severe teachings of the Protestant faith are unsuited to the habits of thought and tradition which form the intel¬ lectual life of a large proportion of the people. Let the Church, then, enjoy due credit for what she has performed, Avhile she vindicates her usefulness to the State by the preponderating number of living Irishmen, eminent in all the occupations of civil and professional life. But in respect of her continued existence as an Established Church, or in separation from the State, the period to commence a discussion which must soon be closed, has already arrived. The Resolutions of the House of Commons affirm dis¬ tinctly the disestablishment of the Church, as connected with the State, and a partial or total disendoAvment in respect of her revenue. By “ disestablishment” may be understood the withdrawal of the Representatives of the Episcopate from the House of Lords, and from the Privy Council in Ireland. As regards the first, the case is sufficiently obvious to the public understanding to require no explanation ;— and, there is no sound cause for anticipating injury to ecclesiastical organization from a cessation of legislate duties imposed upon the Episcopate. But with regard to the withdrawal from the Privy Council in Ireland, a positive result of good will accrue. In the absence of the Lord Lieu¬ tenant, the functions of government are administered by Lords Justices, of whom the Archbishop of Dublin is, or officio , one. Thesewith the concurrence of the Privy Council, admi- Past and Future. 17 nister almost the entire functions of the Lord Lieutenant. It will easily be seen that an objection to the interference of Ecclesiastics, as such, in matters of government, here obtains more strongly than elsewhere, in consequence of the hostility of a large proportion of the Irish people to that Establishment, in virtue of which the Prelates sit in Council; and the incongruity is most marked, that in Ire¬ land, where no parochial clergy are associated in the go¬ vernment of the country as justices of the peace in right of their freehold, and but very few, as proprietors, they should exercise a function yet more important. I have recorded an opinion, that Roman Catholic Prelates should be associated in some consultative council, with attributions analogous to those of the Privy Council ;—but, I am now convinced that it is desirable that all Ecclesiastics should cease to exercise administrative, or even deliberative functions. The process of a future organization being obviously under two heads: Disestablishment, or modification of the political power and precedence of the hierarchy; and Disendowment, or resumption by the State of the whole, or a portion of the Church revenues, the second is now to be considered. The first step will be to ascertain what surplus of State property remains after existing interests are satisfied. It is not practicable to determine this amount at present. But progress can be made in deciding on the application of these funds to special purposes in Ireland, or to absorption into the revenue of the United Kingdom. The House of Com¬ mons will affirm the principle of resumption, and later, the purposes to which the fund resulting should be devoted. Now both in reason, and from special causes, the application of surplus should be certainly national, and, as far as possible, local. But at the intermediate stage of determining what is really the property of the Church, a tribunal should be created to examine and decide all questions of tenure. The House of Commons, acting through a Committee, does C 18 The Established Church of Ireland.I, not possess the judicial insight which this weighty inves¬ tigation demands. The decision of such a committee would not carry respect, and without respect, even in dissent, the great purpose fails. Any decision by the House of Commons, would imply party triumph. A commission of Tenures should he issued, consisting of three members named by the Crown, with the assistance of an equity, a real pro¬ perty, and a civil lawyer, to adjudicate on all ecclesiastical property, and to hold its courts in Ireland alone. In the processs of adjustment and compensation, questions will arise of the greatest nicety. For instance, the Parish of Kilconriola, in Antrim, was served as a cell from the Abbey of Muckamore. The Abbey and lands being sequestrated at the Reformation, the great tithes and advowson were given to an ancestor of Lord Mountcashell. The vicarial tithes were reserved to the vicarage, and being of small value, according to the Irish scale, were supplemented by a free gift from the lay impropriator. The Adair family, to whom the parish be¬ longs, made in aid of the benefice a perpetual alienation of lands which had never been the property of the Church. The estate of Lord Mountcashell was sold some years since in the Landed Estates Court. The annual gift had been entered year by year on the rent-roll of a par¬ ticular townland, and therefore, per incuriam , was held to be a charge, and the estate was sold with this erroneous charge upon it. Sales in the Encumbered Estates Court are absolute; and, in consequence, the incumbent can now reco¬ ver the amount of the gift converted into a perpetual rent- charge. Three classes of property form, then, the corpus of this benefice. First, property originally belonging to the Church before the Reformation. Secondly, land alienated from private property for a special purpose. Third, free gifts made perpetual by error, but without appeal in law. Past and Future. 19 Large equity must needs continue the property under the two last heads in the benefice. And, observe the peculiarity in this case, that the State resumes the property which has been always devoted to reli¬ gious uses, and leaves in the hands of the lay impropriator the property which has been diverted therefrom; and the Roman Catholics who resist the appropriation of tithes or Church lands to ecclesiastical uses, are well content that the lay impropriator should retain his possession of the spoil. Moreover, Bishop Bramhall, Bishop Hampton, and many others have repurchased glebe and see-lands from lay im¬ propriators, and restored them to the Church of the Refor¬ mation, and I have said that in the opinion of the Roman Catho¬ lics represented by a great prelate, lay impropriation is to be respected; but the sale does not alter that character of private property, with which law and usage had alike invested it. A large equity, therefore, would equally leave such pro¬ perty attached to the benefice. Or if it be, as I think, undesirable, that land should remain in large masses in the hands of any ecclesiastical body, the terms of purchase of such land should be as of a private in¬ terest in fee for a special purpose. Again, in what hands is the control of the parochial burying-ground to be~placed? In the north of Ireland this is a matter of very grave question. Probably, when the legal status of the Episcopal incumbent has ceased, the parish should elect two burial wardens. If, at the next avoidance, a parish should be without the means of supporting an incumbent, and the property in the Church and glebe lands pass into t the public market, who are to receive the small proceeds of the sale? The State? The parishioners ? And which is of far more importance, who are to be the pur¬ chasers? Probably in England the alarm can scarcely be realized, with which the transfer of a place of public worship c 2 20 The Established Church of Ireland, to another sect would be met. If anything could peril the peace of the north of Ireland it would he such a transfer. I know an instance where a Presbyterian congregation having diminished, proposed to relinquish their place of worship. By the terms of the lease the ground would have reverted to the proprietor, and the building also; but this he would, of course, have purchased. A most urgent representation and request were made not to permit the building to he con¬ verted to unsuitable uses; perhaps the practice of Divine worship by a Protestant congregation would have been accept¬ able, but I am confident that the building could not have been purchased for Roman Catholic purposes, without peril to the tranquillity of the district. But for how long shall these trusts be continued, and when shall the conditions of trust be terminated ? And the complications which then arise point evidently to maintaining the parochial system intact, and a proportionate mass of property for the religious comfort of future gene¬ rations. Again, in two neighbouring parishes, the expectation of life in one is as (A) 3; in the other as (B) 28. Is the one parish to be mulcted in any capitalizing scheme for a general fund in result of the merest accident? Is accident, in fact, to determine religious ministration of the terminable cha¬ racter against one parish in the proportion of 9 to 1 ? Therefore the whole results of the capitalized life interests in Ireland must not be thrown into hotchpot, in order to re-issue a fixed proportion to each benefice; for in that case B would receive less than existing interests. Must, then, the general fund re-issue to each incumbent the interest only of the amount for which the rentcharge was capitalized ? In that case, A would receive a mere pittance in compensation. Is it, then, possible to assign a mean from below which younger lives should have their value capitalized, and above which older lives should be allowed to exhaust their expec¬ tation of realizing rentcharge ? Past and Future. 21 Now, Church property is derivable from three chief sources: property bestowed in tithe and glebe lands previous to the Reformation; property acquired through confiscation, by the State, and assigned to ecclesiastical uses, to which both in tithe, see-lands, and glebe, much of the legal origin and existence can be still very accurately traced; the third is found to arise from private endowment, and being entirely beyond the reach of equitable legislation, will not enter into consideration. It is needless to dwell at length upon the appropriations of property for ecclesiastical uses in the reigns of Henry VIII., Mary, of Edward VI., and Elizabeth; for in the mere forms of church government, the changes were so sudden, rapid, and complex, that, with a few remarks upon their general tendency, that portion of the subject may be closed., But when the policy which has been attributed to the minis¬ ters of later sovereigns affected materially their intention in regard of ecclesiastical property, it becomes essential to a full comprehension of the subject, to particularise the history and progress of the system adopted by the English Government. The first great division of Church property may be admitted to offer little subject for discussion as to equi¬ table inheritance; but with the period of confiscation the task of discrimination commences, and it should be borne in mind that in England there is, strictly speaking, no post- Reformation property created by the State. But in addition to the confiscations of Elizabeth and James, in large masses of territory in the six plantation counties, systematic provision is made for the formation of parishes and distribution of glebe lands. “ The ancient parishes were large, and the tithes which at the settlement had been previously distributed among the different proprietors were almost all assigned to the incum¬ bents having the actual cure of souls.” In the reign of James I., “ The Inquisitions of Ulster and 22 The Established Church of Ireland , of Leinster,” were held in those provinces to examine the conditions of Church property at that time. The returns to the Commissions, printed in the introductory part of those inquisitions, report the ecclesiastical estates of which the Crown was then seized. The project for the plantation of Ulster, printed in “ Harris’s Hibernica” (Ed. 1770, page 105), shows the proportion of forfeited lands proposed to he allocated to the Church in lieu of the “ Termon” and other Church lands so appropriated. A commission was issued in the same reign to inquire into advowsons, and the commissioners were directed and authorised to assign sixty acres of glebe in proportion to each thousand acres of parish, and no permanent alienation of glebe was permitted. But no escheated lands were granted to bishops or others before the 1st of April, 1613, and the episcopal title of the bishops to such lands is registered at the end of each kind of inquisition. So many of the visitation books of the prelates as remain, furnish much important information on the condition of the Church in that reign. The state of the Church in 1622 in Armagh, Down, Connor, Raphoe, Derry, Clogher, Kilmore, Ardagh, and Meath, are given in detail in a manuscript in Trinity College, Dublin. For the following synopsis of the confusion in the posses¬ sion of Church property in the seventeenth century, I am indebted to the accurate historian of the “ Cromwellian Set¬ tlement.” Proceeding in order of time, Lord Strafford, in 1634, con¬ strained the landed gentry to render back to the Church some portion of the dilapidations their predecessors had permitted (a persuasive enforcement of equity against legal possession); but this became matter of impeachment against him in 1640. The original cause of those dilapidations, through which such became practicable, appears plainly herein ; that the Reformed Church having small congregations or none, the Past and Future. 23 Incumbent’s labour was scant or needless. The Bishops, Deans, and other dignitaries enjoyed great facilities for converting to their uses church property; it might have been intended for a time only, or until the need of ministration became pressing. In fact it was as if trustees should assume a personal interest pending a temporary suspension of the trust from accidental and terminable causes, and think they did no wrong when they injured no individual while their own were benefitted and beneficed. It was at the king’s restoration that much property was recovered to the Church. “ The Cromwellians had denounced prelacy to be as bad as Popery; they were, accordingly, in some danger on the King’s return, and the return of the Bishops in 1660. “ They therefore bought up the King, the Duke of York, Clarendon, and Ormond by large money bribes. They bought up the Royalist officers of Ireland, whom Cromwell had sent into exile or heavily fined, by giving them the houses of the Irish in all walled and corporate towns. And they bought up the Church, by giving the bishops and clergy all impropriations, &c., that were in Catholic families, thereby interesting all powerful parties in the State in the maintenance of the Act of Settlement, which confirmed to the adventurers and soldiers their allotments of Irish land. “ This sounds softly in Carte’s pages, (see vol. 2, p. 207); but it was simple robbery of the weak, being confined to the Catholics and the Irish, while the English Protestants in Ireland were allowed theirs. Many a family had no other provision than impropriate tithes, derived under Henry III.’s grants, and these families were thus beggared. “ Cromwell reserved the Church property for the State, in order to benefit private friends, and sometimes to provide for Irish noblemen’s widows, &c., objects of commiseration. The tithes were let from year to year by auction for the State, and some old proprietors were allowed a yearly lease, pending their being transplanted. But he made grants by >ease and in fee of the Church lands; and at the Restoration 24 The Established Church of Ireland , there were applications to the Exchequer by the bishops to put these lands out of charge in the State rentals, or to restore them to the Church. I have read piles of these applications. 44 Griffith Williams, Bishop of Ossory (that 4 phrenetick bishop,’ as Ormond very properly calls him) gives a most amusing account of his state and sufferings, and those of his diocese at the Restoration in his seven printed treatises, being entitled his 4 Address by Way of Remonstrance to the King and to the New Convened Parliament and all Posterity.’ Folio: London, 1661. He says the Church lands were taken by the soldiery without Cromwell’s permission, or rather given to them 4 by the Anabaptist Commissioners (for so he calls the Council of Parliament for the affairs of Ireland) notwithstanding their grand masters prohibition; and these colonels and captains do absolutely refuse to restore them to the Church until they be satisfied with reprisals .... and so the bishop has nothing from them . . . and many of the poor despoiled Protestants, with the Irish, and like the Irish, do live most poorly, and have as hard a task to get their former estates out of the soldiers’ hands as to pull the club out of Hercules’ hands,’ as it appears by their dealing with himself. 44 The House of Lords sent an injunctionto the sheriff to put the bishop into possession of the see lands, which were so totally detained from him 4 that I had not as much lands about Kilkenny as would feed a goose. And when the sheriff, according to the injunction, came to deliver me pos¬ session of it, a captain of the Long Parliament, that had it given him (as he said) for his arrears, stood before the sheriffs, and told them they should not tread upon his lands until he had his reprisals for it.’ So he (the bishop) advised them to leave it alone, for fear of embroiling the House of Lords. 4 If they so withstood a bishop, a member of the Higher House of Parliament, what chance,’ he asks, 4 had the poorer Protestants ?’ He likens himself to Bishop Bale, Past and Future. 25 nearly killed by the Kilkenny mob in Edward the Sixth’s time, for attempting to read the English Liturgy for the first time in St. Canice’s Cathedral, and declares that only for the protection and kindness of the poor Irish he c would rather live a poor curate in his own country (Wales), than a bishop among such a set of Cromwellian Anabaptists and Quakers, and other worse sectaries that do inhabit these parts.’ “ He declares that the Cromwellian jurors stick to one ano¬ ther like sworn brethren, or rather like forsworn wretches, &c. “On the other hand, Sir George Ayscue complains to Or¬ mond that the bishop, like Earl Percy, ‘ a vow to God did make ’ that he (Sir George) should never get a penny of rent, nor his tenants a minute’s peace, and that between the bishop and his own tenant, who is in confederacy with the bishop, they saw him asunder. Though he is ‘a military man ’ (Sir George Ayscue blockaded Ormond in Dublin with the Parliamentary fleet in 1646-7), yet he desired peace and quiet, but is 1 between Scylla and Charybdis—that is, the bishop and my tenant, an Anabaptist.’ “ He was on board ship, going to fight the Dutch, I think, when he wrote to Ormond. “Among Lord Deputy Fitzwilliam’s]papers in the Bodleian, there is a very interesting original certificate—a return of the Bishop of Cork (1574 about),, showing the state of the diocese, and of the impropriations and advowsons, and how many of them were in recusant’s hands. Of course, such of lands and titles as remained till the Restoration, were then, by the Act of Settlement, restored to the Church.” The Great Revolution came with sweeping change, and still more decisive confirmation of Protestant power. In the Lambeth Library amongst the Carew MSS., will be found much information on these times; on the discouraging con¬ dition, in 1697, of the Church established in Ireland, and especially on the ruined state of the two Sees of Meath and Kilmore. Seeing that such was the lamentable condition of the 26 The Established Church of Ireland, Churcli established in Ireland, it is probable that her active ecclesiastics may have conceived that the old policy of grant¬ ing confiscations for the advantage of that Church might fairly be appealed to; and we consequently find memorials addressed to the sovereign, praying the completion of the promise by which forfeited tithes and lay impropriations were to be granted to the Church. About this time very con¬ siderable activity must have prevailed amongst the clergy; for in the same MS. is noted a report from the Primate to the Archbishop of Canterbury, that the inferior clergy of Ireland were ‘pouring into Dublin’ expecting a convocation to be summoned. These hopes and expectations were not altogether disap¬ pointed, for it appears that forfeited tithes were, after the 25th of March, 1701, to be applied for 20 years to build churches, and tithes applied to the augmentation of small vicarages. The discipline of the Church was at that time sedulously and carefully enforced; articles were exhibited in 1691 against Bishop Hacket, Diocesan of Down and Connor; and there is, moreover, a draft order in existence, from the king to prepare a bill for granting forfeited estates to the Church; and in further confirmation of the revived activity in the Church, there is a reference made in 1703 to Drs. Oldys and Walker, of Doctor’s Commons, as to the right of the Metropolitan to visit suffragans. In the reign of Anne the incidence of tithes first becomes a subject of remonstrance and agitation. Dean Swift reports that in 1731, tithes were collected with difficulty. He remarks on the division of livings which was then threatened, as to be much deprecated ; and that it would be unjust, the present value of livings being taken into account, to force the clergy to build glebe-houses, and yet, at that time, when 600 clergymen were reputed to be contained in the Establish¬ ment, few parishes had any glebe whatever. Archbishop King stipulated with the tenants of the See of Dublin that they should resign 20 or 30 acres to form glebes for the Past and Future. 27 parochial clergy of Dublin, at a very low rate. The See- lands were let usually at one quarter of their value. It was estimated that these could be sold well at twenty-two years’ purchase; and thus the Dean appears with a prophetic genius to have anticipated by one hundred years the price to be obtained; and in last result, the landed property of the Church may be thus distributed: Acreage and Revenue of See-Lands , as received by the Church from Rents Reserved thereon , and Fines on Renewal. Acreage. Revenue. Profitable, ... 485,532 £120,680 Unprofitable, ... 183,715 —“ The Irish Church ,” Serjeant Shee, 1868. Acreage of Glebe-Lands Profitable and Unprofitable . In each Parish—Average. Armagh, Prov. ... 76,205 110 Dublin, ... 5,560 Cashel, ... 7,508 25 Tuam, ... 1,864 6 91,137 25 General Average. —“ Liber Munerum Hibernice,” vol. ii., Part V. Details connected with the administration of the Church in those days are given at some length in the second Appen¬ dix to the Royal Commissioners’ Report of 1868, and in the Reports of preceding Commissions, issued from time to time since the year 1830. But the result ever more evident with wider inquiry is this, that the Church of Ireland, established for State purposes and organized as a powerful instrument of government, was in turn the ally, and the victim of the State; her inferior clergy discredited, her superior clergy perverted into politicians rather than elevated into Christian prelates. She only shewed her inherent strength by the occasional energy of some of her ecclesiastics, whose fitful vigour found little favour in the eyes of their hierarchical superiors, in those days. In the long period of moral and intellectual stagnation 28 The Established Church of Ireland , that succeeded in both Established Churches, when it was well said that a sermon was ordinarily a moral essay that might have been delivered in the Porch or the Grove, from the death of Queen Anne to the accession of George III. tithes seem to have been accepted as a fiscal resource from which the Church was to derive the amount of revenue pos¬ sible, without provoking agitation or opposition. With the new r era of thought which closely coincides with the accession of George III., commenced that active spirit in weighing the merits and judging all institutions, social and civil, which however, in regard to the Church established in Ireland, seems to have been deferred, in effectual investigation, until the close of the great French war. Such, in summary, was the historical condition of the Church of Ireland when the agitation for Roman Catholic Emancipation caused men to consider how far she had justi¬ fied her institution. It will be seen in the Appendix to the Report of the Commissioners, that whatever the circumstances of re-organi¬ zation may be, a surplus more or less extensive will be realized. First, by an actual withdrawal of the funds from ecclesiastical uses, and secondly by a provident administration or disposal of the Church lands. It will be not without use to study the reasonings and remarks contained in many papers of the Appendix to the Report. They were the result of careful thought, elicited in the discussions of the Commissioners; and since it must be in the design of the Legislature, that reasonable contentment should result, no consideration by which an abiding spirit of arrangement can be evolved, should be lightly passed over. The Commission of Tenures would probably recommend the purchase of the interest of the incumbent, to transfer the corpus to the charge of the Ecclesiastical Commission of Sustentation, and at each avoidance, carry the proceeds to credit of general fund, of which the object shall be— 1—Parochial Stipends ; Past and Future . 29 2— Circuit Ministration; 3— Sustentation Fund for Episcopate. The Commission would with justice recommend that the landlords have the right of pre-emption, both of the rent- charge and of the glebe land; and it is especially desirable to augment the surface of cultivable land in Ireland, to be sold within reach of small purchasers. The man who buys small properties from savings generally, does well in settling his family. The man who takes small farms, rarely earns more than enables him to exist, and educate his children. Again, the sale of land would popularize the measure, and bring the conviction of the fact of religious equality home to every countryman in Ireland. It may be assumed that out of equitable arrangements with incumbents, and from careful and not hurried sale, the Government can deal fairly with the clergy, without burthen on the State, since benefices will not be abandoned; and it is superfluous to weigh the interest of lay patrons in advow- sons to which a value will still attach. Lay impropriations have passed into real property of individuals, and are therefore also eliminated from the problem. Ecclesiastical appropria¬ tions should fall into the general fund of capitalized interests. The rights of ownership being adjudged, in what manner is the property to be most effectually converted to public uses? In the first place, the State must not remain in the posi¬ tion of land owner, or be burdened with collection of the dues arising therefrom. Hence arises the need for a sale as rapid, as is consistent with realizing the just value of the property in possession of the State; for by the forced sale of See property under the Church Temporalities Act, much loss was incurred, and notably in the sale of See-land, in the suppressed See of Dromore. The selection of glebe and see-land on the limited scale of ten and fifty acres, respectively, must be 30 The Established Church of Ireland . subject of arrangement between the State and the Free Episcopal Church. For this, and similar purposes, a Commission of Adminis¬ tration should be appointed by the Crown, to confer with the Commission of Sustentation, to be appointed by the Free Episcopal Church. The entire question is one of very considerable difficulty. There are two points to be remembered; first, that tithes, as decimation, were alien to the social life of Ireland, and re¬ pugnant to the habits of the country. The sustentation of ecclesiastical corporations, secular, regular, and monastic, was principally derivable from land. The military service of purely feudal states does not appear to have been part of the obligation on which the Church held her lands; and in the Inquisition of Ulster, the details on the features of Herenage and Corbe prove how jealously the septic principles of distri¬ bution and headship was observed by the Irish septs, down to the late period at which the confirmatory sanction of the diocesan was required. It is evident that the first action of the State on the Church was to confirm and make legal the exaction of tithes. But both tithes and grants of land were left to the free en¬ joyment of ecclesiastical bodies. The clergy became the chosen administrators of the sove¬ reign or his deputy, notably as lord chancellor and lord justiciary. The general body of ecclesiastics also became entitled to a place in council, as the most learned of the governing classes, although they do not derive the rank which gave them such elevation and honour from the Crown alone, until after the Reformation. Thus, the Church, in her proprietary character, first sought countenance from the State, then held equal rank with state officials in administration, but becoming, at length, in fallen fortunes, a creature of the State, is now relegated as outworn for administrative uses, to her original function of teaching by exposition. Past and Future. 31 But that the right of the independent transmission of property was absolute in the Church corporations however elected or constituted, is evident from the minute precision with which surrender of their trust by abbots, friars, and heads of societies, of male and female devotees, is quoted in the roll of Henry VIII. It may be conjectured that the national distaste for pay¬ ment of tithe for ecclesiastical dues arises from the per¬ manent law which such alienation interposes to the practice of distribution of feudal possession under the Brehon Law. And it may also be inferred in corollary that from this feeling of resistance, the small tithes in Ireland are less numerous than in England. However, a surplus there will be, the consideration is how to apply it, since the purpose of a general and proportionate payment to the clergy of the different Churches is abandoned, as a direct consequence of the unsolicited protest made by the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. The surplus determined, appropriation is to be considered, and here the action of the House of Commons recommences on the question of national purposes. Such national purpose as should absorb the entire sum. But two objects exist— the relief of the poor, and national education; and each fulfils the qualification required, being coextensive with the imposition of the tithe rent-charge. The relief of the poor may be distinguished into two principal branches—occasional relief of all able-bodied men and women, and children, and the support and sustenance of infirm and aged poor. The Poor Law has been framed with great caution, in order to make lavish expenditure impracticable, and to supersede inconsiderate charity by a wholesome, though severe, economy in relief. The ecclesiastical element has moreover in distributing relief, been superseded by the civil administration, which asks no questions as to creed. Now, to place any permanent fund, drawn from the im- 32 The Established Church in Ireland . mediate locality, under the power of issue of any body of administration, would infallibly revive the degrading elee¬ mosynary system of monastic dole, and perpetuate all the heart-burnings which clerical competition would not fail to bring into activity. It would be understood that in each parish, or electoral division, or union, a fixed property existed—that, namely, of the poor, to which pauperism had as much claim as any other class enjoys to incomes guaranteed by the State—claimants would increase, and as the original fund of fixed amount would certainly soon be overburdened, an additional fund, in the shape of a new fluctuating rate must be provided. The motive for economy in distributing relief would cease, and a pauper population be perpetuated, increasing at the normal rate of the fertility of the Irish people. But a more serious evil will be generated. The list of claimants on this fixed fund will be practically unchangeable, but the selection for such prizes will be viewed with distrust, and would probably justify the feel¬ ing. Permanent relief will be considered so large a boon, that no opportunity will be spared to place a favorite can¬ didate on the list by influence, lay or cleric. And in the most pauperized and peopled portions of Ireland, the Roman Catholic population must, on the record of the census, form a large portion of the claimants. Here, then, a return is made to the evil of religious differences, from which, at a cost so heavy, escape was sought. The rent-charge is drawn from the country, through the help of the proprietors of the land. The proprietors of the land are mainly Protestant, and the conclusion reached is, that a fresh grievance arises in Ireland, and the Protestant proprietors are desired to assist officially in developing a new plague of pauperism, without any benefit in alleviation of a proceeding so utterly wasteful and demo¬ ralizing. As regards the establishment of retreats for aged poverty, answering to the private alms house of England, with Past and Future. 33 reasonable and considerate comfort, that purpose is now judiciously carried into effect in many unions; but if any portion of the reserved property of the Church Established in Ireland be applied to charitable uses, it should be within those well defined limits. An objection alike in principle to that which disqualifies from applying such funds for relief under the Poor Law, weighs, though less heavily, for appropriations in aid of hospitals. Yet it is truly very painful to be compelled to obedience to rigid rules, so very alien to the liberal outspring of the national spirit. The alternative plan remains to be considered. For the applica¬ tion of these funds, it has been assumed, must be national, and if possible, local. In the modified system of reform proposed for the Church Established in Ireland, a portion of the funds was designed generally for augmentation of small benefices with large con¬ gregations, and this practice obtained under the rules made by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to a limited extent. The principal objection was, that the practical effect was to aid the wealthy province of Ulster out of the poverty of Munster and Connaught. But it is not fact that for this purpose Munster and Connaught were poorer than Ulster and Leinster. And as respects the proportion of benefices to be suppressed as having congregations below forty, the number of parishes subject to this rule are proportionately very equally divided. And there is every reason to suppose that an absolute severance of the rent-charge or its substitute from the districts whence it was drawn would generate much distrust on the part of the proprietary class, who might willingly adopt or promote an allocation to purposes of general use¬ fulness. blow, in Ireland, no specific exists powerful to restore the public health in matters of government. The continuous design of ruling by division, to which all policy was moulded down to 1829, traced out the limits, moral and D 34 The Established Church in Ireland , practically material, within which lay two nations within one island; and to this day, in the northern towns, national distinctions are proclaimed on the very walls of the Irish and Scottish quarters—a practice which obtained in the garrison towns of the other provinces, as, for instance, at Kilkenny. Tartar and Chinese alienation could go no further. Against such disruptive force every sagacious ruler is bound to exhibit counteracting powers. The moral obligation which lies on the State to furnish supplemental education, is en¬ forced by the just and humane policy which asserts all equitable means to bring all classes into civil accord and harmony. If the tendency be to an unhealthy isolation of classes or creeds, facilitate communion of thought and community of action in matters of civil interest; and the National system of education in Ireland is eminently fitted to this end. In a matter so closely touching the rights of conscience as an interference with the internal discipline of a Christian Church, the State, in my judgment, is not permitted to exercise authority; but there are some duties to which the State is bound even with the prospect of arousing conscien¬ tious opposition. It is the duty of the State, to see that our streets are lighted, and that the public is free from apprehen¬ sion of violence;—that our dwellings are secured from the presence of fever, from preventible causes, neglect, or care¬ less habits. It is no less the duty of the State to see that education is diffused as far as consists with civil freedom. “ Oh, for the coming of that glorious time, When, prizing knowledge as her truest strength, And best possession, this Imperial Realm, While she exacts obedience, shall admit An obligation on her part to teach Those who are bound to serve her and obey. Binding herself by statute to secure To all the children whom her soil contains The seeds of moral and religious truth, Both understood and practised ;—So that none, However destitute, be left to pine, Past and Future. 35 By timely culture unsustained, or run Into a wild luxuriance ;—or be forced To toil through weary life without the aid Of intellectual implements and tools:— A savage horde among the civilized:— A servile band amongst the lordly free.”— This surplus then should be appropriated to the develop¬ ment of the educational process now established in School, College, and University throughout Ireland, as the National system. An objection may be urged by some to providing teachers and materials of teaching from this fund; but it certainly may be applied to construction and maintenance of buildings for educational purposes. Here the question divides itself into that of primary, and in a higher grade, of collegiate education. It is of the first necessity that the primary education of Ireland should be of a general andnotof a denominational type. With regard to Collegiate education, much maybe said in favour of a separate system; especially with reference to the distaste in the Roman Catholic mind to the special studies and reasonings of Protestant culture. However, at Trinity College, Dublin, the facilities of¬ fered and accepted by Roman Catholics have often been acknowledged by themselves. At Maynooth, it may be asked whether it was not originally intended that the laity, as well as those preparing for the priesthood, should com¬ plete their education there. The establishment of Magee College in Derry, indicates a desire, doubtless, for separate education felt by some of the Presbyterian Church; but the new Establishment will be helpful rather than antagonistic to the Queen’s Colleges, and to the Presbyterian College, long established at Belfast. We have lately learnt that the Roman Cathotlic Hierarchy claim for the establishment of their Uni¬ versity privileges which no British Government could allow. The contest on University Education represents the edu¬ cational difficulty in its most obtrusive form, being pervaded D 2 36 The Established Church in Ireland , by the Papal dogma, which asserts the exclusive right of ecclesiastics to the direction of all education, lay and clerical. But it may be doubted whether the Church of Rome does not over-estimate the probability of retaining in spontaneous obedience young men entering upon the pursuits of real life, or partially engaged in its real combats; and whether, also, unnecessary apprehension of separate collegiate education does not affect the arguments of the opponents of grouping Colleges into University. One rule, however, admits of no exception—namely, to withhold from all educational associations exclusively, or vir¬ tually directed by ecclesiastics, the support of the State. I have adverted elsewhere to the restricted use of the Na¬ tional system caused by the general abstinence of the clergy of the Church Established; but it has been maintained by suc¬ cessive Governments, as opposed to the denominational, at the risk of the loss of whatever power may be transferred to the parochial schools under the exclusive management of the clergy of the Establishment. The objection of the clergy of the Established Church is, that they are not permitted to adopt the Bible as a book of reference at any time in the day that they might desire. As respects the quality of teaching conveyed without sec¬ tarian tendency in the schools, both vested and non-vested, or under private or public patrons, much patience and skill have been devoted to compiling suitable selections. Concesssions have been made to the scruples of the Pres¬ byterian Ministers and Roman Catholic Priests; but the qualifications imported into the original system have but very partially removed the distaste of the Established Church to the system. When the school is vested, that is, under private patrons, a difficulty exists which is not felt in the district model school, under the control of the Commissioners for National Education. There the children of all denominations attend indifferently in the secular classes, and on Friday, at Past and Future 37 2 o’clock, receive catechetical instructions under members of their respective churches, clerical or lay. The Parliamentary grant for 1868-9 was £360,195. Now, assuming a large proportion of difficulty to exist in the influence exercised over schools by private patrons, let one school at least in each parish be vested in the Commis¬ sioners, on fixed and published regulations. And it is emi¬ nently probable that if the clergy of the Established Church were allowed a reasonable discretion, their concurrence might be more largely obtained. But the place of the patron, where obligations become sometimes very onerous, should be supplied by a parochial council, to be selected from the cess-payers at large, on whose representation schools should be established by the Board, and maintained out of the reserved property of the Church, at no other cost to the public than the children’s penny payments. The Board also should, as the representatives of the parish school committee, order the special times of religious in¬ struction. If, however, the imperial taxation is relieved from the charge of providing the means of National Education in Ire¬ land, it is but just that an equivalent should be offered in the shape of grants for objects of Imperial use, though on Irish ground. In providing for the future support of the Clergy of the Disestablished Church, the report furnished by the Royal Commissioners will supply the means of adjusting the pro¬ portion of charge and outlay. If an approximate calculation can thus be formed, the apportionment of the property of the Church from one fund, a commencing difficulty would be obviated. From this scale also might be deduced the proportion available for an epis¬ copal fund, and for supplying ministration by circuit, for isolated or small congregations. 38 The Established Church in Ireland , The position of the parochial clergymen may be made one of usefulness, dignity, and ease, with the inexpressible ad¬ vantage of a rival church to enforce activity in ministration. To repeat the assumed decision of the Commission of Tenure, let the value of life be calculated, and the interests of all incumbents be estimated and purchased by the State. This fund should then be placed under Commissioners to be named by the authorities of the Church, with selection by the Crown. The advowson would then be a possession of the annual value of the capitalized life interest. This should be calculated as a State purchase at 3J per centum. For the purpose of facilitating purchases, 5 per cent, for forty-two years would equitably, at 4 per cent., redeem the fee. The Glebe house, and a proportion of Glebe land, will doubtless he left in possession of the Incumbent. The Church will fall to the care of the proprietor of the advowson, and may reasonably depend on the combined responsibilities of the proprietor and of the parishioners. But a large class remains of clergy whose condition will be more directly and seriously affected than any that have been noticed. A body of young men, and of men who have taken up the ministry young, who have toiled unweariedly for long years with but scant reward, and whose employment and subsistence depends on the chances of life or caprice of liking, await the result of impending changes with the firmness and self-reliance of the Irish Protestant Clergy, but with sadden¬ ed, and scarcely doubtful prospects. In the parochial service of the Church are at least 600 curates stipendiary, and clergy holding perpetual curacies, who may be styled beneficed. These educated gentle¬ men have prepared themselves for the ministry at much cost; they have entered a profession from the civil obligations of which they cannot be released, and have adopted and dedicated themselves to a life which in action or in sus- Past and Future . 39 pended employment, is inconsistent with the practice of other gainful and honourable professions. The field for their labour, if not limited absolutely, is practically circum¬ scribed, and the result of legislation, if logical and unmodi¬ fied, will be to restrict them in their future and reasonable expectation of prosecuting the career they have selected to a due reward and honour. It may be urged that such chance and change are incident to all; yet when an industry is interrupted in deference to public necessities, the class displaced receives liberal consider¬ ation. It will be urged that opportunities of gradual ab¬ sorption into the active ministry will present themselves; but j ustice demands that no present harm should be done; and that calculation will be the most difficult, and should be the most elaborate which shall determine the value of the interest of that most excellent class of clergy, the working curates. All questions of exchange, and of maintaining congrega¬ tions, should be referred to the Diocesan, and by him annually to the governing body in General Council of the Church. And it should be further provided that all proceedings in conformity with the authorised organization of the Reformed Episcopal Church, should have the force of contract, after presentation as matter of record in the Privy Council Office in Ireland. Let it be assumed that the disestablishment of the Church being imminent the members are desirous of preparing for the altered condition of the Institution. For this purpose the general views of those in Church membership must be ascertained with all possible precision and under constituted authority. The Church being, for the present, under the authority of the State must seek relief and assistance therefrom so long as legal connection exists between the two. Now, Convoca¬ tion of the clergy supplies an appropriate resource, so far as the clergy is concerned, and synodal action might combine in final deliberation the people and the clergy in delegation. 40 The Established Church in Ireland , The objections that have been urged against endowing Convocation in either country with effectual power, should not be permitted to prevail at this juncture. It is due to the Church to afford every facility for resettlement on such a basis as her members in general representation shall decide; and it is therefore right that the future organization of the Reformed Episcopal Church in Ireland should be moulded under the decorous and solemn discipline of rules prescribed during establishment by the State. A general council, comprehending Convocation and dele¬ gates of the Laity, is for essential purposes a constituent assembly. From its deliberations will result mighty changes, as may be foreseen, in the form of church government. The decision that shall be adopted thereat will be the regulating code of the future Church, and the conclusions attained will shew whether the chief of the Reformed Churches in Ireland shall remain as now an example of pure evangelical practice, of liturgical and consistent discipline, or be scattered through¬ out the land, an incoherent and shifting mass of episcopal congregations. It would then be a gracious and acceptable act on the part of the Crown to permit the Assembly of Convocation. How natural a resource Convocation furnishes to a perplexed church was strikingly shewn in 1698. But more than an act of grace, the concession to the Irish Established Church, to assemble in Convocation and Synod would be an act of justice. The subjects for discussion would probably be the general form of Church government, of Courts of Appeal, and of Discipline, appointment of the Episcopate, appropriation of Church property, formation of Diocesan Synods—formation of funds of sustentation of the Episcopate, for occasional ministrations, and general purposes;—Headship. The problem assigned is, to combine a church penetrated with the free processes of Protestant thought, in the sponta- Past and Future. 41 neous subordination of individual opinion, which is required in religious bodies under episcopal guidance. The precedent of the disestablished Church of Canada, in the inception of its system, will, furnish matter of comparison, so far as an identity is to be assumed. The later career of that Church may well warn against the most obvious cause of failure; but it may be assumed that the maintenance of the Reformed Episcopal Church in Ireland is assured. Of the principal heads of discussion, three claim special notice. For all constituted bodies, special and authoritative courts, to decide issues of discipline and controversy are a requisite of professional existence and efficiency. The material interests and obligations of the members to each other, or to the corporate body, may be adjusted in the ordinary civil courts, and some cases of application as to the interpretation of a trust may not be found beyond the prac¬ tical competence of civil tribunals. But courts of less tech¬ nical procedure find an appropriate duty in deciding dis¬ puted points of interpretation; one of the functions of the Privy Council. But so soon as the Church is disestablished, reference to the Privy Council as an official tribunal, repre¬ senting on behalf of the Crown, the popular lay element, is barred, except by consent on the one hand, and leave and licence on the part of the Crown. For the question of disestablishment naturally entails that of connection with the Crown. The practice of the Colonial Episcopacy has been much adverted to as for guidance or illustration in this case; but I am not content that the position of the Church of Ireland should derive a precedent from action in Colonial possessions, where it may fairly claim and form one for its own behalf. Assuming disestablishment in the widest sense, it is still and beyond doubt in the power and the right of the Church disestablished to declare a supreme authority which shall give 42 The Established Church in Ireland , consistence to action, and forms for general proceedings; and the Church disestablished, as it may be, is as justly en¬ titled to place its organization under the control and au¬ thority of the Crown, as the unestablished Presbyterian Church in Ireland to formulize Church discipline Funder Presbyteries, Synods, and General Assemblies. And from this springs directly the question of headship, in the Reformed Episcopal Church in Ireland. From the passing of a statute of Disestablishment of the Episcopal Church in Ireland, the power of the State ceases. It would be subject of grave argument, whether an appeal in matters ecclesiastical to the King of Prussia—to the King of Holland—or to the Assembly of Divines at Geneva, would entail the consequences of ‘ premunire.’ Since the Free Episcopal Church would exercise an indefeasible right to place the deposit of power in last resource, wheresoever it might seem good to the general body—a perfect freedom would exist to select the Crown as the supreme arbitrator in causes for adjudication by a supreme authority; but it will natu¬ rally be objected that it would scarcely consist with the practice of the constitution to advise that the Crown be empowered to appoint special courts, proprio mota; for the Courts of the Duchies of Cornwall and of Lancaster, are administered by responsible Judges. It would again be an equitable recognition by the State of the uniformity of doctrine of the disestablished Church in Ireland, to authorize reference to the Privy Council on points of discipline and dogma, as has been heretofore prac¬ tised, on petition to the Crown from the Reformed Episco¬ pal Church in Ireland, through authorized representatives. The third special point is on the appointment and institu¬ tion of the Episcopate. A disestablished church means really elective Episcopacy, as is to this day prescribed by custom affecting promotion to the office. The conge d’elire respects the ancient right of election, although the form has alone remained to the present day. Past and Future. 43 And finally, amongst the difficulties of detail in respect of the hierarchical government of the Church under the new system, the disposal of dignities will require careful adjust¬ ment. The new organization supposes the elective principle to have superseded that of direct nomination, and for the moral health of the Church such substitution is wise, and enforced by the necessity of the times; but more than all combined arguments in its support, this mainly exists: that the principle of proceeding by election, is in accord¬ ance with the old practice of the Church Christian, has, and has been, and notably still is observed in the election of the Bishop of Rome from the first age, down to the latest assembling of the Sacred College in conclave. Yet it may be questioned whether under the altered con¬ stitution of the Church, it be not expedient to change the relations existing between diocesan and dean from a con¬ current action into a graduated transmission of authority from the superior to the dignitary of the inferior grade. The capitular system must undergo adaptation to the new life of the Church by recurring to the original inten¬ tion of the constitution of dean and chapter; that thus the cathedral corporations should form centres whence uniform and consistent discipline should radiate through a diocese. Hence also Ministration by Circuit for small congregations would be provided. It appears, then, that the offices of dean and such capitu¬ lar dignitaries as may be required for effective ministration, should be filled on the appointment of the diocesan, subject to confirmation by the primate or provincial chief. And with regard to the office of Archdeacons, this dignity should be in the appointment of the Diocesan. The impor¬ tance of his duties can scarcely be over-estimated; he should fill the position of the Bishop Coadjutor in the Romish Church, free from the inconvenience which attaches to the presence and partial control of a Reversioner to the See. 44 The Established Church in Ireland , Then it follows that corporate bodies should be treated in respect of revenue as the corporations sole. Although it will not be difficult to frame an intelligible and consistent scheme for equitable diversion of ecclesiastical appropriations to educational purposes also, a varied treatment would suggest itself. The funds hitherto devoted to exclusively Protestant education arising from this source, might be added to the general fund applied to national educational uses. Such might probably be the course of action recommended in constituent convocation or general assembly of the Esta¬ blished Church in Ireland, to be holden speciali gratia. The extent of the sacrifice required from the Church esta¬ blished in Ireland, is certainly not realized to the English mind. In a country of abiding traditions, all the record of ascendency gained by zeal in doing the work of the too many English Governments, is at -once to be closed. Traditions of separation by race exist, and the division in the people may, without much care, be traced with a more rigid line, if possible, that of ecclesiastical demarcation. For in propor¬ tion as the old Ecclesio-Orange feeling has abated in the Protestant Churches, the pretensions of the Romish Church have been further advanced, and her dogmas enforced with increasing strictness. And this is another of the paradoxes attendant on Irish national life, that the Establishment exists with the largest power of expansion in Ulster, where the general basis of possession is by purchase or colonization, rather than by foreign conquest in the sense of those succes¬ sive occupations effected under the Plantagenet and Tudor sovereigns in the other three provinces. However, the sacrifice is to be made, and it may be fairly assumed that national benefits will result. The action of the State must be comprehensive to be effectual, and pro¬ ceed to annul all payments in money, whether statutory, or by annual vote of the House of Commons—excepting to military and naval chaplains, chaplains in jails, hospitals, Past and Future . 45 and workhouses—and this exemption is for special and obvious grounds, that where service, crime, sickness, or misfortune, restrain free agency, central authority is hound to provide spiritual instructors. The condition of the Presbyterian Church in its varied divisions, remains to he considered. Of the energy and continuity of the Presbyterian minis¬ terial action, but little is perceived in England. Their congregations number 560, their ministers 598 with¬ out including the Remonstrant, synod, and some other pres¬ byteries, with manses in proportion. Their numbers are con¬ tinually advancing, not simply in numerical computation, but in the more important direction of founding congregations in permanent places of worship. It has been stated to the Royal Commissioners that their special colleges are well furnished with the means of preparing for civil and ministerial life the sons of the prosperous and well-affected inhabitants of Ulster, and of those, less frequently distributed throughout Ire¬ land. To this body of religionists no smaller measure of consideration should be dealt than to the Church, and here the capitalization of funds actually appropriated by grant, will meet the occasion. The manses have been built, with the exception of seven, within twenty years, I believe; and it would be but equitable, in removing all State support from this clergy, to repay to the Congregational Trust in each case, the one-half of the building cost of the manse and of the meeting-house, in¬ curred within thirty years. There were in 1834, 1882 parishes, in which the Pres¬ byterians had no member” of their community; but in 1861, this group of parishes was reduced to 1,261, proving that they had broken ground in 623. And during the same interval they had added 545 to the next group of from one to twenty members, which in 1834 should only be 143. The Presbyterian Church in Ireland is divided into two principal branches, represented by the General Assembly of 46 The Established Church in Ireland , Ulster, and the Remonstrant Synod. In this body, as in the Church of Ireland, much diversity of opinion on the subject of State support, to the extent in this instance of endowment only, has been found to exist. At the General Assembly, held June 31, 1868, a vote was taken on the resolutions of the House of Commons. But it is thought that this decision will be reversed at the next General Assembly. And it will be observed on reference to the Appendix ( B ), that the Endowment of error, e.g. the Roman Catholic Church, is rather the object of deprecation, than the prospect of Disendowment of the Presbyterian Church, by withdrawal of the “ Regium Donum.” But at that time, a bare announcement of the approach¬ ing withdrawal of connection with the State from all churches in Ireland was presented to men’s minds, as a propo¬ sition simple in its predicates, stern and hash in outward seeming, of which the modifying details were yet unde¬ clared, of which the whole uses had not as yet been expounded. It is believed that the proportion of votes will be mate¬ rially changed on the next occasion of reference to the Assembly; and it is more than probable, that the general spirit of Presbyterian earnestness, will induce that Church to adopt unreservedly, and in the spirit of their fore¬ fathers, the moral risks of disruption, which the latter faced in another and material sense, when they left their native country to preach in freedom the promises, and inculcate the doctrines, of the Solemn League and Covenant, on the wild frontiers of Antrim and of Derry. In forecasting the future of the Church Disestablished, the position it will hold to the Reformed Churches in the island, must be taken into account. The tendency of the Roman Catholic system is to divide Ireland into two nations, and the result will be for the pre¬ sent, at least, to form two masses, antagonistic as regards Past and Future, 47 principle of Church government, and divided by a clear line of geographical demarcation. Now, one of the consequences of the awakened attention bestowed on Church discipline, has called into activity the spirit of which Hooker speaks: “ every later (church) endea¬ voured to be certain degrees more removed from conformity with the church of Rome than the rest before had been; whereupon grew marvellous great dissimilitudes, and by reason thereof jealousies, heart burnings, jars, and discords amongst them.” Ecc. Pol. c. 11. 3. Still the Presbyterian Church bestows more cordial glances on the Episcopal Reformed Church than as of old. At the commencement, indeed, of the century, the accord of indifference maintained peace; before the close, it is highly probable, that community of general purpose will practically have combined with harmonious sympathy all the Reformed Churches, as against the dogmatic teaching of the Papacy. And the Presbyterian Church has not for more than a century and a-half, endured the trials which harden men’s hearts, in religious persecution, or civil vexation. Even in the days which preceded the dragoonings of Claverhouse in Western Scotland, the Episcopal Church, and the Church of the League and Covenant, interchanged official ceremonial. In the Adair MS. it is stated that Bishop Echlin, of Down and Connor, assisted in the ordination of the Rev. Mr. Blair, a Presbyterian minister, in Antrim, in 1623, sitting as a Presbyter with “ the adjacent brethren.” Bad counsels governed the Established Church later, and the bond parted under the pressure; yet it is no vain hope to foresee the time, when, as Milton has written, the “ agile maniples” of the Reformed Church, will pierce the unwieldy legions of the opposing creed. And it is a happy circumstance of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, that there is no political pre-eminence, no social power, no high place in the State to forego. More- 48 The Established Church in Ireland , over, the legal position of the congregations receiving the Regium Donum is cognate to that of the Established Church, for the grant was originally made in compensation of tithes and benefices, whence Presbyterian ministers had been thrust forth. It was decided by the Royal Commissioners, as soon as Mr. Gladstone’s resolutions were affirmed by the House of Com¬ mons, that, respecting the future management of the Church the course of each individual member should remain unfet¬ tered, since the whole subject had been extended much beyond the bounds prescribed by the Royal Commission, and in a totally different direction. I determined consequently to take such opportunities as might occur of vindicating my individual right to an opinion on the state of the Irish Church, apart from the collective decision which was adopted by the members of the Royal Commission. I desired to form an estimate of the spirit in which the Church Established in Ireland had received the Report of the Commission, and the prospects of future legislative change, by attending the Church Congress, which, by a re¬ markable accident, was this year held in Dublin. The composition of the Church Congress is by voluntary assembly of prelates, dignitaries, and members of the Estab¬ lished Church of Great Britain and Ireland. It met under the presidency of the Archbishop of Dublin, and amongst other distinguished dignitaries of the English Church, the Bishop of Oxford held the foremost place. In the table of subjects prepared for the consideration of the meeting special reference to the political future of the Irish Church was carefully excluded; but being uppermost in all men’s minds, references more or less relevant thereto arose during the sittings. The general table referred to points of interest at all times; — “The Religious Societies, and how their economical and efficient working might be best promoted.” “ The hindrances Past and Future. 49 at home and abroad to the progress of Missions.” “The relative functions of the Church and State in National Edu¬ cation.” “ Church Work and Life in Ireland.” “ How the Church may best secure and retain the attachment of her younger members.” “ Lay agency, and its authority and system.” “ The state of the American and Canadian Churches; their organization and practical working.” “Con¬ vocation and Diocesan Synods in England and Ireland.” And the closing day was devoted to the consideration of the Liturgy; position of the Church in reference to physical science, and the periodical literature of the day. Two of the subjects named pointed to the future organiza¬ tion of the Irish Church—viz., the discussion on “ Church Work and Life in Ireland,” and that on the “American and Canadian Churches.” And, first, of “ Church Work and Life in Ireland.” The Dean of Cashel introduced the subject in a paper marked by Christian boldness and rare perspicuity. He set forth fear¬ lessly the right of the Church of Ireland to respect in her parochial ministrations. He pointed out three chief obstacles to the practical development of her latent resources—the re¬ lation of the episcopacy to the clergy; the want of lay support, derived from the presence of a resident proprietary, and the consequent strain that was thrown upon the powers and the resources of the parochial clergy. This difficulty he epito¬ mized by a happy expression, that, “ In England, the country gentleman's house is the centre of civilisation, and it often happens that the difficulty of the Clergymen is to keep pace with the progress of his lay parishioners. In Ireland in very many instances, the picture is reversed. The manor, where it exists, owes as much, if not more to the parsonage, as the parsonage to the manor.” He also showed, wdth a clear and just comprehensiveness, how, from the first institution of the Irish Church, the English Government had abused that Church’s position for State purposes, and had systematically E 50 The Established Church in Ireland, employed it as an engine of political use to within a very recent period. The Rev. Mr. Irwin explained more particularly the working of the parochial system, and proved that, what¬ ever may be the disqualifications, as a State engine, of the Irish Church, her internal organization is fully adapted for any field in which labour may.be applied; and, in fact, the present active play of the Church is so exercised and employed, and has been for thirty years. It is not to be supposed that the decisions of the Royal Commission would altogether be free from criticism; but a due respect was shown to the authority from which the Com¬ mission issued, and to the intention of the Commissioners; and although I, being present as a Royal Commissioner, might have taken opportunity to discuss the provisions of the Re¬ port, I judged it, on the whole, more expedient and condu¬ cive to the general purpose, to abstain from discussion, while I took note of the criticism which was offered. I had another, and a very different purpose in the short statement I made to the Congress. I desired to make it evident, that while the mind of the Liberal Party in England was immoveably fixed on the decision arrived at by the majority of the House of Commons, they yet recognised the purity of dogma, the sim¬ plicity of doctrine, and the Christian gentleness of discipline which prevail in the Established Church in Ireland; for, indeed, I deemed it a most fortunate chance that enabled me, having within a few days addressed thousands of the Liberal Party in England, to speak with authority of the impression in this matter which prevailed among liberal Churchmen and Nonconformists. I told the Congress that they received, on matters of Church organization, the sym¬ pathy and respect of religious men, who knew them only by report, and that I had told the Englishmen I had so lately addressed, that I should state in Ireland, the claim that I had urged on behalf of the parochial clergy of the Church Established in Ireland to the confidence of the Reformed Past and Future. 51 Churches in England. I felt that it was eminently due to the parochial clergy of the Irish Church, to tender honor for their faithful adoption of the plain practices which comprehend the Christian Congregations and churches. I told the Congress, also, that the laity, Liberals and Non¬ conformists alike, declared that they would not pluck down that church to elevate a rival, and that, with a noble con¬ fidence in the power of the principles of the Reformed churches, they neither apprehended encouragement to Ro¬ manism, nor danger to the Church of England from the proposed change. The discussion on the second subject, that of the American and Canadian churches, revived the question of disestablish¬ ment and disendowment of the Irish Church. It is scarcely necessary to notice the organization, of the American Episcopal churches, in a condition of society so widely different from that of the old country. But the Canadian church, in its recent history is indentified in the sense of an establishment, on some characteristic points with the Irish Church. The Canadian, like the Irish Church, was imported through conquest, and supported by the active power of the State. Like the Irish Church it encountered from time to time an inert mass of resistance, which indicated latent difficulties, and was always interposed as an evidence of State Policy, though not so directly as in Ireland, between a large propor¬ tion of the Canadian population and the supreme government. As in Ireland, a time at length arrived, heralded by the convulsions of political strife, and civil war so peculiar, that conviction was forced upon the government and legislature, that the period had come when ascendancy in political position must be refused to the dominant church, and equality established betweeen the three rival churches by an absorp¬ tion of all revenues and appropriations to departmental or municipal purposes. A difference between the distribution of church property E 2 52 The Established Church in Ireland. immediate subsequent to disestablishment in Canada, and of that which is proposed in this country, assuming disendow- ment will exist. In Canada the produce of the Clergy Reserves was, in the first place, to be appropriated, to main¬ tain existing interests, and then to municipal purposes exclu¬ sively; and by “ municipal purposes” is understood, the discharge of departmental expenses, such as are defrayed by ordinary municipal taxation. In Ireland, whatever may be the appropriation of the Re¬ venues of the Irish Church, no conversion to purely munici¬ pal purposes has as yet been suggested. No analogous distribution would meet the equity of the case. So much for the points of resemblance between the past condition of the Episcopal churches established in Canada and in Ireland. But it is certain that at the crisis which has proved adverse to the maintenance of temporal power and to the retention of the revenues of the Irish Church by her members, a noble parallel to the disinterested self-denial of the Canadian clergy and laity will not be wanting in Ireland itself. It cannot yet have fallen within the knowledge of the general public, how the parochial clergy of Ireland have received the intimation of change conveyed to them by the Resolutions adopted in the late session of the House of Commons. I have had personal opportunity of conferring with many of them in Ulster; and I find them animated with a fixed resolution to respect the law, with a determina¬ tion to persevere in their duty, regardless of the occurrences of the dajr, and with a conviction that the power and strength that now reside in the Reformed churches of Ulster will be continued and perpetuated in their successors, whether tem¬ poral endowment from the State, or from their congregations supply the means of future support. But it cannot be too clearly insisted on, that the searching investigation in order to adjustment which must necessarily precede a settlement, involves points of intricacy and delicacy, and of historical Past and Future. 53 uncertainty which it will require a very considerate and practised exercise of judicial intellect to decide. Now mark how rapidly earnest men build up a church. In December 1854, an Act of the Canadian Parliament transferred the clergy reserves, that is the land of the Reformed Episcopal Church of Canada, subject to existing life interests and Incumbency, to the municipalities. In May, 1857, the Royal Assent was given to an Act of the Canadian Legislature, empowering the bishops, clergy and laity, of the Reformed Episcopal Church to meet in General Assembly, and to regulate the affairs of the Church in matters relating to discipline. In August, 1858, an Act of the Provincial Legislature determined the assemblage of Synods for these purposes. In 1861 the first Provincial Synod assembled, at which the Bishops of Montreal, Quebec, Toronto, Huron, and Ontario were present. The Synod declared in four articles; First: that they desired the Church in Canada to continue an integral portion of the United Church of England and Ireland. Secondly: that they adopted the canon of Scripture set forth by that church; the Book of Common Prayer; the Thirty-nine Articles; and Church government by Bishops, priests, and deacons. Thirdly: that they maintained the Queen’s supremacy over all persons within her dominions, whether ecclesiastical or civil. Fourthly, to form a constitu¬ tion for the Provisional Synod; to provide for ecclesiastical discipline, by endowing canons, and establishing a court of appeal; to provide, with consent of the Crown, regulations for appointment of bishops, priests, and deacons; and, with like consent, for division of the country into new dioceses. The Act of the Canadian Legislature which transferred the clergy reserves to the municipalities, not only reserved the life estates of all existing incumbents, but further pro¬ vided, that the incumbents might commute their life estates for a capitalised sum. The clergy of the Diocese of Toronto appear to have commuted at once their life estates; but in- 54 The Established Church in Ireland , stead of taking the value for their individual benefit, they gave it to form a fund for the Diocese to be denominated “ the Clergy Trust Commutation Fund,” which now consti¬ tutes a fund of endowment for Diocesan purposes. In the session of 1856, the Lay Delegates of the province passed the following resolution, in acknowledgement of the disinterested and munificent conduct of the clergy. “ That the Lay Delegates embrace this opportunity, unanimously, of informing the clergy, with what admiration and gratitude they have witnessed their unbounded liberality and devotion to the cause of religion, by surrendering to the Church the commutation money lately received by them from the govern¬ ment ; and to assure them, that they, on their parts, will endeavour to spread abroad among the people the desire of imitating so bright an example of self-denial and zeal.” In 1857 the Diocese, through the devotion of its clergy, was in possession of a Commutation Fund amounting to £222,620 currency! In Montreal the Commutation Fund is valued at 100,000 dollars. In Huron Dioceses the Commutation Fund amounts to 265,549 dollars; Quebec also has Diocesan Synods. Reflecting on these matters, it appeared to me not doubtful but that the Free Episcopal Church in Ireland would emu¬ late such sincere zeal. Doubtless, when that first Provincial Synod of 1856 assembled, there were many who looked forward with an anxious gaze on the darkening future of the Church. There may have been some who turned with regret to the loss of ceremony and circumstance “ and tide of pomp wnich beat upon the high shores of this world.” A few may for a moment have distrusted the strength of the principles of the Reformed Churches, or have feared exaltation for that rival faith which shares Christendom with the Churches of the Reformation. But there were none who despaired: and this noble devotion is even now gathering in her reward. The creed of the Reformation passes westward with the spread of British Past and Future. 55 industry and British intelligence; it mounts already to the sources of the mighty streams which issuing from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, form fresh highways to British Commerce, and it may be well foreseen, that before many generations, nay, years, have passed away, the spires of the Reformed Churches whose metropolitan origin is in the Canadas, will glitter over the Pacific, completing the visible circuit of that mighty circle of evangelical truth with which England has girt the world. The next subject, “ the Convocation of the Diocesan Sy¬ nods ” was liberally and reasonably handled; but on a subject in which the co-operation of the Laity forms an essential element of the discussion, much variety of opinion was mani¬ fested in a remarkable way. For, while on this,—and indeed it may be said, on most subjects there was a party of affir¬ mation, and a party of denial, there was also a third, which by its silence indicated an anxiety to ascertain under what new forms old principles awaited a new existence. And again, to resume the parallel of Canada, in connection with the whole question,—I would respectfully submit these conclusions and suggestions to the rulers of the Church Established in Ireland:— The State made, and the State can unmake. State neces¬ sity raised and established the church in Ireland. State necessity will cause its displacement from that exceptional position of power and pomp. I counsel, then, a noble and dignified submission to the will of the State, when clearly and unequivocally expressed.—Such was the sacrifice,—and I can thoroughly estimate the pain of the sacrifice; which the Established Episcopal Church of Canadamade atthebid- di/ng of the Civil Power—such sacrifice, when again required of an older and more powerful body , cannot fail, if freely conceded, to secure a corresponding and abiding influence, and reward for those who have laid deliberately on the altar of the State the costliest offering that has ever been required, of patriotism, in story, old or new IRELAND AND HER SERVILE WAR. BY COLONEL ADAIR, F. R. S. LATE A ROYAL COMMISSIONER ESTABLISHED CHURCH, IRELAND. WITH ADDITIONSJIN BRACKETS. PKEFACE. These pages were written shortly after the repression of the first Fenian Insurrection. The course of time, and the lessons that have since been learned, have not materially changed the position of Ireland. England is more weary of the Irish controversy than she was then, and far less hopeful of a permanent settlement. After the fashion of Parliamentary Government much delay has been interposed in consideration of constitutional right and practice. Legislation is now invoked to decide the religious system of Ireland, with a very unexpected purpose. Therefore sug¬ gestions that were feasible, have ceased to be applicable in the new scheme. Yet the principle that the State is supreme arbitor, as urged formerly, still remains unshaken. It was thought right to allow these opinions to re-appear in their original shape, and expedient to shew how far on the Irish Church public opinion had advanced, and through what novel phases; and that much that was possible then, is im¬ practicable now. CONTENTS. PART II. PAGE The Irish Character ... ... ... ... ... ... 7 Difficulty to comprehend ... ... ... . ... 8 Anomalies noticed ... ... ... ... ... ... 8 The State Trials of 1843 ... ... ... ... ... 10 Mr. O’Connell’s power—its decline ... ... ... ... 12 The party of Moderate Politicians displaced ... ... ... 12 The Famine of 1846-1847 ... ... ... ... ... 13 The Physical Force party arises ... ... ... ... 14 There are no specifics for Ireland ... ... ... ... 15 Governmental organization ... ... ... ... ... 17 The Lord Lieutenancy—should be abolished ... ... ... 21 The Chief Secretary—should be in the Cabinet ... ... ... 21 The Under Secretary’s important duties ... ... ... 22 Religious feeling of the Irish People ... ... ... ... 23 The Established Church—her teaching ... ... ... ... 25 Provision for surplus funds ... ... ... ... ... 27 The other Protestant Churches in Ireland ... ... ... 29 Their probable combination ... ... ... ... ... 30 The Roman Catholic Church ... ... ... ... .. 30 The change in the appointment of her Episcopate ... ... 31 Payment of the Roman Catholic Clergy ... ... ... 32 Education—should not be denominational ... ... ... 34 National Education was at one period supported by all the Roman Catholic Prelates except one ... ... ... ... 35 The Land—Tenant Right explained ... ... .. ... 37 What Law can do—What it cannot do ... ... ... ... 47 Absenteeism one of the greatest evils from moral considerations ... 51 Emigration—a doubtful palliative ... ... ... ... 53 Colonization—a nobler'process ... ... ... .. 54 Resources oLIreland—Sir Robert Kane ... ... ... 55 Finance—Irish Capital abundant ... ... .. ... 57 Law—The Judges—The Juries—Quarter Sessions—Encumbered Estates Court ... ... ... ... ... ... 58 Local administration ... ... ... ... ... ... 59 The Grand Jury—The Poor Law—Constabulary ... ... 60 The result of organization by Legislation ... ... .. 60 The Fenians—their origin ... ... ... . 61 A Foreign Publicist’s opinion ... ... . . ... ... 61 The Fenian Trials ... ... ... ... ... ... 63 Unanimity in Verdict to be maintained ... ... ... 64 There are other Irishmen than the heroes of Novels ... ... 69 Consequenees of the Repeal of the Union ... ... . . 71 Time and forbearance requisite .. ... ... ... 74 IRELAND AND HER SERVILE WAR. For three hundred years the English rule has been general throughout Ireland. The boldest, most warlike, and most industrious races of Great Britain have contributed to form the nation. The original Irish race had for teachers the most celebrated of mediaeval ecclesiastics, and their schools were the resort of European scholars. The national character is of great beauty; for devotional feeling, kindliness, courage, and the intellectual acuteness diffused throughout all ranks. In many respects it resembles the Greek, and in none more than in the apprehensive vivacity and play of intellect. Yet her labouring classes have been involved in a combina¬ tion so widely spread that it has ceased to be a conspiracy. The civilized world has thrice witnessed a general despair of similar origin, in the working classes; the Jacquerie, the Bauerkrieg, the Swing riots of the agricultural counties of England in 1831-2. It has been easy, for the time, to suppress the armed folly of insurrection, but the pulsations of the earthquake shake down as surely as the bolt shatters. 8 Ireland and her Servile War But on the wealthy and educated classes lies a duty which is theirs of right, and with which, in England, Government does not interfere. To advise, direct and encourage,—it is in such general co¬ operation of all classes that the sole safety for Ireland lies— lest, when contented workers are sought, Helots, with their obsequiousness, their vices, and their spirit of blind rage be found. The Irish genius pervades and absorbs, or rather suffuses with its own tints, the character proper to the nation whence the stranger has come. With all the materials for prosperity and compactness she is the most disunited of the nations. Learning turns to clash of discordant theology; a spirit eminently devotional is perverted to fanaticism; the laborious nature to an abandonment of his own country, to which no man is more attached than is the Irishman. So pitiable a spectacle discredits the Government which rules; but more, far more, the governing classes which pos¬ sess her land and enjoy her resources. But now, Government can do little. The remedy is in the hands of her own people. Amongst the various circumstances which tend to embarrass the consideration and just settlement of the main ques¬ tions that complicate the condition of Ireland, one of the most prominent consists in the false light in which Irish questions are viewed by the British people, arising from the imperfect mode in which they are presented to the considera¬ tion, as well as from an innate difficulty of comprehending the relative value and bearing of facts. For although no pains are spared by strangers to comprehend the exact position of the country, in order to a just and fair estimate of the troubles that beset her course, and impede well being, clear knowledge is with difficulty obtained by both friends and critics not resident. It may be, then, that a responsible administration of large estates, and the discharge of local duties as a magistrate Ireland and her Servile War. 9 during twenty-five years, together with a participation in the social and political events that have occurred on Irish soil within that period might enable the writer to present fairly facts and experience from which he has drawn deductions which, though satisfactory to himself, may not carry the same conviction to all. These are submitted faithfully, however strange the facts may appear, to their clear and deliberate judgment, in the assurance that each statement will be re¬ cognised to be just and true by some large section of the Irish people. It will be his duty to explain, wherefore a country better accommodated to the present system of agriculture in rearing stock sheep and raising root crops, than even England herself, should nevertheless have at times suffered so materially from the prostration of her agricultural markets; why the manu¬ facturing industry which has made prosperous the northern province, should have failed to strike root in the other three; why the organization of laws framed with more philosophic insight than the English, should fail to realize administrative results; and finally, whence it is that the genius of a people, inferior to none in intellectual activity, is wasted abroad, and the perseverance which is rewarded by success, should rarely be stimulated into successful activity in Ireland. Like the herb Moly, “ It in other lands “ Bears a bright golden flower, hut not on this soil.” It would seem that, for the clearer elucidation of the complex relations, in which Ireland is involved, it is advisable to study the history of the country immediately antecedent, and the movement under which Ireland at present stands perturbed and England astounded, traced down. Ireland is eminently a country of tradition, in which traditional and personal government is powerful in the ad¬ ministration of affairs. The popular mind of England can scarcely apprehend the extent. The latest and most power¬ ful embodiment of tradition applied to political action on F 10 Ireland and her Servile War. government in Ireland was shown in the career of the late Mr. O’Connell. It is proposed, then, to commence these remarks from the latest historical period applicable to the present condition of affairs,—from the date of the State Trials of 1843-4. Mr. O’Connell, it will be remembered, had for many years been engaged in the systematic development of that agitation which reached its culminating point in the autum of 1843. He embodied the political traditions of his countrymen from a period far beyond the recollection of almost all whom he addressed. The influence of those traditions upon him mani¬ fested itself in this, that in all his plans for the regeneration of Ireland, his policy was eminently and exclusively national. He shared the spirit which animated the preceding genera¬ tion of politicians and statesmen, by whom the Volunteer associations of 1782 were organised. Ireland for a period, was raised to the anomalous position of a country, governed in contravention of the more powerful portion of the same empire. The effort for independent legislative action which Grattan and Flood maintained, Mr. O’Connell revived in the latter part of the struggle for Roman Catholic Emancipation: but with this difference, that whereas Mr. O’Connell’s efforts were principally devoted to the liberation of the Roman Catholics from what remained of penal disqualification, the Volunteers of 1782, except in Belfast, made scant mention of the rights of their Roman Catholic fellow-subjects. But Mr. O’Connell’s policy, being truly national, although speci¬ ally directed to the enfranchisement of his co-religionists, did nevertheless embrace in its scope whatever of good might flow from the measure upon which he strongly insisted—the repeal of the Legislative Union. He counted on no alien sympathies, and looked for no foreign aid. In the progress of Mr. O’Connell’s agitation, the evil instinct which would seem invariably to accompany the diffusion of ideas of change, resulted at last, even under Ireland and her Servile War. 11 his cautious guidance, in the display of physical force at the monster meetings which perplexed the Irish Govern¬ ment. The trial, conviction, and imprisonment of the great agitator and his more prominent followers followed. It was indeed a strange time. The masses of the impressionable Irish peasantry awaited but the slightest indication of O’Con¬ nell’s will to hurl themselves on the troops. They waited patiently, and in vain; for that great master of agitation was powerful, during his period of popular sway, to restrain from dangerous tumults force which, on slight provocation or encouragement, would have plunged the country inextri¬ cably in the hazards of civil war. On the one hand, the great mass of the people, arrayed and under his control, gazed sullenly on their opponents; on the other, the moderate party, who having consistently vindicated the rights of the Roman Catholics, yet either doubted his power or his will to restraining his partizans; as well as the political opponents of agitation, and of the Whigs, who believed that the Tory system of administration had given opportunity of develop¬ ment to Mr. O’Connell’s power. Throughout the country the fortified barrack and guarded mansion-houses proved alike the forethought of the Executive, and the distrust of the wealthy proprietors. Then came the State Trials. In Dublin, an anxious and attentive curiosity pervaded all ranks. The best intellect of the Irish bar (and there is none more acute), delighted the public with brilliant displays in the prosecution or the defence of Mr. O’Connell and his traversers. Speculation was rife as to the disposition of the jury fearlessly to do their duty (for it was well known what influences had been employed to affect the issue of that trial); and there was much doubt whether, if conviction should be the result of their verdict, the Government would dare to remove their idol from amidst the people, and to break the power which he had so successfully asserted, and so confidently wielded. The verdict came, and imprisonment followed; and, as Mr. F 2 12 Ireland and her Servile War . O’Connell himself acknowledged, from that hour he felt a diminution of his moral strength, and that his influence had waned. With Mr. O’Connell’s incarceration virtually terminates the period of agitation governed and restricted within forms of law, and based on statesmanship. It was soon clear that no single hand was now capable of wielding the power which he had won over the masses—and it was scarcely probable that any of the younger generation could restrain and modify the action of the party of movement. At this period, the transition from well-reasoned and or¬ ganised agitation to heedless, and wanton resistance to the idea of Government was proved by a significant fact. There still existed in Ireland, at the time of these State Trials, a diminished, but influential body of Politicians, who might he described as the Whig party. They held that place between the adherents of the old repressive policy and the enthusiastic men who followed the new agitation, which gave them weight in less excited times. They conceived it to be their duty upon this occasion to mediate on behalf of the country between the two parties. It soon became evi¬ dent that the exasperation was too fierce to admit of their interposition, and from the period at which legitimate agita¬ tion, that is, agitation within the law, ceased, the Whig party lost a position of permanence and of usefulness in the system of Irish politics. The moment, however, at which revolutionary organisa¬ tion was to be substituted for that which prevailed under Mr. O’Connell was deferred by the most awful public cala¬ mity which has fallen upon a nation within the record of modern history. In 1844 the State Trials terminated in the conviction of Mr. O’Connell; in 1847 the country lay ex¬ hausted and suffering in silence under the great famine. And yet, terrible and overwhelming as that disaster was, it is not the least of the anomalies of the history of Ireland, that at no period was there more complete absence of crime Ireland and her Servile War . 13 or agitation; at no period was the public service more faith¬ fully conducted or developed. The large body of well- trained officials whom the Irish Government has always had at its disposal, performed, in the most efficient manner, the duty which pressed upon the departments with extraordinary severity. For it is not to be supposed that the complaints of misappropriation of public funds, and neglect of public duties in administration, were drawn forth by carelessness or incapacity on the part of the official body. In this great stress of calamity, the Irish people, who, above all others, require personal and direct guidance, who will always give loyal obedience for loyal guidance, found their natural leaders and chiefs too often embarassed—ill able to direct or assist. But wherever, as in Ulster, the gentry, the clergy, the merchants, and an active middle-class gave their services, the evil was comparatively of slight incidence; at least, not aggravated by unskilful and wasteful expendi¬ ture. Throughout the remote, helpless, and abandoned districts of the South and West, one cry of desolation arose; but, to the honour of the famine-wasted people, few acts of organised resistance to law impeded the labours that were devoted to alleviating their sufferings. It may not be uninstructive to remark, that the Financial Committees, established at a late period by the Government, consisting of three of the gentry, and a Government officer, administered the local finance of famine with success. Thus the Financial Committee represents, not inaccurately, the proportion which should prevail between local and govern¬ mental power. Throughout Ireland there was peace, and it was not until a partial recovery from the calamities of the preceding year had given strength and heart to those who aspired to suc¬ ceed to the power of O’Connell, that agitation revived. In 1848, the physical force of agitation was again made mani¬ fest, and, although it produced no result, save the disgrace¬ ful capture of its chief, and defeat of his adherents, it has 14 Ireland and her Servile War. not ceased most mischievously to affect the popular passions of Ireland. And it may he inquired why, in this especial instance, the agitation was less strongly developed than before? A conviction had gradually forced itself upon the minds of the more educated of the Repealers, that the power of the empire was not to be trifled with, and that some larger inducement than the bare pleasure of developing speculative ideas was required to persuade leaders of position and education to assume their place at the head of the dis¬ contented. It was a just remark of an eminent judge, made some years since, that the dangerous classes of Ireland would no longer be found amongst men of position, and such as had given pledges to fortune, hut he recruited from the body of small shop¬ keepers, or the sons of farmers—from the classes who resided in the towns and large villages, to whom an education of unusual excellence had been given, but to whom no future presented bright hopes. 1 Sine re, sine spe Still, to one who believes with indestructible faith in the possibility of Ireland raising herself by her own efforts from her present state of doubt almost of despair, it is evident that, so far as the raw material for labour and a demand for its results affect the problem, such employment might be provided upon her own soil as would retain the services of the best of her youth, while others passed forth to extend and strengthen the empire at large. It cannot be an ordinance of nature that an Irishman should leave the Irish soil an exile, to emerge beyond the Atlantic a steadfast enemy to the British power. The sources from which this evil has sprung can be traced. We shall have adopted and made the error our own, indeed, if it be perpetuated. Hence it is, however, that twenty-one years after the State Trials in Ireland, an alien influence is found sufficiently powerful to revive wild and baseless hopes and to induce an unreflecting, although educated, portion of the population to affront at all hazards a power which they cannot but see day by day must overwhelm them and confound Ireland and her Servile War. 15 their plans, but before which they, as yet, have shown few signs of retreat or hesitation. If there he still a hope that the Irish system of social and administrative government can be maintained in a state suited to the country, although it may, in some respect, not altogether consist with Imperial ideas, it must be based on aiding the national bent and tendencies, by simple efforts, and not in the exhibition of specifics, or through hope of speedy relief from unexplored sources of employment, or unusual devices of administration. It is in such action that relief will be found, and in the certain assurance that some means may be found sufficiently simple in conception and large in applica¬ tion gradually to ensure and effect that well-being of Ireland, which born of contentment, if now neglected, mayindeed be long deferred. The incapacity of strangers to Ireland to comprehend her social position, has been noticed. Ireland, indeed, is an enigma to herself, and but few Irishmen born thoroughly understand the bearings of general questions upon the whole of that country. Ireland is a country of tradition;—Ireland is a country which partially assimilates and absorbs into itself all foreign nationalities, and yet leaves the original character at the core. There are seven distinct nations in Ireland, each with special gifts and qualifications although welded together by that spirit of nationality which is so peculiar to the Irish people. The descendants of the Anglo-Norman conqueror occupy the counties of the East and of the Pale. In the north-east, in Antrim and Armagh, the Scottish race pre¬ dominates ; in Derry an English civil population of the early part of the seventeenth century finds its place; in Cavan and Fermanagh the descendants of Cromwell’s soldiers occupy the bulk of the land; in Sligo and Mayo, what remains of the Celtic population finds its accurate type; in Galway the Spanish element is exhibited; and in Central Ireland, the Germans of the Palatinate have founded a colony whose influence extends over a large proportion of Queen’s and 16 Ireland and her Servile War. King’s County. The families gentle and simple descended from the military colonists of Elizabeth occupy the country west of the Barrow, and south of the Shannon. To each of these special divisions into distinct races the others are almost unknown; the South has difficulty in comprehending the North, and the North is scarcely informed on the feelings and ideas of the South. Much will, unquestionably, he effec¬ ted by the interchange of thought resulting from improved modes of communication; but still that process will be slow. It must be recollected, that, in a country exclusively tradi¬ tional, the generation has scarcely yet disappeared to whom distant communication was unknown except amongst those who had engaged in the disastrous rebellion of'98, with whom the recollections of that civil war lingered long. And this ignorance is not confined to the lower classes. Irish official life seldom leads to an accurate estimate of the wealth, the orderly organisation, and prosperity of Ulster, for Ulster rarely requires the adjustment of law which the other provinces demand, in deference to their peculiar habits of civil life. It is said also that the representatives of Southern commerce and manufactures were unprepared for the proofs of the successful enterprise of Belfast which greeted them on a late visit. If, then, it be more difficult for Irishmen to understand Ireland, how much more difficult, however excusable, in those who are not native born, or even children of adoption. Thus may be gauged the enormous mass of doubt and of conflicting considerations which beset the questions affecting Ireland. Anomalies abound, and, though none need despair of the improvement of Ireland through her own strength, it must be by a patient and deliberate grappling with natural and special difficulties, in aiming at right judgment on matters of the highest import, and as they appear through the confusion, pretension, and misunderstanding of Irish political life. The history has now been briefly traced of the period of that quarter of a century within which it is proposed to con¬ fine the present argument. Ireland and her Servile War. 17 Let it now be inquired how far the governmental organi¬ zation of the country is suited to the present time, and, then; of what improvement this organization may be susceptible, or of what more effective application. All administration in Ireland springs, theoretically, from the action of the Lord-Lieutenant, assisted by the Chief Secretary, and by the Under Secretary of State. Government to be successful in Ireland must be in accordance with the national genius, which is traditional, and must also, unhappily, to a great extent be personal. It may be said “ unhappily,” because the qualities of the governor, imputed or real, in¬ fluence the march of society to a degree inconsistent with the ideas upon which a responsible Government is based. In the first place, the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland has of late years seldom had the good fortune to be considered popularly the governor of the nation at large, but has, with or without his consent, been identified with the success of a political party. In the original institution of the office, however, it was not so. The Lords Deputy of Elizabeth, of James, and of Cromwell represented the Imperial determination to reduce Ireland, through the representatives of the English Crown, to a condition which should assimilate it to England. The office then was well adapted to its uses. The Lord Deputy received his directions from the Sovereign, or from the Privy Council and, in the disturbed state of society which prevailed through this period of direct rule, he received a large delegation of independent action on matters of organization, and not affect¬ ing questions of Imperial Government. But, when the last serious effort of resistance to the central Government had been trampled down by the success of William III., the consti¬ tution of the office, the personal importance of the represen¬ tative of the Sovereign, and his power of usefulness were materially diminished. To an age of direct and pitiless consolidation, succeeded the Parliamentary period. During this stage of the government of Ireland, it was of more importance that the Viceroy should rule by the assistance of 18 Ireland and her Servile War. the great families who professed and found their interest in professing adherence to the authority of Government, then that he should depend on tardy instructions, which might restrain the adroit arrangement, so necessary to Parliamen¬ tary Government. Thus, then, the Castle had ceased to he the representative of direct Imperial rule, and had become rather an exponent of principles which were predominant in the Parliamentary policy of England. The period of conquest had passed, and the era of political management was established, which may be taken to extend with an unbroken current to the summoning of the Parlia¬ ment of 1782. Under the excited national feeling of 1782, Dublin became a city of noble dwellings, of public buildings, of large charitable institutions, the true representative city of Ireland. Then, under the impulses of their new-born release from Imperial control, the Irish people, the Protestants tha^ is, governed themselves—for at that time the Roman Catholic element was not introduced into the Councils of the country. The Rebellion of 1798, and the passing of the Act of Union, substituted for this effervescence of independent thought and animated action the uncertain, hesitating rule which has since distinguished the English Government in Ireland. For a period of fifteen years, indeed, subsequent to the Union, during the spasm and effort of the French War, time and breathing space were afforded, during which Ireland visibly increased in material prosperity at a more rapid rate than at any period since her subjection to the British Crown. But the exhaustion which followed the termination of that con¬ test had its effect upon Ireland also, and there, as in the sister country, to exhaustion succeeded a feverish impatience of the defects in Constitutional Government, which, in Ire¬ land, led to the agitation for Catholic emancipation, as in England to Parliamentary reform. The first Lord-Lieutenant who was sent to represent avowedly the milder policy of the British Cabinet with respect to Ireland, was Lord Wellesley. In his time the Ireland and her Servile War. 19 British Cabinet commenced to govern in a party sense—but it was in the sense of the party of improvement, liberation, and freedom. It was during his viceroyalty that a Roman Catholic lawyer was taken for the first time into the confi¬ dential councils of the Castle—it was in his day also that an improved distribution of local justice was first established. To him succeeded in the same school of politics Lord Angle- sea, Lord Normanby, and a train of Viceroys who have successively endeavoured to present to the adoption of the Irish people as much of improvement as the nation in its different classes was disposed to accept. Yet the gift was tendered with a hesitating and uncertain hand. The first object of all liberal statesmen, of course, was to place upon the level of his fellow-countrymen the neglected Roman Catholic. But the act which should have been the offspring of pure spontaneous statesmanship was held to be the result or the reward of party combinations. The Roman Catholics were either feared or flattered, rather than treated as men who had had rights withheld from them, to whom those rights should be restored, without political consideration or compact. Hence arose a material diminution of the reliance on accurate insight and active sympathy which should have attached to the acts of the Lord-Lieutenant. He was con¬ sidered more and more the chief of a party, and that party one unequal moiety of the nation. In Ireland the individual feels himself advanced in the social scale through connection with Government. Hence, each change of the Lord-Lieutenant causes depression among those to whom he is opposed politically, and a corre¬ sponding exaltation among those by whom he is politically supported. For the Irish, with an intense spirit of partisan¬ ship, persist in attributing marked political tendencies to the Viceroy. With regard to the direct influence of the Lord- Lieutenant, his personal credit has been materially lessened by a rival power. Since the institution of the Chief Secre¬ tary has been adopted into the political system of Ireland, 20 Ireland and her Servile War. the Lord-Lieutenant of the day has held a position of co¬ ordinate, rather than of supreme authority; hut, as no states¬ man can with advantage hear the obligations of hated power and divided responsibility, the double office should be in the single authority of the Secretary for Ireland, and the diver¬ gent rays of power be thus condensed into one focus. Lord-Lieutenants have governed without ruling, as Secre¬ taries have ruled without governing. It is conceived, in popular belief, that the Lord-Lieutenant is designed to fill the part of the representative of the Sovereign in the pageant of society; while to the Chief Secretary is alloted the duty of informing the Home Government on matters important, but of which it has not been till recently, an axiom of State, that he should either originate, decide, or regulate the application. The representative of the Crown and of Imperial policy should not he compelled to discuss and modify his decisions on the representations of a Chief Secretary; for thence spring those signs of halting counsel, which in Ireland are fatal to authority. It is somewhat singular that the most important department of Imperial Government should have been so long left without an accre¬ dited representative in the Cabinet. India and the Colonies have their system expounded authoritatively by the Secre¬ tary charged with the department to his colleagues; but Ireland, whose welfare is of far more moment, is left to be governed by correspondence, or at second hand. It is well known that points of difference on questions of principle have, from time to time, arisen between a Lord-Lieutenant and a Chief Secretary; the Cabinet decides; and from whom does the Cabinet receive the impulse? There should be no diversity of opinion between the two chief officials, and yet such is very possible. Again, the office which in theory is subordinate, is that whose occupant is alone habitually re¬ sponsible in the Legislature; who alone is compelled to descend from his official Olympus into the arena of public life, and satisfy the inquiries of opponents and critics in the Ireland and her Servile War. 21 House of Commons. For although the Lord-Lieutenant, at rare intervals, declares a policy in the House of Lords, it is seldom to justify some passage of his delegated government, but to announce a success. It will be said that no accident of the passing crisis has shown the need of an organic change in the Irish Executive. In the presence of a great emergency, the Irish Executive has acted with the firmness and the lenity of strength, and in its actions has deserved well of the Empire. But the reins would not have been less firmly held in the grasp of a Cabinet Minister, and his advice would have been tendered with the weight of more constitutional authority. To draw forth and weld the latent energies of Ireland into one homogeneous mass of Imperial power is the noblest office under the British Crown. Let the government of Ireland be a crowning reward of public services; but the Governor should be responsible to his colleagues in the Cabinet as well as to the country. Assent could not be denied to the policy of a colleague, which might be withheld from the advice of a pro-consul. In a country whose susceptibilities are so lively, in which the pretensions of different classes of society are too difficult to arrange, in which prompt action, and action which should not only be just but recognised as such, is, above all things, imperative, a governor cannot adequately and faithfully dis¬ charge his duty unless he has not only made himself ac¬ quainted with the necessities of the country, but have power to carry his ideas into full and complete execution. It will be seen how evil may arise from control exercised by the Home Government on measures proposed by the Irish Government. It is therefore suggested that the Vice¬ regal Office be abolished, and the Chief Secretary be of right a member of the Cabinet, and thus of equal rank with other Secretaries of State. It is only on Irish ground that the Irish people can be studied. There are many points on which it requires a large knowledge of their particular idio- 22 Ireland and her Servile War. syncracy to appreciate the truth which lies below strange disguises, which it is nevertheless necessary to produce in its concrete form, in order to rule over a happy and contented people. Reference has heen made to the ignorance which prevails generally respecting the most influential of the four Pro¬ vinces of Ireland. The Chief Secretary has to reconcile the well-considered desires of the active and manufacturing North, as well as to supplement the weakness which the operation of time and of hard circumstances has left in the organisation of the South and West. Such know¬ ledge can only he acquired in the country itself; and effect should be given to the lessons of that experience, untrammelled by the doubts of a Cabinet bound to interpret modes of thought and forms of action with which they are unfamiliar. The Office of the Under Secretary is purely of an adminis¬ trative and organising character. He is irremovable by change of political parties; and Ireland, therefore, derives from him the full benefit of large experience. It is from his judgment that proceed all the marvels of administrative ex¬ cellence, which make the framework of Irish administration superior to that of England, but probably of every country except France. The several Boards which determine the valuation of every acre of land, and of every cottage and hut throughout Ireland; which reduce into an orderly system the arterial drainage of the country; which protect, even to the highest springs of inland water, the fisheries; and per¬ vade the country with the minute accuracy of the Census;— have prepared, for those who are to carry the operation into effect, systems of survey and of detail which admit of little improvement. In estimating the forms of policy suitable for the guidance of a sensitive, impulsive, and docile people, it is necessary to consider the strict line by which duties may be defined or privileges secured, but the effect which these reservations or Ireland and her Servile War. 23 privileges may have on the sentiment, the feeling, and thought, and such circumspection is abundantly necessary in dealing with the Irish people. In no country does reli¬ gious sentiment more thoroughly leaven the mass, through all the modes of Christian faith. In no country is the pos¬ session of land desired with greater avidity as a means of life, and of reputable existence, in Ireland. Is it, then, wonderful that the Church and the Land questions are the earliest and latest thought of Irishmen ? Of the religious department of the great Irish question, it is difficult to speak without encountering the suspicion of a forgone conclusion; but information was at first much per¬ verted even with the care of the Commissioners. It is probable that no work of statistics known to the present generation is more crowded with ill-founded assumptions than the Return of Ecclesiastical Statistics made in the year 1834, in which the entire Irish nation is distributed into the several professions of religious faith. The process was as follows:—The Com¬ missioners divided the country into districts. The Census of 1831 being taken as the base of population, lists were transmitted to enumerators, to insert the religion of each person; these lists were placed for public inspection. On arriving in a parish, the clergy were called before the Com¬ missioners, and were requested to name the members of their respective congregations. As may be supposed, a large mar¬ gin was left of unappropriated Christians; and then a contest of claims was substituted for the judicial examination by which the mode of faith of Christian men should be deter¬ mined. And yet this Report professes to decide the religious faith of eight millions of people to a soul. It seemed incredible that the faith of every human being could be thus defined. And there is too much ground to fear that even in Ireland there are large numbers to whom all creeds are a matter of indifference. [But in 1861, the process of enumeration was carried out by the Constabulary. These intelligent men concur in stating that to their applica- 24 Ireland and her Servile War. tion, some church was named to which the respondent belonged. This certainly shows that the general devotional feeling has caused even the careless to respect the outward sign of religious conformity.] There will he occasion to note the relative importance and proportions of the Presbyterian, Dissenting, and Roman Catholic Churches, and the rank that they will probably occupy hereafter. The religious question assumes the largest and most pro¬ minent place in any scheme for healing the unhappy dif¬ ferences of the country. Three great divisions of Christian thought—the Established, the Presbyterian, and the Roman Catholic—have well nigh occupied whatever of active faith is professed; but beyond the border of those Churches, and without respect to their rules of faith, stagnates an ocean of carelessness, or of infidelity. Active as the ministers of each Church are in the extension of their ^peculiar doctrines, they still cannot penetrate and enlighten the deep recesses where ignorance and crime fester; nor, perhaps, are they as gene¬ rally successful, as partial experience might lead one to hope, in impressing that religious completeness on secular educa¬ tion, without which all systems of instruction lack their crowning grace. It is desirable, nay, imperative, to speak plainly, yet temperately, on the subject of our religious dif¬ ference. Wise, unremitting forbearance will go far to abate the fervour of antagonism which now alienates the Protestant and the Roman Catholic Churches. Experience has shown that on questions of practical Christianity it is perfectly possible to combine all the Churches. Yet for or¬ dinary administration of charity between the Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches a great gulf is fixed. It is to be admitted and maintained as a firm principle that the Irish Established Church is pre-eminently a missionary Church. On this point the question which was asked by a late emi¬ nent statesman, as to what results of her missionary efforts the Irish Established Church could show may now be satis¬ factorily answered. Thirty years since, the Irish Church had Ireland and her Servile War. 25 not participated in tlie accelerated development of thought which was already beginning to agitate the mind of the na“ tion at large. She rested on her own time-honoured position, and viewed the attacks that were made upon her either with a contemptuous indifference, or met them with an ill-con¬ ceived, exasperated resistance. The tithe-proctor had scarcely ceased from the practice of his oppressive exactions,—the superfluous sees had but recently been suppressed. The first evidence that the Church gave of awakened life, was in the general resolve of her clergy not to co¬ operate in the new and liberal scheme of National Educa¬ tion. But, from that decision, embarrassing as it has been, and still is, one excellent result has been obtained. The spirit of the clergy was aroused to contemplate the new position in which the Church was placed; and from that day her ministers determined to justify, by their parochial use¬ fulness, the pre-eminence which they held by law. And testimony must be borne to the firm, and unobtrusive devotedness with which the clergy have maintained the principles on which they withdrew their schools from State control. It has become an axiom of State policy that no clergyman who opposes National Education, shall receive Government preferment; but the clergy have not abandoned their principles for profit. Converts, and, notably, that sagacious Prelate who administered the Primacy of Ireland with success and dignity for many years, have gradually been added. But when the choice lay between the support of principle and the favour of the Government, the general body of clergy of the Church of Ireland maintained the course which conscience dictated. Yet, it may be hoped that, in the moderated habits of thought with which Irish society must be pervaded or perish, such just and Christian accommodation on primary instruction may be found, as will bring back these labourers to that duty in the vineyard, which they have not hitherto held themselves free to perform. Again, the clergy of the Established Church have so G 26 Ireland and her Servile War. discreetly acted in matters political, that their active inter¬ position is, in Ireland, almost unknown. It is from the toil and the teaching of men of such constancy of spirit and fixed sense of duty, that great results have already been obtained in developing the practical expansion of the Estab¬ lished Church, and from which wider successes may yet be expected. Thus, throughout Ireland, the Church has given visible sign of awakening from a long slumber, in the rebuilding of her places of worship, in the extension of her congregations, in the more frequent assembling of her clergy for discussion and improvement, and in the closer identification which now exists between the clergy and laity for oecumenic purposes. In the diocese of Down and Connor, the clergy and the laity are annually assembled under the presidency of their Diocesan for discussion, thus proving that in the Church of Ireland that union of the congregation and its ministers, which is essential to every Christian church, is maintained. It has been clearly shown, that in some districts of Ireland the ministration of resident clergy of the Established Church is untenable; and it is hence concluded that the remedy, as regards the contentment of the Roman Catholics, would be to withdraw the Incumbent permanently. It is not proposed to enter, in this place, on the question of antiquity, or legal rights or properties that may attach to the Established Church, or to its Roman Catholic rival. It is not even requisite to weigh in argument the consideration of how far the fact of a Church being reputed national is consistent with the pretensions of many national Churches—the Scottish Kirk for instance. It is said that the Established Church is not the Church of the maj ority. Assent may fairly be withheld from the unqualified inferences which are deduced from this bare statement, for the numerical proportions on which it is based are continually fluctuating. The Church of England is prob¬ ably not in an absolute majority in England, or the Kirk in Scotland. Consequently, as regards the redistribution of the Ireland and her Servile War. 27 property of the Church in possession, it should either he amongst all the sects which constitute the majority as against the Church dominant, which is absurd; or, provision having been made for her ministrations, the surplus might be distri¬ buted amongst the Churches at present unendowed, according to existing need. But on what scale shall provision be deter¬ mined ? Are the restraints of Church discipline, or the ex¬ penses of education, or the social position of the body of the clergy, in any particular Church, to be taken as elements in the equation? It is certain that the Protestant Churches are extending their ministry solidly and firmly. If popular discontent perpetuate a sullen exodus, draining 'away the Irish strength which cannot be spared, the proportions will alter in a larger ratio than that which now constitutes these Churches twenty- two per cent, of the population; and which may fairly be taken to represent, at the very lowest, one-fourth of the wor¬ shippers. As respects wealth, intellectual position, public usefulness, and the discharge of public duties, the Established Church is vindicated in the persons of her members. Whether the Established Church has done its duty by the State the following extracts from the Census of 1861 will show:— Profession and Employment. Established Church. Roman Catholic. Presbyterian. Other Persuasions. Clergy . 2,265 3,014 677 322 Barristers . 498 216 13 Attorneys . Banking and Agency 1,078 1,698 674 1,820 96 Literature and Education 11,870 23,180 ( 4,110 Taken with Teaching. 9,000 11,000 1 Established Church. Medical . 1,219 761 293 Justice and Government ... 24,631 25,541 3,379 Civil Service . 6,187 13,022 7,078 Military and Naval. 16,110 10,960 2,084 Census of 1861 . 678,661 4,490,585 586,563 8,736 G 2 28 Ireland and her Servile War. It is just that national reserved funds should not be expend¬ ed except for national purposes, and that wages be the correla¬ tive of labour rendered; yet an equitable distinction may be taken between a suspension or terminable sequestration of unemployed funds, and a diversion in perpetuity from the purpose fo.' which they were originally designed and appro¬ priated by authority of the State. This position may be illustrated by the practice of the Scot¬ tish Kirk. There, as in Ireland, the principal support is derived from the land; but with the sagacious forethought which distinguishes the Scottish people, provision has been made for an equitable and terminable adjustment of the stipend of the minister to the duties which he has to perform. In the event of the tiends of the parish being in excess of the suitable stipend, a portion is reserved from collection under the name of “ Unexhausted Tiends.” It is in the power of the minister to appeal to the Court of Session for an increase of his stipend; but in the event of the augmentation being refused, the Minister is barred from application for twenty years. Here the principle is exemplified that the land is not permanently relieved from the eventuality of its burdens, while care is taken that no more than a just com¬ pensation be given for the services rendered. But the “ unexhausted” tiends are not diverted to the sustentation of the ministers of the Free Kirk, although their congre¬ gations, it is believed, outnumbers the hearers of the Estab¬ lished ministers. A principle, similar in detail, may be safely applied to the Irish Church, except that the funds should be levied, and placed, ad interim , under State control. For an analogous power was reserved under the Church Temporalities Act, Ireland, 3 and 4 Wm. IV., c. 37, by which appointments were suspended, being in gift of the King, or of any Ecclesiastical Corporation, where Divine service shall not have been celebrated for three years, the proceeds to vest in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, for building or general Ireland and her Servile War. 29 purposes, or to provide for the discharge of parochial duty. And 4 and 5 Wm. IV., c. 90: Presentation made under patronage of an archbishop or other dignitary, where Divine service had not been done for three years next preceding 1st February, 1833, should be void, if made before one month’s notice to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. But no reference is made to the obligations incumbent on lay pro¬ prietors of advowsons, which might with justice be enforced The Act authorising the levy of the impost called “ Minis¬ ters’ Money,” for the maintenance of clergy in the Protestant garrison towns of Ireland, has been repealed. But it is no less a matter of policy than of justice, that the property which was originally bestowed upon the Church be not alienated from the purposes for which it was inten¬ ded ; that is, to the uses which the State approves, designates, and confirms. And now, in referring to the positive incidence of tithe on tithe-payers in Ireland, a practical illustration may be adduced:—A proprietor purchased the great tithes of a parish which belonged to him, but of which he did not hold the advowson. It had been his custom to collect the tithe from his tenants, together with the rent, for the convenience of the lay impropriator, from whom he purchased. The tithes were then collected as before, but the two columns in the estate ledger which had been required to set forth th<^ respective accounts of tithe and rent were combined, and represented tithe amalgamated with rent. To pass over, as unworthy of this great de te, all the points of technical advantage which may be derived from legal pretension or prescriptive authority, the object of a statesman should be to set forth the Irish Church in her strength, or her weakness, before the Irish people. Let her claims be so weighed in the balance as the strictest investi¬ gation may demand. And, again, the Established Church does not alone repre* sent the Protestant feeling of Ireland, as distinguished from 30 Ireland and her Servile War. the Roman Catholic. Common modes of thought have drawn the Protestant Churches together, notwithstanding the essen¬ tial differences of Church Government. And it appears that a nearer combination will, in effect, be possible between the Established and the Presbyterian Churches. It is re¬ membered that a kindred principle obtains in each—in the Presbyterian through the rule of elders, and in the Estab¬ lished Church through the ultimate jurisdiction of the purely laic power vested in the Privy Council. But in referring to the religious condition of Ireland, the Roman Catholic Church must always occupy the widest space in men’s mind. Successive Governments have erred in the manner of their relations with the Roman Catholic Hierarchy and their Priests. Doubtless the memory of old oppressions and injustice has weighed deeply on the con¬ sciences of statesmen, and they have therefore countenanced a policy that was neither expedient, nor dignified. In place of a plain, intelligible, and respectful dealing with the ecclesiastical chiefs of the Roman Catholic Church, it has been too much the custom to show either an unbecoming haste to deprecate their censure, or a disposition to over¬ bear. There is no reason innate in the constitution of the Irish mind, or in the social habits of the Irish people, that a profession of religious differences should alienate one body of Christians distinctly from their fellow subjects; but there are abundant reasons arising from old wounds lialf-healed, from the hostility of traditional feelings still undiminished in intensity, and from a combination of causes, small, yet weighty in the aggregate, that instant effort be made to complete a healing policy, which, after three opportunities lost, is again presented for adoption—perhaps for the last time. At the passing of the Act of Union, at the removal of Roman Catholic Disabilities, and subsequent to the Great Famine, so fair and equitable an adjustment as might have given true satisfaction to the Roman Catholic body, and yet Ireland and her Servile War . 31 have caused no sense of injury to the Protestant, was possible. Once again the book of the Sybil is offered for our acceptance. The Government, the Churches, all that is excellent in intelligence and valuable in material in¬ dustry, are combined against the frantic and yet widely- diffused efforts of men for whose leaders churches have no teaching, intelligence no power of persuasion, and the promptings of whose mischievous activity would lead to a state not far removed from the barbarism of three hun¬ dred years since. It has been said that an adjustment was possible at three epochs; but it must be admitted that, for a large share of the difficulty of failure at the period last-named, the chiefs of the Roman Catholic Church are themselves responsible. The firmest Protestant friends of the Roman Catholics in their long struggle have seen with a regret, which yet they have not permitted to affect the liberal scope of their action, that the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland has ceased to hold, in the persons of her ecclesiastics, the independent position which in times of penal repression it nobly occu¬ pied. They have felt a gradual alienation, projected as a dark shadow from those high in place and in ecclesiastical authority in that Church, between the fellow-labourers with whom they toiled for political improvement and general reform, and themselves. The present constitution of the Episcopate, untrue as it is to the former practice and traditions of the Irish branch of the Roman Catholic Church, intensifies that alienation. The Irish of old sent their bishops to Rome—Rome now sends her bishops to Ireland. It is not that the prelates are less distinguished for learning, or the gifts which become the rulers of a Christian Church; but they receive their promotion directly from those who are unacquainted with the wants of the Irish people. If it be a hardship and an injury that Ireland should be governed by statesmen that know not her wants of personal knowledge, still harsher that anomaly must be 32 Ireland and her Servile War. that subjects the largest portion of her people to an hierar¬ chical influence determined by foreign ecclesiastics. In proportion as a Church, while it preserves its distinctive mode of Christian development, approaches to the muni¬ cipal character of the nation of which it forms a part, will its usefulness be increased, and its claim to respect from the State confirmed. Questions of dogma and discipline concern only the worshippers at the altar; amongst the most useful churches that continental Christendom has seen, have been those which, while deferring to the leading and general idea of their section of Christianity, have, nevertheless, not sacrificed national peculiarities to the delusive and alluring idea of Roman Catholic unity; as witness the church of Bossuet and of Fenelon. During the great European contest at the beginning of the century, the Irish Roman Catholic Church gave a memo¬ rable example of independence of thought and action. So long as Pius the Seventh remained the compulsory guest of the French Emperor at Fontainebleau, so long the prelates of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland accepted his decrees with reservation, as emanating from a Pontiff whose spiritual power was controlled in its manifestations by the pressure of temporal injustice: and as Christian prelates, they did well. And now with respect to the compensation, which, it is thought, might be offered to the satisfaction of the Roman Catholic laity in a material sense. I avow that I have had great difficulty in bringing my mind to consider the question of the payment of the Roman Catholic clergy in a favourable light. The time and the fitting opportunity seem to have re-appeared. The spontaneous support which the priesthood have given to the efforts of the Government to maintain the organization of society, so widely threatened, has redeemed them from the imputa¬ tion of subservience to their hearers. It is essential that the minister should be enabled to discharge his high func- Ireland and her Servile War. 33 tions without incurring the necessity of a daily dependence on those whom he teaches, or on the State whose subject he is; for, while congregations doubtless exist, whose liberal and enlightened views leave their pastor at perfect freedom, still, on the general view, he should possess the means, at least, of partial independence, in order that he may speak that which will profit his people, without stint, in season and out of season. But it has been declared that the Homan Catholic clergy object to a stipendiary provision. The mode of provision is of comparatively small importance, but the recognition of their usefulness is all. It is possible that in a country like Ireland, and with reference to the class from which the priesthood is generally taken, a provision in land would be felt as a preferable mode of assuring their independent condition. A power of alienation for Roman Catholic glebes might be entrusted to the proprietors of Ireland, and there are few who would hesitate to make that offering to the contentment of their Roman Catholic countrymen. And there should be a further provision, that the Parish Priest and Curate might receive a salary, under the certificate of his Diocesan, until the cure was provided with a glebe. It seems, then, that in the contest of reproach and recrimi¬ nation with which the partisans of either portion of the com¬ munity vex their discussions, there exists much of blame common to both, and that a principle of mutual accord may be found when differences have been fairly weighed. In the meantime, this much is eertain; plain and deliberate speaking on large and just inquiry must be followed by prompt and decisive action; and, if the inferences which are to be drawn from the history of these later times do not fail altogether, the present occasion presents itself with a singular adapta¬ tion to that blessed end. The next great department of State organization is that which provides for the education of the country. Without referring to the great University and Collegiate 34 Ireland and her Servile War. establishments, the Royal and the Diocesan schools, the schools of Erasmus Smith, and other foundations, there is no system of education which has produced such universally beneficent results as that which has been inaugurated under the authority of the Government as the Irish National system. In France, the Imperial system of education acquires additional power from the authority of the State; and it is known how practically the education of the Con¬ tinent is fettered, with the exception of Prussia, and of some of the Swiss and Dutch provinces. But it is to be feared that this system, which trains annually many hundred thou¬ sands of Irish children to know that there is no such thing as natural enmity between those dwelling in the same land, may now be so modified, in deference to an unreasonable outcry and unfounded distrust, that the principle which had passed into an axiom of Irish government, namely, that the State education of Ireland should be of a com¬ bined character, may be abrogated. The harmonious and healing operation of the national system of education is best exemplified in the operations of the district model schools, the management of which is vested exclusively in the Commissioners of National Educa¬ tion. One special hour during the week is devoted to re¬ ligious instruction exclusively. The children of the Estab¬ lished Church are catechised and instructed by a clergyman or their teacher. The Presbyterians are assembled under their minister, and where there is a Roman Catholic school separately established, the priest would generally withdraw the children of his congregation at the appointed hour to his own schoolroom, for the model schools are not as yet deserted by the Roman Catholic children, except for the convent schools. Thus hundreds of children may be distributed according to the creed of their parents, in the worship of their common Creator, with no other separation than the differences of their creed demand. The same school lessons are learned before the hour of religious instruction arrives; Ireland and her Servile War. 35 the same playground receives them after its close; they receive their education beneath the roof which their common country provides. It is a misplaced and timorous feeling that would separate them from the fear of failing hereafter in the lessons of that practical Christianity, the first grace of which has been declared to be charity. The effort to substitute denominational for combined education is a protest against the teaching of thct brotherly love which is an essential proof of the Christian spirit. But the operation of the denominational system in England, where the separative tendency is comparatively weak, does not encourage its adoption into Ireland. In England, happily, it is not necessary to teach children that religious differences do not entail social alienation; it is in Ireland a necessity of the State that this should be vigorously impressed on their young minds. There was a time when combined education was supported by all the prelates of the Irish Roman Catho¬ lic Church, with the exception of the Archbishop of Tuam. The judgment of the national Roman Catholic hierarchy then justly appreciated the healing nature of the national system, just as, at a latter period, the Roman Catholic pre¬ lates sanctioned by their influence the establishment of the Queens Colleges and Queen’s University. The doubtful advantage of the double headship of the Irish Government lately received illustration from the question of a Roman Catholic University. The objects of combined education in Ireland should be unflinchingly maintained, and the proportions of the governing body should be extracted from a compound equation of public utility, and of the religious interests represented. It is a duty to fix the scale, in deference to both principles, since a mere reference to the amount of public utility, without some consideration to numerical proportion, would be a ready cause of distrust, while an exclusive dependence on numerical superiority tends to substitute the preponderance of matter over in¬ tellect. 36 Ireland and her Servile War. But this question is now presented prominently to the decision of Parliament in the Charter which has been de¬ manded for the Roman Catholic College. The opinion of the Lord Lieutenant has been tested on the claim of the Trustees of the Magee College (Presbyterian) in Derry to be affiliated to the Queen’s Colleges as a distinct educational body. The decision of the Lord Lieutenant appears to be favourable to this ill-omened schism, and therefore to the prin¬ ciple of the Roman Catholic demand. The late chief Secre¬ tary for Ireland, on the other hand, appears to question the policy of this reversal of the State maxim: that education in Ireland should be combined. In fact the Roman Catholic College would hold towards the Queen’s University the position of the convent schools towards the model schools of the National Board of Education. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is therefore placed between these authorities and compelled to advocate a system, either of maintenance or abandonment, without having the means of forming a personal judgment, or having heard the question stated with the authority of a colleague. Those against whom his decision, in this instance assumed to represent that of the Cabinet, is pro¬ nounced, may well be concluded to dissent from the sufficiency of his judgment. The next question in importance is landed property. It is very difficult, if not altogether impracticable, for any single mind, however sagacious or however clear the judgment, to seize the minute details of landed arrangements in Ireland,— of the spirit which actuates the people as regards them,—and of the mode in which action, political or other, thereon affects any given case. Territorial division separates society into large and dissimilar masses. The land question in the North of Ireland differs widely from that of the South and West; and, again, in the Eastern and grazing districts of Ireland, other considerations prevail than those which would be found powerful in the small farms of the manufacturing North. And it is not only on the acquisition or management of land Ireland and her Servile War. 37 that so much stress is laid in popular discussion, but on the interest which the landlord or the tenant respectively shall possess. Hence the question of Tenant-right, which will be explained as practised in its original district, the North-East of Ireland. In the six counties of the North—Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Derry, Down, and Fermanagh—the structure of society is very different from that of the other districts of Ireland, and from these countries pure Tenant-right extended through Ulster. In Antrim and Armagh the Scottish settler estab¬ lished himself with his personal followers; in Down, the Anglo-Norman; in Derry, the citizens of London occupied their position with their civil households; in Cavan and Fer¬ managh an analogous process was observed by the officers and soldiers of the Commonwealth. The lord placed his adherents around him exacting man-service and a proportion of rent. On them fell the labour and charge of erecting their dwellings, and of reducing the land into a cultivable state. Gradually, and in proportion to the progressive rise in the value of land, the representative of the first landlord received from the representative of the first tenant an aug. mented rental; but still no outlay was made by the landlord in the erection of farm buildings, or improvements on the land. From time to time the tenants desired to relinquish their holdings, and applied to the landlord for his permission. This was granted under such restrictions as each estate adop¬ ted ; and, inasmuch as the landlord was rarely in a position to remunerate the tenant for substantial improvements, or for buildings, that duty by money payment was transferred to the incoming tenant, through private contract, subject to approval and modification by the landlord. It was the inte¬ rest of the landlord that the incoming tenant should not be so largely denuded of capital as to be unable to do justice to the land. In process of time, and as the surface of land narrowed as compared with population, a portion of the sum paid for 38 Ireland and her Servile War. entering on a farm was given as good-will, or as a preferen¬ tial payment by the incoming to the outgoing tenant. The process of obtaining a tenancy in the present day is this:— The tenant applies for leave to sell his interest, compounded of building, improvements, good-will, and labour. The land¬ lord selects the tenant most suitable. The price agreed upon, per acre, between the tenants, is paid into the agent’s hands, who deducts the arrears of rent that may be due to the es¬ tate, and transfers the balance to the outgoing tenant. Here then, is a double security for the landlord and for the tenant; the tenant is certain to receive a compensation for the outlay that he has made upon a farm, and the landlord is secure that the farm will be free from all arrears of rent. But this very advantage to the landlord is obtained at a great cost. It will be seen at once that a higher sum will be given, inde¬ pendent of the rent, for a tenancy on a well-managed estate, than on one where the owner is reputed grasping, or the management illiberal. If, for instance, a landlord desires to take a farm into his own hand, he must, as a just obligation, pay the outgoing tenant as he would be paid by an indiffer¬ ent successor; and in proportion to his liberality, the higher will be the tenant-right that he will have to pay, in order to re-enter on his own land. An estate well managed by a resident landlord will possibly be worth twelve or fourteen pounds per statute acre as tenant’s right; where a neigh¬ bouring estate in the hands of an impoverished landlord, or under tho management of a receiver for the courts of law, will not realize six; and, in the present condition of Irish landed property, probably there is no estate in the six north" eastern counties on which, from the proceeds of the property, the tenant-right which is equitably a lien on the land could be redeemed. Let the case be considered of a farm now changing hands at the rate of £13 tenant-right per statute acre. The value as rent per acre is 16s., and in estimating rent the buildings are not valued. It appears, then, that on the whole, taking the interest of money at five per cent., the Ireland and her Servile War. 39 tenant is paying 29s. an acre, of which 16s. is rent, and 13s. is improvement and goodwill. But it is as much from the knowledge that this equity is established, as from the con¬ tentment which results from the habitual employment of her industrious people, that Ulster has maintained her pacific habits. Such is the Tenant-right of Ulster. How far does it ac¬ cord with the scheme proposed for the other provinces? In the South and West of Ireland, whence the principal demand has arisen, the case is very different. The main body of the farming classes are descended from the adhe¬ rents of the native chiefs, who maintained a precarious and intermittent independence of the British Crown to a very late period. Their social and topographical circumstances are alike different from those of their countrymen in the North¬ east; and hence, doubtless, their civil condition was sensibly affected. A population scattered among the mountains and the far- stretching bogs of Western and South-western Ireland had very little, in their industrial habits, in common with the dwellers in the north-eastern counties, accustomed to sys¬ tematic labour, and more closely united in social intercourse. The antiquary may conjecture, and not without a consi¬ derable basis of legitimate assumption, that the septic or divisional principle was practically, if not avowedly, per¬ petuated in these districts. It is to the maintenance of this principle in the distribution and sub-division of land amongst the members of a tribe or sept, that the fractional arrangements under which a large portion of the Irish people have been plunged in a state of dependence and poverty may be traced. Much has been said of the land hunger of Norman conquerors and of Scottish and English settlers; but the intensity of desire which pos¬ sesses the Irish mind for the possession of land has a parallel only amongst the congenital race of Brittany and South¬ western France. 40 Ireland and her Servile War. Nor were political circumstances wanting in later years to aggravate this tendency to subdivision. During the intense struggle of political parties which ^distinguished the latter part of the last century and the commencement of the pre¬ sent, each landed proprietor took rank in the social hierarchy in proportion to the direct political influence he could place at the disposal of his party in the shape of a crowd of de¬ pendent voters. Hence, the abuse of the franchise originated in the institution of the forty-shilling freeholders and the introduction of the septic principle into these tenures, by in¬ cluding terms for life or lives to give legal effect to the tenure. Here, as we have so often remarked, the very efforts which in other countries would have led to social improvement and the advancement of the people, seemed in Ireland but to tend to a lower point of political and of social abasement. At length, in the wise and far-seeing judgment of Mr. O’Connell, the franchise of the forty-shilling freehold was perceived to be a sacrifice not too costly to offer in exchange for Catholic emancipation. But with a people sensitive as the Irish, es¬ pecially the lower orders, and jealous of such political power as remained to them, this extrusion from the position they had held was, there is reason to think, seriously resented. This feeling of neglect after the victory had been gained, as it doubtless was gained to a great extent, by the manifesta¬ tion of their power, around that latent discontent which the physical-force agitatois, after Mr. O’Connell’s decease, did not fail to exasperate. From the commencement of their efforts to raise in resist¬ ance thehnasses who represented the forty-shilling freeholders of the previous political arrangement, dates the rising swell of that cry for Tenant-right, which, in the South and West, means a demand for such perpetuity in occupation of the land as shall leave no security to the landlord of obtaining an equitable share in the progressive advancement of the 'ountry, and no assurance toj the State that the occupiers will form an industrious and a valuable class. Victims and Ireland and her Servile War. 41 puppets of the foreign emissary or the native demagogue, they have at last reached a stage of helpless discontent and aimless fury, at which it is now evident they could not fail to arrive. And is it strange that the peasant is so averse to law? He has had the miserable training of three hundred years; generation after generation has seen the same scenes repeated, has heard the same tale of ascendency and dispos¬ session. His class has been the tool of the emissary of Philip, of James, of the French Republic, of the incendiary from America. They who did the wrong have passed away, and the evil policy has died; but the memory remains amongst a people to whom alone of all the earth the present is both past and future—in their despair, as in their hopefulness. The curse of disappointment has come down with the weight of three hundred years;—from the confiscations of Elizabeth and James to the settlement of Cromwell, and the occupation by William’s soldiers; athwart the dead level of the penal laws, and the miseries that followed the wild hopes of ’98, in the ignoble struggles of Captain Rock, and the fever fit of Repeal, till the Great Famine closes the scene. It is an attractive but dangerous error to conclude that con¬ tracts, the essence of which is free agreement between man and man, can be made effectual by many legislative operations in inception. All that the Legislature can do is to record and to make binding a contract once effected, but the initia¬ tive must rest with the parties who are interested in the accurate understanding and observance of their contracts. Historically, then, the Tenant-right has no place in the system of Southern and Western Ireland. Politically, the en¬ forcement of such a Ten ant-right as is demanded would consist, when the subject is compelled to contract within fixed limits and according to specified regulations, rather with the attri¬ butes of despotic rule than of a free country. Economically, it is at best a palliative, unless under the Ulster limitations, of doubtful efficiency, and most probably conduces neither to the H 42 Ireland and her Servile War. wealth of the individual nor to the grandeur or power of the State. But it is remarkable how, in last result, two dissimilar processes show an equivalent effect. The remission of the current arrears of rent and a free passage to the United States from Waterford, where Tenant-right does not exist, coincide with the value of the Tenant-right paid on a similar farm in Monaghan. The landlord in Waterford purchased the virtual Tenant-right and resumed occupation. In Monaghan a new tenant made the outlay, and retained the equity. The confiscations attendant on the civil wars of the six¬ teenth and seventeenth centuries pressed on the population, that now asks for fixity of tenure. It should be remarked also that in Ulster a very large class of sub-tenants exist, who are the labourers of the farmers whose cottages they inhabit, and to whom they pay rent, and not to the head landlord. It should be well understood that the laws of property are to be preserved as firmly in Ireland as in Great Britain ; and yet a leading statistical journal declared that land, perhaps, should be dealt with on other principles in Ireland than elsewhere. And, so long as these rights are respected, it does not appear that the tenure of the land can be so altered as to suit the requirements of the tenantry of the South and West. The change required would convert tenancy at will, or by lease, into copyhold without fine; and yet it is from that system that England is now slowly redeeming her land. Small proprietors have not been successful in Ireland; neither in Mayo or Tipperary, where the farms are larger than in Antrim and Down, while in the South and West an unintermitted industry does not supplement deficiency of surface. Agriculture, in truth, in a highly artificial state of society, is averse to small farms as a sufficient provision for the house-* hold, grazing or tillage. The sole employment for the females of the family, except the degradation of field labour, in the West, is lace-working; and, in the North, muslin embroi¬ dery, at which employment, a workwoman can save annually Ireland and her Servile War. 43 about £1 5s. after paying her share of the family expenses, and buying her own clothing. Is it desirable, then, is it politic, to create by legislation a class which should unite the pretensions and the poverty of a peasant aristocracy? Ask Hungary. Are the peasant proprietors of France the most enlightened of the nation ? It is cruel to encourage the delusive idea. Let the Legislature leave contracts untrammelled; circum¬ stances will gradually place classes in their relative state of dependence,—the rich on the poor as well as the poor on the rich. The Legislature has properly facilitated the division of estates of an unmanageable extent, and has thus redeemed wide tracts from a legal mortmain. Let the purchasers re¬ member the maxim proclaimed to their predecessors: “ That property has its duties as well as its rightsand that the rental on old estates was usually lower than the precise Government valuation. Possession of land in Ireland is not simply the representative of exchangeable value. It represents far more, the happiness, well-being, the very existence of the cultivator. But adjust¬ ment of his claims can be successful only when in accord with the spirit of the true philosophy which discerns what is practicable through unaccustomed forms, and prefers unostentatious success to the maintenance of a theory. But although the reason for all that is based upon the de¬ mand alleged—namely, the right to compensation—is insuffi¬ cient, the demand represents a necessity and apprehensive feeling which should be conscientiously pondered, and, if possible, tranquillized. An excessive population had been encouraged and facti¬ tiously developed by a process doubly vicious. Tenancies were created by subdivision, to form freeholders; and the freeholders, in their turn, increased the demand for land and swelled the rental. To legal completeness of qualification a lease for life or lives as essential, and during the currency of H 2 44 Ireland and her Servile War . this tenure the future of the freeholder-tenant was secure. In the ordinary course of events, the termination of these leases, following a natural law, would have attracted little attention, and new arrangements by tenancy at will, or by lease term, would quietly have been substituted for the larger tenure. But the Great Famine complicated social relations, and was interposed between epochs of political agitation and dis¬ content. The land refused its return to the cultivator. But the exigencies of local taxation were aggravated. Rent was to be paid, and, in the Roman Catholic congregations, the priest’s dues discharged, and in the intense competition for the miserable produce of the exhausted country, the tenant, to whom his holding was life and reputable position, saw the peril of forcible extrusion from the ground he had been per¬ mitted to consider almost as his in fee. It appeared, then, to such as trafficked on the panic of the tenant-population, that a claim might be established in bar of eviction for non-payment of rent, which would virtu¬ ally insure a prolonged tenure in default of the landlord pay¬ ing compensation for reputed improvements. I am aware that under the special disadvantage of the humid Irish climate, any system of compensation which shall be agreed upon between landlord and tenant should fairly have a larger scope in considering an outlay made by the latter, than in England. It is, for instance, a much easier proceeding for the tenant to thoroughly drain soil which has been well cultivated on the old system of England, however imperfect, than for an Irish tenant to commence an effective plan of drainage in ground not long reclaimed from mountain or the harsh bog. Now improvement by drainage, of all in Ireland the most valuable, is not easily calculated except on an arbitrary scale; while it is considered to repay the outlay so rapidly, that, in England, the improvement scale of allow¬ ance ceases in four years. But, in aid of improvements, Ireland and her Servile War. 45 Government has accurately and thoroughly elaborated the arterial drainage of Ireland; and the distinction between the social arrangements of Great Britain and Ireland, is curiously exemplified by the fact, that arterial drainage, which depends on governmental plans and combinations, does not exist in the English system of agriculture; while thorough drainage, which depends on the assistance afforded by the landlord as well as upon the energies of the tenant, is carried to a high pitch of completeness in England, but is scarcely known, certainly not adopted, through the greater part of Ireland. The state of Irish agriculture, and the condition of the land question at large, occupied the care of Government, as well as the minds of all thoughtful men, long previous to the demand for Tenant-right in the South and West. Of the inquiries that were instituted into the condition of Ireland as an agricultural country, the most important probably was that under the Devon Commission of 1843. The Commis¬ sioners travelled throughout Ireland, examined witnesses of all classes, visited in neglected as well as improved districts, and their report furnish a store of information, in reading which our astonishment is anew excited, that a country with resources so ample, and so well adapted to the present system of agriculture, should still have to complain of the deficiency of the soil, not only to support, but to furnish employment for its people. To resume, however—a special difference is to be noted be¬ tween the tenure of land in Great Britain and Ireland, in the absence of that intermediate tenure which is represented by the copyhold system. It is strange that in the importation of feudal laws and customs which followed on the conquest by the Normans, the copyhold system should not have been ex¬ tended. It is believed that there is but one copyhold in Ire¬ land, and no probable reason be assigned for the absence of such a tenure throughout the kingdom. The result is, that the possession of land is either absolute and complete, under subjection to the principles of entail and of leases in perpe- 46 Ireland and her Servile War. tuity, positive or virtual, or is held under the risk of casualties that destroy the projects of a life at will and discretion of the landlord. As was probable in a country subjected to violent perturb¬ ing causes in the acquisition and transmission of landed pro¬ perty, the leasing system comprehends several varieties special to the country:—Leases containing covenants for perpetual renewal; leases granted by corporate bodies, with renewal to immediate tenants; ecclesiastical leases toties quoties , wherein the lessee of renewable leaseholds, or of corporation property, covenants to renew to his tenant whenever the original lessor, renews to him; and the tenure by three lives, or a life and term;—and finally of a term fixed. The tenure by three lives is probably the most delusive and destructive of reasonable improvements, pernicious to indi¬ vidual security and to national advancement, that has been introduced into the agricultural system of a nation. It derives its origin partly from the septic principle, and partakes of all the casualties of ill-organized society. The termination of the tenure is not easily ascertained, except when the life is that of a well known individual; and it is vain to expect that prudence and diligent labour will expend their resources on the improvement of land of which the possession depends upon the frail thread of human life. As the difficulty of the land question became more ap¬ parent, attempts were made to legislate directly, in the hope of substituting a statutory wisdom for the prudence which should have guided individuals, and as was anticipated, have signally failed. The Landlord and Tenant Act of 1860 re¬ mains a dead letter. Where the object of legislation is to obviate mutual distrust, the provisions of an Act of Parlia- men can scarcely of themselves generate confidence, and thus the interest of the landlord and tenant remains, in popular opinion, antagonistic instead of coincident. The class of Middlemen, with all the evils which were imputed to them— the abuse of a tenure suitable in its original institution to Ireland and her Servile War. 47 Ireland—has passed away; but it does not seem that the pro ¬ prietor and the occupier have hitherto gained much in cordi¬ ality or goodwill, or mutual knowledge, by being brought face to face. From such an evil Ireland can only cure her¬ self:—her Government can do no more—her people can do all. The first and the last step requisite to this end will be taken when the Irish landlord acknowledges, that unless his acquaintance with his tenantry be direct and personal, he can have but slight expectation of obtaining from the land that fair proportion of the due returns which equity would assign. And he must feel a melancholy consciousness that on him weighs the responsibility for the evils that result from the neglect of plainly appointed duties. [The question of land has remained unsettled in two pro¬ vinces, Munster and Connaught, since the power to dis¬ tribute tribal possessions was wrenched by conquest from the Irish septs. Plans there are many; scant counsel. The experience of Prussia, of France, and Switzerland have been successively appealed to, but without useful result: for in truth Ireland requires a diverse application to her soil of similar principles. Direct legislation has evidently failed, indirect legislation may possibly lead to a future adjustment. But no adjustment can be practicable or lasting in which the rights as well as the duties of property are not duly estimated. The heroic remedies which have been pro¬ posed and the brilliant schemes of converting by fixity of tenure languishing agriculture into a flourishing occu¬ pation delude and vanish; while it is noticeable, that in Eng- and, where the inducements to cultivation on small proper¬ ties under “ base tenure,” are more obvious than in Ireland, the copyhold tenants, as such, are the most impoverished and embarrassed of the agricultural classes. There are, however, two modes, as it appears to me, by which a substantial adjustment may be obtained; as regards compensation for improvement, and as regards leases. The 48 Ireland and her Servile War. first is suggested, the working of the second I have experi¬ enced. Direct legislation, and positive enactment fail to give a scale for the value of improvements, or to measure the compensation due on cessation of tenancy. Yet we may enquire whether, improvements having been effected, and tenancy having been completed, a reference may not be made to some court, easy of access, cheap of procedure, superior to suspicion, with authority to interpose equitable rules of interpretation between landlord and tenant. Such a court should be established, as a Court of Equity. If the improvements were suitable to the holding, and en¬ hanced value, the Assistant Barrister would protect the tenant against the harsh exercise of legal power by the landlord; and, on the other hand, if these improvements had been excessive, or unsuitable, or wasteful, or designed to give a colour for compensation, and a pretext for pro¬ longed occupancy, as in frequent cases, then the Assistant Barrister would give sanction to the landlord’s rightful claims. And though law cannot do all, still law may do thus much. It may enact, that within ascertainable limits no man shall make profit unduly of another man’s possessions, either in labour, or in land. It may order, also, that every contract between landord and tenant shall bear the evidence of delibe¬ rate purpose, by compelling all tenancies at will to be drawn in the form of agreements on penny stamps from year to year: and so in the letting to the cottier class by tenants in chief, as suggested by a most efficient agent of one of the great companies. It may, also, provide, that on each termination of a tenancy the value of building should be calculated on the basis of the tenement valuation, if no previous compensation had been paid to any tenant, or the difference arising since the last payment, and made payable to the outgoing tenant, together with the value of any improvements effected on the land Ireland and her Servile War. 49 since the last valuation. And this adjustment of the claims of landlord and tenant should he sought and obtained in a local court for “ Agricultural Suits.” 61 years, and even 31 years I believe to be an excessive extension of lease ; for this reason, that the prospect of such prolonged occupation will tend infallibly to the sub¬ division of land, which has contributed more than any one negative operation to the impoverishment of the country. While for the purpose of commercial profit, a farm of nineteen years, as in Scotland, is shewn to justify in¬ vestment—an arrangement has been proved acceptable to farmers in Ulster, namely, the conversion of a tenancy at will into a 21 years’ lease, at an addition of £10 per cent, on the just rental. One suggestion has struck me forcibly; contained in a work entitled, “A Saxon’s Remedies for Irish Discontent.” The writer proposes that all tenants holding a farm of not less than ten acres should be entitled to claim a 31 years’ lease at a valuation not less than 25 per cent, upon the last general valuation. If at the end of 31 years he requires another lease he should then be entitled to receive it at an advance of one-half of the in¬ creased value of the improvements; and, with the exception of the lengthened term, this proposition appears to me to have a singular aspect of efficiency, no less than of fair dealing. In this work, with many errors incident to an observer not Irish born, some admirable remarks, and especially on absen¬ teeism, occur. No evil is more general in its operation, as none is more widely diffused, than the absence of the natural leaders of the Irish people. This writer observes well that broad lands were given to those old families, in order that they might improve and civilize the country. Their prede¬ cessors, in unhappy times, failed in this duty; but if the country is to emerge from the distrust which now paralyses her efforts, proprietors must resume the exercise of their suspended duties; or in the inevitable course of that justice which visibly, by the operation of natural laws, 50 Ireland and her Servile War. regulates human events, give place to others who shall as¬ sume the duties they have postponed or neglected. Those to whom Providence has, in Milton’s phrase, given leisure out of the labour of other men, are bound to an equitable observance of their share of the implied contract, under which they enjoy the blessings of their lot.] Philosophical, as well as practical statesmanship forbids the application of the primitive form of reasoning which compelled proprietors under the Plantagenets to elect whether to reside upon their English or their Irish estates; but it behoves the Government, so far as its influence can affect those who claim honour at its hands, to mark strictly and distinctly any neglect of the great trust which a landed proprietor has placed in his grasp. In Ireland it is a source of personal importance to be con¬ nected with the administration of the State. Let the State withhold honours in the magistracy, the deputy-lieutenancy, and upwards to the peerage, from those who do not win the right by personal co-operation in the daily toil of local administration. It was once held that the evil of Absenteeism was repre¬ sented principally by the sum withdrawn from local expen¬ diture. It appears rather that the deadlier evil is in the absence of the instruction, the sympathy, and the guidance, which an informed, intelligent, and independent proprietary can convey to those whom Providence has placed in a certain dependence upon them for support, instruction, and counsel. The change in the social arrangement of the wealthy classes consequent on the Union, contributed to make the Land question more difficult. A nation, wealthy in its own soil and in natural produce, was suddenly forced to compete with a nation not only wealthier, but with more available wealth. Families that could support even the splendour of life in Dublin, found themselves straitened in London. Then the fever of the French War and the Ireland and her Servile War. 51 high price of agricultural products fostered the frenzy, until peace came and prices fell, and the career of embarrassment was entered upon, on which no further progress is possible. No faith is to be placed in specifics. Ireland has been vexed, misled, and disappointed by well-meaning philoso¬ phers, and transcedental thinkers. They forget that abstract thought can only be applied without reserve in a utopian world; and that in Ireland, above all countries, before the seed is committed to the ground, it needs sobriety of thought and accuracy of insight into the nature of the soil and the fluctuations of the climate, and the intelligence of the husbandman, before the results of harvest, moral or physical, can be estimated. The pressure upon the land has increased largely. This pressure can be tested in each district, as in the case here produced from personal knowledge. An estate map of 1747 sets out the names of the tenants of 7,000 acres at length. Their number is 63, without enumeration of cottier tenants. The last enumeration made by order of the Irish Government, shows 419 tenants, with a sub-population of 374 cottier labourers dependent upon the farming tenants. The surface is 6,967 acres statute. Each tenant had, in 1747, 1104 acres; in 1866, 16^ acres. The same names are to be found on the land, with the exception of three. The disproportion arising in 120 years will account to a great extent for the uneasiness felt from pressure upon the land. In this particular instance the evil is neutralised—nay, even turned into a blessing—by the extension of linen manufac¬ tures—throughout this estate, combined with the employ¬ ment of the females in embroidery. But the result of a similar increase must be aggravated in the extreme by the circumstances of the purely agricultural districts of Ireland. The proximity of the Western world will always raise steadily the standard of employment in Europe. Ireland, as the nearest to America and the most densely peopled, feels the attractive impulse earliest and most strongly. The emi* 52 Ireland and her Servile War. grant—not voluntary wholly, nor wholly ejected—leaves poverty for competence; but he carries with him a painful memory of his native land, and now he aspires to return as an avenging invader, that he may remain as a Proprietor. If it be penury that recruits the Fenian ranks, that is easily overcome by a fortnight’s voyage. The sympathizing agent of the American Fenians could assist at New York as well as in Dublin. But the Irishman will remain if possible, for he feels that apart from home there is no real life for him—the savour has gone out of existence. But >vhat if hopeless agitation should merge in an Exodus ? What resource, then, has the Tenant Farmer? What sources present themselves to provide for the employment and honest subsistence of his family? One son may assist to cultivate the land he hopes to occupy in his turn. But beyond that employment ? Emigration ? Manufactures ? Trade? Civil employment? It may be assumed that the profits of small farms sustain the family of the cultivator until those capable of earning a reputable livelihood go forth into the world. It is certain that the churches of every creed will have offered the means of religious, as the State of civil, instruction. The young Irish peasant, with his fine natural aptitudes, should be well fitted for the battle of life. But manufactures, or trade, or commerce, or handicrafts, can absorb but a small portion of the unemployed, in a ratio constantly diminishing in proportion to supply, since the demand for industrial pro¬ ducts does not increase nearly in the ratio of production. The ready resource of public service in the army, and to a limited extent in the navy, of trade or manufactures, has been neglected in the frenzy for emigration, and to that miser¬ able resource of a policy, incompetent to foresee or to direct, the wasted energies of Ireland are compelled. The State has organized the material means of transport, and has provided for the due sustenance of the emigrant, and the decencies of well-regulated life, in the outward passage. Ireland and her Servile War. 53 But how rarely has an attempt been made to mould emigra¬ tion into the noble form of colonization; the material wealth of Ireland, the peasantry, have been suffered to leave her shores uncounselled, as if in truth their absence were cause of congratulation. Emigration, an exodus of any large class of a nation, a mere thrusting forth, is in itself an evil. Combined with colonization, the painful severance leads to the creation of renewed ties with the mother country. The Empire has allowed the Irish emigration to flow on, until the returning tide breaks on our shores in wrathful waves. No more striking proof of disease in the body politic can he seen than an aptitude to rely on emigration as a palliative or panacea for social misery. Such a tendency results from incapacity or indisposition to prompt organization, and occu¬ pies the place which wars and pestilence held in the systems of statesmen in ruder times, as obviating the difficulty of moulding to great purposes a population in which rapid increase called for the guidance of a wise policy. It is the empirical practice which drains the patient’s veins, dissociated from the healing skill which dissipates congestion. In the department of administration in which Ireland requi¬ red scientific guidance, she has had scant measure, or none; and thus the emigrants, who went forth unheeded and un¬ cared for, return as traitors to plague the mother country with civil war. Yet how much of increased prosperity may be derived from the natural productions of the country, may be learned from that excellent work of statistical research compiled by Sir Robert Kane. The woollen trade of Ireland has languished under ill-judged efforts for its encouragement, alternating with violent attempts at its suppression by Great Britain; but she has preserved a superiority in the linen trade, which, in combination with unrivalled facilities for bleaching, makes Ulster the peaceful home of contented industry. And yet a petition, principally against the importation of Irish linen, was presented from Manchester, signed by 120,000 persons, 54 Ireland and her Servile War . in 1785, on the ground that, as Ireland did not participate in the burthens of England, neither should she in her trade. Why should not the hides of the herds of cattle and the dairy farms which Ireland supports, furnish the bases of a domes tic industry, to be practised with advantage and profit on the Irish soil ? May not the wool that whitens the rocky pas¬ tures of Galway, find in native manufactures some fabric to place beside the broadcloths of the West Riding and of Somerset? The efforts of the national representatives have been exerted to obtain for Ireland a direct communication with the Western World. Those efforts will have been well expended if they prove that “ the cotton of the Southern States or Surat would be delivered in Limerick or Galway freed from the delays and dangers of a Channel voyage. It will be indeed an epoch in the history of Ireland when a bale of cotton direct from New Orleans is spun and woven in Killaloe, and will be returned as printed calicoes or muslins from Limerick to the States. The man who first accomplishes that, or any equivalent result, will have effected a revolution.” Thus speaks Sir Robert Kane— in the knowledge of the adaptability of the Irish character to all operations involving the exercise of an apprehensive intellect, and to the singular alertness of physical power which distinguishes them from their fellow-subjects in the United Kingdom. Amongst the departments of domestic industry in Ireland the beauty of the lace and the perfection of the embroidery worked in the cabins of the country is well known. Ireland, it has been remarked, has been deceived and dis¬ appointed by the expectations of well-meaning and incon¬ siderate friends, who, in their earnestness grasped at each shadow which they hoped typified substance. Hence, however, with its disappointments and its short¬ comings, a pregnant conclusion may be drawn. Our fellow- subjects of the United Kingdom look with interest on all pro¬ jects that tend to the advancement and improvement of Ireland; and on Ireland in return rests the obligation of Ireland and her Servile War. 55 proving that she is not unworthy of the sympathy which has never been withheld, except through estrangement from some folly or crime of her own people. Of Irish Finance, in reference to the Government, but little need be said. The Convention, by which the debt between Ireland and England was apportioned at the passing of the Act of Union, has been revised. Some addition has been made to the public taxation especially the Customs department; but the compensation for such taxation may be taken to leave a fair balance of fiscal justice between the twoxountries. Among the many subjects on which Ireland has required the aid of the general Government, advances for objects of public utility, and occasionally of private profit, have been sought; and doubtless, in a very limited number of cases, these advances maybe consistently made, although in England such application of public moneys could not be entertained. For instance; the Government advances made in 1848, in aid of the Railway to Galway, were the result of judicious calculation. The district at that time required assistance which no local proprietary could have tendered, but it would have been unfortunate indeed for Ireland and danger¬ ous to her development in progressive industry, if this system of aid to railway communication had become a rule of the Treasury. And it is the more apparent that decisive limita¬ tion should be placed on the employment of Imperial funds for Irish purposes, when itj.s remembered that a very large proportion of the savings of Irish industry are at this moment transferred to the Money Market of London, in default of the confidence which would guarantee an outlay on the Irish soil. But while the confidence that originates and supports financial operations is denied to Ireland, such happy application of Irish resources on Irish soil cannot be anticipated. In the debate of 1865 in the House of Commons on the condition of Ireland, it was suggested that the want of Ire¬ land was to attract English capital. If Ireland could arrest 56 Ireland and her Servile War. the efflux of her own funds, she might well dispense with British Governmental, or other funds. In 1834 a remarkable Act was passed (4 Will. IV., c. 29, July 25th, 1834)—“ To facilitate the Loan of Money on Landed Securities in Ireland.” The preamble recites:— “ That from the abundance of capital in Great Britain, the interest of money is very much reduced, the interest in Ire¬ land is much higher than in Great Britain, and that manifest improvement has taken place in the condition and security of landed property in Ireland, which it is desirable to encourage and advance; that it would be highly beneficial, both to Great Britain and Ireland, if the loan of money on landed securities in Ireland were facilitated,” and gives powers ac¬ cordingly. This security is fortified by the continuing Act for “ Dis¬ turbances Suppression in Ireland” (4 Will. IV., c. 38, July 30th, 1834) of five days’ later date, commonly known as “ The Coercion Act.” In 1865, deposits in the Irish banks, to the amount of at least i? 12,000,000, found employment in the English money market; and the flow of the current outwards is further stimulated by distrust of the future, wherefore any influx of foreign capital, or the reflux of the accumulations of native industry are not to be looked for. Such is the heavy and inevitable penalty that Ireland pays for her disturbed condition, and in the humiliation of repeated applications for advances of public money from the Imperial Exchequer. We may now proceed to the great department of civil rule. The Irish judges are now selected, to a very large extent, from the Roman Catholic bar, and yet none can say that the slightest tendency to partisan feeling, either on religious or political matters, has been seen in their decisions. From that Bench the exposition of justice flows irrefragable and pure; and it is especially from their unswerving fealty Ireland and her Servile War. 57 to the State that the confident belief arises, that even as their hearts are, the hearts of all Ireland may yet become. It is true, indeed, that in former times selections were made, pre¬ sumably to introduce a counterpoise against a preponderance which was held to affect the Bench, considered in religious and political antecedents. In the future that awaits Ireland, it is to be hoped that legal ability, and not political partisan¬ ship or religious profession, will be a passport to the Judge's seat. It is well, in a free state, that the triumphs of political principles should be signalised by the reward of those who have maintained them honestly and firmly; but is it not of equal moment that those for whom laws are administered should be trustful, and feel secure that the administration of justice is placed in the hands of those who by knowledge and public repute are most qualified to determine its solemn appeals ? Is it no public loss that the alternate proscription of forensic talent by party has left many eminent lawyers to plead for years before the Bench which should have been their place of honour? The Court which was established after the Famine to trans¬ fer the landed property of a large portion of the proprietors of Ireland, is governed by rules of a singular justice, as well as exactness, and with an accuracy which admits of no im¬ peachment. Lastly, in the departments of Justice and Municipal Administration, the statutes which regulate the complicated duties of the Assistant Barrister at Quarter Sessions, of the Justices in Petty Sessions, of Town Improvement Commis¬ sioners, and of Town Commissioners, have been carefully and elaborately arranged. The system of administering the county finance, under the management of the Grand Jury, is a rare and complete ex¬ ample of a vast machinery, minute in its parts and diversified in its operations, which is perfectly susceptible of being car¬ ried into useful effect in its manifold provisions ; and which, I 58 Ireland and her Servile War. moreover, is derived from, and dependent upon, popular selection and control. Unfamiliar and opposed to the large, indiscriminate spirit of Irish charity as the Poor Law has been, the quick and subtle Irish intellect has found in its provisions a fitting op¬ portunity for exercise. Perhaps of all the material improve¬ ments that have been introduced into the organization of Ireland, the Poor Law has produced the most decisive results. It has given the country that reasonable and accurate method of gauging its charities, which has unquestionably resulted in a larger independence of individual assistance than was previously known; and it must be remarked, that the admi¬ nistrations of the Boards, taken from amongst the farmers or shopkeepers of the Union, are, on the whole, sagaciously and liberally administered. Of the constabulary of Ireland there can be but one ex¬ pression of praise and admiration of the spirit in which they discharge the special duties of their service. Twelve thou¬ sand men, taken indiscriminately from those professing different creeds, are scattered in small parties of five or six throughout the wild mountain districts and lonely bogs, as well as in the cultivated portions of the country. They are left in these detachments to the direct superintendence of a non-commissioned officer removed only by one grade of rank above themselves, and yet an instance of their abusing their power is almost unknown, while their loyalty has stood the trial. And on the point of their constitution there is much misapprehension. There are no better soldiers in Europe; but their duties largely partake of a civil character. In preparing the statistical tables which the Irish Government arranges with so much accuracy, the constabulary enumerate and tabulate the facts to be recorded. The accuracy of their evidence is never impeached; and their sobriety of conduct and peacefulness of demeanour attest the excellence and uniformity of their discipline. Their patience and devotion Ireland and her Servile War. 59 to their functions make them an invaluable adjunct to government in a country where crimes of violence are more frequent than crimes of fraud. A special organization for the great cities is alone required to complete their effi¬ ciency ; for in rural districts a detective organization is inap¬ plicable. It has been shown, then, that so far as legislation can strengthen the mere framework of society, much has been done in Ireland. And now, after briefly reviewing these, the main portions of Irish departmental administration, we find that the Vice¬ regal office has lost its credit with the nation, that the Estab¬ lished Church does not stand before the country in the posi¬ tion of honour to which its usefulness has entitled it, nor is as yet placed in the clear light which, while it reveals the imperfections incident to all human labours, would make evident the excellences of a faithful interpreter of the truths of the Church universal; that the Roman Catholic body, especially in the person of the clergy, who have deserved so well of their country in the present troubles, is still dis¬ satisfied as to the secular, as well as religious position of their Church, that the land question still remains as unsettled as if millions of Irish money had not been invested in the pur¬ chase of Irish land, and that the wide system of instruction which has brought up hundreds of thousands of children in brotherly love, has now, perhaps, to give place to a system of isolation called “ denominational,” which will renew a lithe old distrusts and suspicions from which ^e have with such pain and labour emerged. It is certain that the general discontent of the labouring classes, which originated and keeps alive the Fenian move¬ ment, cannot for a day check the march of Imperial Govern¬ ment; but it cumbers alike the highways and the side-paths of Irish industry with obstacles which no brilliancy of genius, no effort of patriotism can for a moment overcome. i 2 60 Ireland and her Servile War. It was a pitiable yet instructive sight to mark how the tide of travellers from beyond the Channel was suddenly arrested when the Fenian movement developed itself. Thoughtful and intelligent observers were coming from all lands to study for themselves the wonderful enigma of Irish society during the fortunate concurrence of political peace, and a harvest rich in the blessings of Providence beyond the ex¬ ample of many years. Since the Rebellion of 1798, no such harvest has been known to gladden the Irish fields; and the recollection of the national prosperity of 1798 is again darkened with the presence of a meaner, a more disastrous, and more degenerate form of rebellion. In three days the tide of travellers ebbed: it may be years before confidence in personal security may cause that tide to flow again. And thus all Ireland waited in sudden doubt for the mani¬ festation of this new plague. It appeared scarcely credible that an insurrection should be organised in the midst of pro¬ found tranquillity—fate could not have reserved for the Irish people so sad a counterpoise to the prospects that were again brightening upon their country; but it was too true. An impulse, like the tidal wave, rolled from beyond the Atlantic, which stirred profoundly Irish society. Discovery, arrest, prosecution followed. A Commission extraordinary, under Roman Catholic judges, terminated in the conviction and condemnation to penal servitude of the Fenian. What causes, chronic or accidental, induced this novel organization? The continual tendency to secret societies, which occupies so large a place in the mind of the undisci¬ plined Irish class, supplied the first. The second may, to a certain extent, be found in the displacement of proprietors after the famine of 1847. A large proportion of the property tranferred under the Encumbered Estates Court had been held by families with whom the peasantry were familiar— they were succeeded by purchasers of whose plan for im¬ provement the peasantry were always jealous, and not sel- Ireland and her Servile War. 61 dom apprehensive It matters not whether a title be derived from the invasion of Strongbow, or under the registration of the Encumbered Estates Court—in both cases the duty of personal inspection and attention cannot be dispensed with or performed by delegation on the part of the proprietor. In¬ deed, it may be doubted whether a more elastic mode of re¬ deeming the landed property of a great part of Ireland from the helpless hands in which it mouldered might not have been combined with the Encumbered Estates’ Act. The necessity of some analogous form of legislation was abun¬ dantly clear; but there existed a class of struggling proprie¬ tors who might have redeemed their lands under financial arrangements similar to the Land Bank of Prussia. A scheme for this purpose was brought before the House of Com¬ mons by the writer, but was postponed to the larger plan. It has, however, been partially revived in the Land Debenture Act of 1865. A sagacious analysis of the Fenian Movement by a dis¬ tinguished French publicist is here inserted* The inference is obtained by reason undiverted from its aim by the false lights derived from the limited observation of a rapid visit— What then is Fenianism? It is certain that the Fenians descend from the “ White- boys.” The object is the same, they desire to terrify, and to make Ireland uninhabitable to a portion of its inhabitants. Only since Fenianism, which quitted Ireland twenty years since, has passed through the United States, and has there found itself in contact with foreign ideas, it has become free-thinking, and attacks the Catholic clergy as well as the English Government and Irish landlords. This novelty has caused special alarm. It is asked, What security exists for human life if a por- * Ireland in the Fifth Century. M. Jules de Lasteyrie. Revue des Deux Mondes, Nov. 15, 1866, pp. 389-390. “ Senchus Mohr,” or “Brehon Law.” 62 Ireland and her Servile War. tion of the population deny the moral authority of the clergy as well as the power of the law? and, although one is well used in Ireland to secret societies and their bravado, a panic seized men’s minds when the news was received that two or three packets from America had landed at Cork almost at the same moment a certain number of Fenian emissaries. The English Government, passive up to that time, was com¬ pelled to act so much the more promptly, that if the danger was nothing as regarded itself, it was considerable for all the landlords who live in isolated dwellings, and for all the police stations of five or six men scattered over the country. But the incidents passed, the cause which gave it birth remains. Fenianism has proved once again that Ireland is not settled down, and that a large number of persons are there always ready to hail rebellion. Three centuries of oppression have not subdued Ireland, and sixty years of freedom have not brought her to the side of England. There remains an uneasiness, a discontent, and wrath, which not even the reparation of a great crying injustice which still exists would repress—the inequality of provision for the clergy of the different persuasions. Ought we then, like England, to exclaim against the in¬ gratitude of Ireland, and proclaim her unmanageable? Ought we, like so many in England, to suppose that England finds pleasure in keeping Ireland in want and dis¬ content ? By no means. The evil of Ireland is as easy to define as it is hard to overcome; it is that of a nation which has, without its assent, been transported from one phase of civilization to another. One portion of the Irish nation has preserved the feelings of times which can return no more; another portion belongs to the nineteenth century. This trouble, which neither oppression nor liberty are able Ireland and her Servile War. 63 to appease, arises from the forced contact of two different societies, mixed together on the same soil. Men do not know or understand each other, and the antagonism of religious creeds, faith and races, supplies weapons for the struggle. Most certainly, England cannot be required to retrogade, and to restore to Ireland the doubtful well-being of class rule. Ireland herself is too far advanced, in many respects, to consent to fall back; but if there be an axiom beyond cavil, it is that laws should be consistent with the feelings and habits of the people. In the “ Senchus ” will be found more than the origin; nay, the very pith, of the causes which trouble Ireland. The Ireland of to-day is the living commentary on the “ Senchus.” Let, then, English Statesmen study the “ Brehon Law let them seek whatever in these laws may consist with modern progress. They have relied too exclusively on the merits of political economy for the pacification of Ireland. Clearly the Irish will not endure to be governed, or left alone after the fashion of the English. Is this an insanity? Perhaps; but the madness of nations ought to be treated with delicate management. “ Sensibility and spirit,” says the Senchus, “ belong to all men.” But in the very midst and tumult of this influence so hostile to Irish tranquillity, through this thick cloud one gleam of light broke. The moderation of the officers of the Crown in preferring their charges produced its due effect on the juries; these discharged their duty with no less im¬ partiality. Neither panic nor sympathy appeared to govern their verdicts, and Ireland could not but observe that a temperate prosecution was submitted to reflecting Irishmen 64 Ireland and her Servile War. under the direction of impartial judges. The very statute under which the prisoners were arraigned had been framed in a spirit of unaccustomed lenity. The accused, who stood charged with endeavours to excite not simply to substitution of governmental form, with the aid of self-expatriated men and foreign mercenaries, but to ravage and spoliation, were placed within the purview of a statute, the merciful pro¬ visions of which seem to have been framed in anticipation of the astounding folly, not less than of the guilty designs of the traitors. Well would it have been that those who had left Ireland in sullen anger with purpose to return for indiscriminate revenge, had learnt, from the teachings of statesmen of the great republic which gave them shelter, that “ treason is the worst of crimes.” It was, in truth, time that the constitutional claim of Ireland to be retained under the safeguard of trial by jury should be vindicated by a judicious exercise of that privilege. For years, on all sub¬ jects connected with political offences or agrarian outrage, the trial by jury had become a mere mockery of justice. Agent after agent on landed properties had expiated the offence of discharging his duty by a violent death, or lived under continued threats of murder. At trials for murder consequent on political differences, conviction could not be inferred from the most irrefragable evidence; and in these later cases, especially, the forbearance and respect for law which distinguished the authorities, emboldened sympathizers to evasions of the law of justice “ which giveth life,” under the letter which killeth. Troops are nearly useless to repress party riots, for the mobs melt away from their advance, as at Belfast, to renew the combat elsewhere; but it would be a merciful addition to the orders under which the troops act, if they were directed to make prisoners wherever shots were fired, whether upon themselves or upon fellow-rioters. In fact, under the abuse of constitutional privilege in regard of these special classes of crimes, Ireland was fast sinking into that Ireland'and her Servile War. 65 condition of France, which made the coup d'etat of 1852 possible and acceptable. Much has been effected in clearing the character of Irish juries from that stigma of foregone conclusions that weighed upon them by the conduct of the juries in these trials, for it had become a matter of grave question whether the law requiring absolute unanimity should not be modified in accordance to the Scottish system, by which the concurrence of three-fourths of the jury is suffi¬ cient for conviction. But it was replied by one who never despaired of Ireland, that it is less inconsistent with the ideal of free Government to suspend than to abridge a right, and that the proclamation of martial law would be less injurious to progressive growth, in the sense of responsi¬ bility, than an alteration which would proclaim that hence¬ forth one-fourth of every jury in Ireland could not be trusted to co-operate in the administration of justice. And in this effort at rebellion there is a formidable differ¬ ence from all that have preceded. Ireland has been harassed by incendiaries and foreign agents from the day that Eliza¬ beth dispossessed Philip of the fair land which he hoped to restore to Rome. The agents of the Stuarts and of the French Republic for generations caught credulous ears with lying tales of a new glory to be derived from restoring a throne to the descendants of the lawful sovereign; or from adding another to the muster-roll of the nations whom France in her generosity had rescued from bondage—above and around every enterprise, however hopeless, and however criminal, glittered the deceitful halo of patriotic effort, and the blood of Ireland's best was given freely to aid the brilliant deception. But this revolt from authoritative rule springs from sordid ideas of spoliation; nursed by emissaries of foreign race, or self-expatriated exiles, turning back from the slaughter of American battle to act such scenes on their native soil. We have learned how sordid a crime treason can become— we perceive with horror and amazement that a class upon 66 Ireland and her Servile War. which social order rests has not shared in the advance of our intelligence. The material well-being that economic science has doubled to the poor man, has not drawn closer the wealthy classes to that from which the Fenian movement has sprung forth. Amended laws have not subdued hatred of law. The ministrations of the Church which claims to register and influence each worshipper has not succeeded in inculcating the lessons she teaches. Beneath the frame of civil society lies a stratum of undiscernable agencies, whose extent no man as yet can guess, and whose power of expansion, violent and sudden, no one can calculcate. One entire stratum of the Irish people has quarrelled with the society of which it forms a part. And shall not this plague be stayed? It were easy to show the military inefficiency of a revolu¬ tionary movement. But when we have bridled Leviathan, what then?—Reconstitute society? Yes; or perish. Society was reconstituted in the Highlands in forty years. Is Ire¬ land to wander with a wearier march in the Wilderness? The Fenians, it has been said, have as yet no military importance. But it is probable that this movement will show itself at unexpected times at remote points, and in scattered parties, in the old organization. Captains will be formed, not without ambition, and these will later, and as soon as their bands have taken consistency, find ostensible chiefs amongst those of an educated class, of whom there were more than England will believe, who sympathised with the Sepoy mutiny. The existing form of popular discontent has this remark¬ able peculiarity, that since it has been expressly discounte¬ nanced by the Roman Catholic clergy, the conspirators have, for the first time, directed their threats against their own pastors. It is not enough that the refugees from the United States have shown a philosophical abandonment of dogmatic teaching or of indifference to the creed in which they were trained; but the very men who have lived within sight Ireland and her Servile War. 67 of the chapel, have not hesitated to denounce, and have endeavoured to intimidate, their clergy. It would seem that the Roman Catholics of the Fenian party have accepted Mr. Burke’s alternative; and, having ceased to be devotional, have become Jacobins. “ The Catholics form the great body of the lower ranks of your community, and no small part of those classes of the middling that come nearest to them.Let them grow lax, sceptical, careless, and indifferent with regard to religion, and so sure as we have an existence, it is not a zealous Anglican or Scottish Church principle, but direct Jacobinism, which will enter into that breach.”—Jan. 29, 1795. And may not this startling novelty suggest to the Roman Catholic clergy a humbled feeling and a chastened doubt whether, indeed, their exposition of the duties of Christian love and of obedience to the ordinances of man, in deference to a higher power, have been as effective as their sincerity would demand ? To the statesman it would point out that the spirit which disregards the obligations of spiritual as well as of temporal obedience has its origin in some unnoted phase of national distrust, and deserves the most careful Investigation. Some surprise has been expressed that the Fenians have hitherto had no leader of social position or intellectual mark; yet that independence of action has gradually become the prac¬ tice of Irish malcontents. In the riots of Belfast of 1864 two parties fought with animosity and energy enough, but with¬ out leaders and without an apparent plan, for many days; and such was the case in the famous battle of the Diamond which was fought on the borders of Armagh about eighty years since. The two parties lay in presence of each other for a week, without any avowed leader It was a protracted affair of outposts under non-commissioned officers. And, again, a cause of the disquiet which vexes Ireland may be directly traced to the influence of Absenteeism. The evil 68 Ireland and her Servile War. result is not limited to the loss of expenditure, but is deeply perceptible in the ill doing of the tenantry, and in the discor¬ dance of the general constitution of society where the natural leaders are systematically absent; nor can any agent, however skilful and intelligent, occupy the position of usefulness which belongs to his employer. The Irishman, through all ranks, feels that he has a right to personal consideration. He will accept the decision of his superior in station, as educated men accept the ruling of a judge. But then he must be satisfied that the man who claims authority is one to whom he owes obedience, either from position, or from long connection and sympathy; [and tradition is a power in this land.] The descendants of the Scottish Presbyterians who fled from the persecution of Laud and Lauderdale, still claim to be the countrymen and co-religionists of the Scottish Men- at-Arms, who accompanied the first settlers in Antrim. Their names still remain in the district to which they betook themselves for refuge; and the tradition is still fresh of their sorrows and their sufferings after two centuries and a half have passed away. He then is truly an Absentee who has never acquired a knowledge of his duties or obtained the confidence of the people dependent upon him. He is no Absentee who, in occasional absence, bears in his mind the recollection of their wants and their wishes, and even of their ignorance—but per¬ sonal presence is indispensable from time to time. When the people are once persuaded that their access to their landlord is direct and certain, all will march smoothly and well. It is this constant interchange of opinion, this demand for advice, the reply by ready counsel, that makes the management of an Irish estate so inexpressibly attractive, especially if it be associated with the growth of an urban com¬ munity. The agent will assist, but the Irish are never content with justice by delegation; and sometimes the agent even is non-resident. Again, the presence of the Irish proprietor in the adminis- Ireland and her Servile War. 69 tration of justice is of incalculable value. It is in that school of responsibility that the needful attention to the well being of others is most surely learnt. The institution of stipendiary magistrates must be taken as a mark of the old bad times, when in the opinion of Parliament the natural leaders of the people could not be trusted, or abandoned their duty as judges. It is to be hoped that eventually, in every district of Ireland, the stipendiary magistrate will find no material for the special exercise of his functions through default of the local bench. His proper function is as Assessor for the Crown, but not as Chairman of the Magistrates of the District. It has been no less an unfortunate necessity which places the Assis¬ tant Barrister, who answers to the County Court Judge of England in his civil functions, in the chair for trial of prisoners at Quarter Sessions as of right. Still the times have been when such temporary violation of constitutional practice was inevitable. Let it be here repeated that the British public has little knowledge of the differences in the special character of the provinces of Ireland. They believe that every Irishman is typified in the Galway hero of mis¬ chievous novels, as at one time every Scotchman was believed to be a Highlander, and every Frenchman a Gascon. But a light and cheerful spirit has ceased to mark the national character in Ireland, as in France. The fierce fires of the Revolution have scorched out the graceful and deli¬ cate lines of character in the French people; the successive shocks of famine and political strife have graven deep fur¬ rows on the brow of the Irish nation. May the reflecting gravity of thought, ennobled to a serious purpose, predomi¬ nate in the countenance capable of most noble expression. And thus the long survey closes. It has been shown that legislation has done nearly all within its province for Ireland, except in the adjustment of the Ecclesiastical question. The organization of public as well as of local interests has had due attention; facilities have been given for obtaining the use of capital, and for dealing 70 Ireland and her Servile War. with land. The law for the registration of judgment debts and for securing the interests of tenants in plantations and woods dates from the last century, and while the system of registration of leases is less perfect than the Scottish, it is superior to the English. As regards organic change, the demand for an extended franchise, which has been postponed in England, was given to Ireland almost without a contest. She alone of the three kingdoms, since the passing of the Reform Bill, has had her electoral system submitted to revision by the Legislature. She alone preserves an immunity from taxation on the arti¬ cles of superfluity which minister to the elegances and luxuries of life; and yet the fabric of society still resembles those massive geological strata which rest on a base of less dense and resisting solids; and, to develop the illustration, it would appear that in the precise proportion as the superin¬ cumbent weight increases, the unstable matter below yields to the pressure and allows its descent—fortunate, indeed, if it be not to the nether abyss. Still there are cries for help which should be smothered for very shame. The demand for the repeal of the Union, neutralised as it was by the manifest insincerity of the clamour for an impracticable change, has grown obsolete. Perhaps it was discovered that the severance of the political connection with England would place those who were honestly most anxious for that solution of the Irish question, in the position which the States of the South held towards the Northern and more powerful body of the Confederation. It might not have been forgotten that Ulster, with its wealth, its organization, and intelligence, must necessarily govern, and presumably in its own sense. The same economical difficulties which obstruct the relations between the Southern and the Northern States, arising from the jarring interests of agricultural and manufacturing districts, would embitter the old political strife with a new rivalry, and for the less powerful no appeal would exist to the larger policy of an Imperial Legislature. Ireland and her Servile War. 7L And here I pause from the endeavour to convey the im¬ pressions that a long experience has left on my mind; and the conclusion is this—that Ireland is sufficient for herself. The future of Ireland, in my judgment, is now distinctly in the hands of her wealthy and her educated classes: the times are especially favourable for their action; and I repeat, that it is but seldom that such a juncture as the present arises in the history of nations so suitable to a reconstruction, with¬ out which the extremest land of the European world would be the most deserted. The Government is now strong enough, in the concurrence of the educated classes, to repress all revolutionary movements. It is powerful enough to compel rival parties to respect antagonisms in which it has no share, and therefore is not now induced to traffic with the parties whose principle is either of agitation or of repression. Public^ppinion, as distinct from popular belief, has yet to be created: that must be a work of time and of patience; and, doubtless, there are teachers enough:— Of Deputy Lieutenants and Magistrates 3,483 •Established Church . 2,265 Roman Catholic . . 3,014 Presbyterian . 677 Other Denominations . . 922 -9,761 Below the classes whom Governmental influence can reach lies a vast population whose very struggles, purposeless as they are, can cause permanent disquiet, to abate which lies not in systems of administration,—not even in the realization of material prosperity, but in the closer knitting together of the classes which compose society, by the earnest and honest endeavours to understand each other, and to forgive what they do not comprehend. In what I have written I may have offended some suscep¬ tibilities, and have spoken when, in this period of uncertain issue, men may say silence had been the better course. But 72 Ireland and her Servile War. I have remembered, throughout, that I was addressing myself specially to the nation that did not hesitate to recast her mili¬ tary system, while the guns of Sebastopol still boomed over the Euxine; that did not doubt to reconstruct the fabric of Indian Government while the watchfires of the mutinous Sepoys still blazed. So steadfast and stern a purpose belongs to this Imperial people to amend the wrong and to purify the foul; to do, above all things, solemn and severe justice. There are men yet living who remember the invading French foe, and the pikes of ’98, and the rising of 1803. They are scarcely yet grown aged who shared in the strug¬ gles of ’29. The interval of a generation does not yet separate us from the last constitutional trial of agitation in Ireland; and I appeal to their experience, and to history, whether the convulsive struggles of these eras were not less fraught with danger to national progress, and less dishonour to national character, than the sullen throbs of this Servile War. An erring and fanatic zeal for liberty lent dignity to the armed strife which sordid passions were not permitted to degrade, as the resolute determination to extend and consoli¬ date liberties acquired animated the millions who bore O’Connell aloft. But now beneath society welters a mud-ocean of seething discontent, of ghastly hope of ravage and of plunder, and of an overturned polity—a vast multitude, neither to be con¬ ciliated by present appliances nor instructed by much teach¬ ing nor intimidated, obstructs the path of national pro¬ gress. The Government has done its part in repression, and mode¬ rate satisfaction for insulted law; with all whom Providence has blessed with health and education now rests the responsi¬ bility, which can neither be evaded nor shared, of turning this latest trial of Ireland to blessed and peaceful ends. Law has been fearlessly and calmly vindicated—now vin¬ dicate equity. Bring the machinery of Government into accord with the national weal. Profit by the occasion as you Ireland and her Servile War. 73 did when India trembled nnder the hurricane of the mutiny. Seek knowledge through natural channels, without regard to creed; suspend, on Irish subjects at least, the sectarian wrath which hardens the intellect it sharpens. Reflect that, in the presence of a national disaster, govern¬ ment by party and creed may well be suspended. Parties and creeds would be fused quickly enough in the smoulder¬ ing ashes of a servile war. Societies as well compacted have fallen asunder in like conjunctures. A discontented class at the base of society buries itself in the ruins of the upper ranks. The blind Sampson will tug, though the temple reel and rock above his unshielded head. The Western Empire fell irretrievably because it rested on a base and slave population. Re-model the administrative scheme, so that Ireland may have an authorised representative in the Cabinet, and, that he may truly seize the idea of the country whose needs he interprets, associate with the head of the Government a Consultative Council, and in this deliberative body let the prelates of the Roman Catholic Church take their honoured place. There are some points that should be clearly understood. Let Ireland once for all abandon the traditions which have made her sorrow rather than her glory; which mar the promise of a future with the darkness of an irreversible past age of suffering and ignorance. Let it be known that the Established Church of Ireland will not be abandoned, nor the Roman Catholic Church com¬ pelled to make burdensome its ministrations as an Establish¬ ment dependent solely on the alms of the congregations. Take time and kindly forethought for softening so much as is hard, and smoothing so much as is rough, in the daily accidents of administration, and then with humble trust leave the solution of this problem of the age in the disposal of the Providence which overrules all K APPENDIX. Carey MSS. No. 61. April, 1697. APPENDIX A. MSS. IN LAMBETH LIBRARY. Present Condition of Church in Ireland with Remedies:— Four Causes— 1. Want of ministers. 2.Protestants. 3. Pluralities and non-residence. 4. Churches in ruins. Number of Clergymen small. Dublin College not suffi¬ cient to supply. ACTUAL STATE. OF DIOCESES OF MEATH. KILMORE. Parish Churches. ... 197 70 Chapels of Ease. ... 106 — Clergy . ... 55 28 Curates to non-residents and Impropriators... ... 15 7 Resident Clergy. ... 40 17 Churches in repair ... 43 9 Parliamentary ... ... 11 9 No Dean and Chapter ... ... — — Smallness of livings arises from— 1. Unequal division of parishes. 2. Want of tillage. 3. Great number of Impropriation. “3” may be remedied— 1. By Sovereign restoring forfeited impropriation. 2. By fund for purchase. 3. By making Impropriators augment livings. Also by Protestant schools. Want of Manse houses and Glebes. An answer for the Lord Lieutenant to queries of Commis¬ sioners of Court of Claims. That all lands belonging to the Clergy not returned in the Co. of Down Survey should be deemed forfeited. IV Appendix. Remedy. Act of Settlement, 10 acres should be set out most con¬ tiguous to every Parish Church—never took effect. No. 29. August, 1704. First Fruits, £450, estimated from 1682-1704. 20th Parts, £563. No. 38. May 12th, 1698. Forfeited Tithes and Impropriations promised to be granted to the Church, but granted to laymen. No. 40. No date. Inferior clergy expect Convocation. A letter from Bishop of Meath to Archbishop of Canter¬ bury on this subject. No. 41. Sept. 12 th, 1706. Church in Armagh in good condition. Bishop of Raphoe objects to visitation of Metropolitan. No. 44, no date. Forfeited Tithes after 25th March, 1701. Under an Act entitled ‘ Aid to H. M. by sale of forfeited estates to be applied to build Churches for 20 years, and then to augment small vicarages = £2,440 8s. 6d.’ No. 55. Dec. 10th, 1691. Articles against Bishop Hacket, Diocesan of Down and Connor, worth £800 per annum, one of the largest in Ireland. No. 57. Feb. 24th, 1693. Forfeited Estates under the articles of Galway and Lime¬ rick. No. 64. King William III.’s order for preparing a bill for grant¬ ing forfeited estates to the Church. No. 94. A Metropolitan has a right to visit suffragans—Drs. Oldyss and Walter’s opinion. “ A Metropolitan can sus¬ pend suffragan”—Doctors Commons, June 17th, 1703. Miscell. MSS. No. 519. ] March 21st, 1636. | Nov. 2nd, 1631. pp. 152-34. . Archbishop Laud to the Lord Deputy respecting Trinity y College, Dublin. Improvements by recovery of tithes in Ulster=£10,600. Improvements in Dioceses— Armagh Raphoe Dromore Derry Ardagh Down & Connor Meath Clogher Kilmore =£14,621 6s. 8d. Besides forty or fifty advowsons gained to the Crown. INDORSEMENT. Received Jan. 22nd, 1638-9. A copy of the improvements in the church livings within the province Appendix. v of Armagh in Ireland, since my Lord Viscount Wentworth was first made deputy there, which was anno - 1633, sent me by W. John Bramhall, Lord Bp. of Derrye. MSS. BRITISH MUSEUM. 6842, p. 100. A.D. 1691. Revenues of forfeited lands from “All Saints, ’91, All Saints ’92” = £30,000, but will be diminished by resumptions and incumbrances. (MEMO, no ecclesiastical allocation here). Net Revenue 1688 = £156,554 7s. 3d. p |26. Archbishop Usher’s Speech on supporting the Army, April 30th, 1627. p 243 Articles of Inquiry by the Irish Commissioners, 1622. 1. Churches, how served. 2 . Alienations. 3. Collegiate lands (free schools and charitable bequests, temp. Eliz.) LANSDOWN MSS. Forfeited estate since 19th Feb. 1688 £2,685,130 5 9 Restored . 724,923 4 6 Gross. £1,960,207 1 3 Incumbrances on estates not restored 161,836 5 6 £1,798,270 15 9 Average £1,060,792 0 0 APPTNDIX B. ENDOWMENT DEBATE.—GENERAL ASSEMBLY. On Wednesday, the 3rd of June, 1868, at the Sederunt of the General Assembly, in May Street Church, Belfast, after the Report of the Government Committee had been submitted to the House, and two overtures had been read (from the Synod of Armagh and the Synod of Dublin), bearing upon the changes Mr. Gladstone proposed to effect in the Ecclesiastical Endowments of Ireland, the following Resolutions were moved VI Appendix , by the Rev. Professor Dill, D.D., and seconded by the Rev, Henry Cooke, D.D., LL.D.:— RESOLUTIONS. “ I. That the report of the deputation be read and adopted; that the thanks of the Assembly be given them for their diligence in the matter entrusted to them, and that they are hereby discharged. “ II. That we have heard with regret and alarm the decision of the House of Commons, ‘ That when legislative effect shall have been given to the resolutions affecting the Irish Church, it is right and necessary that the Regium Donum be discontinued. “ III. That the General Assembly feel called upon in the present crisis to declare their unwavering adherence to the principles of an Ecclesiastical Establishment as set forth in the standards of the Presbyterian Church, viz., that it is the duty of the State to recognize and endow the truth and to withhold all encouragement from anti-Christian error, while, at the same time, the Church is left free from State control in the exercise of all her proper functions, and continues subject to Christ alone, her King and Head. “ IV. That, in accordance with these principles, we cannot but protest, in our own name, and on behalf of our people, against the threatened withdrawal of the Regium Donum , a grant which has proved as beneficial to the State as it is advantageous to this Church, and which has been always given on terms which have left her in the fullest enjoyment of her Christian freedom. “V. That our Presbyterian forefathers were induced to come over from Scotland, and settle in this country, in the expectation that their Church should enjoy the rights and privileges of an Ecclesiastical Establishment, and receive a share of the emoluments set apart for ecclesiastical purposes that this expectation was, to some extent, and for a consider- Appendix. Vll able time, realized, ministers of the Presbyterian order having been admitted to officiate in the parish churches, and to receive the tithes—that these privileges having been withdrawn, the grant of Regium Donum was made as a small compensation for the loss. “ VI. That the grant having been made under such circum¬ stances, and having been continued for almost two centuries, the members of the Presbyterian Church were quite entitled to regard it as a permanent endowment. “ VII. That, accordingly, on the strength of this conviction, they have built numerous churches in poor and sparsely populated districts; have secured for them an educated ministry; have established, at great expense, educational, charitable, and missionary institutions; and have incurred in connection with them heavy pecuniary responsibilities; the withdrawal of the Regium Donum must, therefore, in these circumstances, greatly embarrass the Church’s various agencies for good, and inflict a serious injury on her ministers and people. “ VIII. That a special committee be now appointed to take charge of this business, and that they be instructed to prepare petitions, founded on these resolutions, and, when signed by the Moderator and Clerk, on behalf of the Assembly, to have them forwarded to the House of Parliament; and, further, to adopt such other measures as they may deem expedient for the purpose of securing, in any event, justice to this Church in the matter of endowment.” The first of these Resolutions was passed. To the others, the following amendment was moved by the Rev. W. B. Kirkpatrick, D.D., and seconded by the Rev. John Mac- naughtan, M.A.:— AMENDMENT. “ The General Assembly, having had its attention called to the following resolutions submitted to Parliament and Vlll Appendix. adopted by the House of Commons—namely, ‘ That in the opinion of this House, it is necessary that the Established Church of Ireland shall cease to be established, and that when legislative effect shall have been given to this resolution, it is right and necessary that the grant to Maynooth and the Regium Donum be discontinued, due regard being had to all personal interests’—resolved as follows:— “I. That the Presbyterian Church has been always characterized by its earnest contendings for the doctrine of Christ’s Headship over the nations, as well as over the Church; and for the consequent duty of civil rulers as such to acknowledge the authority, and to uphold the Word of Him who is Prince of the Kings of the earth, and also Head of His body the Church. “ II. That, in conformity with this principle, the Presbyte¬ rian Church in this country has accepted for the last 200 years a bounty from the State, which has been received without any sacrifice of Christian liberty, discipline, or government. “ III. That at the present crisis, when the question of ecclesiastical endowments in Ireland has been brought before the Legislature and this country, this assembly thinks it right, not only to denounce and protest against the endowment of error, as being inconsistent with the Word of God, and with the principles of this Church, but further to declare that the full and impartial disendowment of all religious denomina¬ tions in Ireland is to be preferred to a scheme of general endowment, in which truth and error are treated indiscrimi¬ nately. “ IV. That a committee of Assembly be appointed to watch over and protect the interests of the Church in all the arrangements connected with this matter, having power, if they see fit, to call a special meeting of Assembly to decide on the future course to be adopted. “ V. That, in view of the probability of the proposed mea¬ sure being carried into effect, the Assembly earnestly exhorts Appendix. IX the office-bearers and members in our Church to cultivate the grace of Christian liberality; and confidently hopes that our people will be prepared to meet their increasing respon¬ sibilities by making an adequate provision for the support of the Gospel ministry, and for the extension of the kingdom of God in our own and in foreign lands.” The Debate was continued until Friday afternoon, when a vote was taken on the Amendment. STATE OF THE VOTE. For the Amendment—Ministers, 134; Elders, 46—Total, 180. Against Amendment—Ministers, 182; Elders, 28—Total, 210. Majority against the Amendment, 30. The original Resolutions, with some alterations, as follow, were then allowed to be moved as a second amendment, by the Rev. John Rogers, and seconded by the Rev. J. L. Porter, D.D., LL.D. SECOND AMENDMENT : BEING THE ORIGINAL RESOLUTIONS, WITH SOME ALTERATIONS. “I. That the report of the deputation be read and adopt¬ ed; that the thanks of the Assembly be given them for their diligence in the matter entrusted to them, and that they are hereby discharged. “ II. That having heard the decision of the House of Commons, ‘ That when legislative effect shall have been given to the resolutions affecting the Irish Church, it is right and necessary that the Regium Donum be discontinued,” [The original ran thus—“That we have heard with regret and alarm the decision,” &c.] “ III. The General Assembly feel called upon in the pre¬ sent crisis to declare their unwavering adherence to the principles of an Ecclesiastical Establishment as set forth in X Appendix. the standards of the Presbyterian Church, viz., that it is the duty of the State to recognize and endow the truth, and to withhold all encouragement from anti-Christian error, while, at the same time, the Church is left free from State control in the exercise of all her proper functions, and continues subject to Christ alone, her King and Head. “ IV. That, in accordance with these principles, we cannot but protest, in our own name, and on behalf of our people, against the threatened withdrawal of the Regium Donum , a grant which has proved as beneficial to the State as it is advantageous to this Church, and which has been always given on terms which have left her in the fullest enjoyment of her Christian freedom. “ V. That our Presbyterian forefathers were induced to come over from Scotland, and settle in this country, in the expectation that their Church should enjoy the rights and privileges of an Ecclesiastical' Establishment, and receive a share of the emoluments set apart for ecclesiastical purposes —that this expectation was to some extent, and for a consi¬ derable time realized, ministers of the Presbyterian order having been admitted to officiate in the parish churches, and to receive the tithes—that these privileges having been with¬ drawn, the grant of Regium Donum was made as a small compensation for the loss. “ VI. That the grant having been made under such cir¬ cumstances, and having been continued for nearly two centuries, the members of the Presbyterian Church were quite entitled to regard it as a permanent endowment. “ VII. That, accordingly, on the strength of this convic¬ tion, they have built numerous churches in poor and sparsely populated districts; have secured for them an educated min¬ istry ; have established at great expense educational, charita¬ ble, and missionary institutions; and have incurred in con¬ nection with them heavy pecuniary responsibilities; the withdrawal of the Regium Donum must, therefore, in these circumstances, greatly embarrass the Church’s various agen- Appendix. xi cies for good, and inflict a serious injury on her ministers and people. “ VIII. That a special committee be now appointed to take charge of this business, and that they be instructed to adopt such measures as they may deem expedient for the purpose of securing, in any event, justice to this Church in the mat¬ ter of endowment.” [The original ran thus—“ That a special committee be now appointed to take charge of this business, and that they be instructed to prepare petitions , founded on these resolu¬ tions, and when signed by the Moderator and Clerk , on behalf of the Assembly , to have them forwarded to the Houses of Parliament; and, further, to adopt such other measures as they may deem expedient,” &c.] The Committee consisted of— The'Moderator. Rev. Dr. Cooke. Rev. John Rogers. Rev. Dr. Porter. Rev. Dr. Wilson. Rev. Professor Smyth. Rev. Henry Henderson. Rev. Dr. Bryson. Rev. E. T. Martin. Rev. N. M. Brown. John Lytle, J. P. * John Adams, J. P. John Young, J. P., D, L. S. M. Greer. Professor Dill, M. D. John Suffern. It was agreed that the Vote on the original Amendment should be taken to represent the Vote on this second Amend¬ ment, which was then declared passed by a majority of 30— i. e., 210 in its favour, and 180 against it. The following Reasons of Protest against these Amended Resolutions were, on Tuesday morning the 9th of June read in the Assembly, and ordered to be entered in the Minutes:— REASONS OF PROTEST. We, the undersigned Ministers and Elders, protest against the resolutions adopted by the Assembly on Friday, the 5th of June, for the following reasons:— I.—Because, whilst said Resolutions profess to set forth Appendix. xii the Scriptural principles of an Ecclesiastical Establishment, they give a wrong view of these principles by making en¬ dowment in all cases a necessary element of such establish¬ ment—a view not in accordance with the word of God or the standards of this Church. II. —Because, when said Resolutions state that the Assem¬ bly are “ called upon in the present crisis to declare unwavering adherence to the principles of an Ecclesiastical Establishment,” such declaration, in the present circumstances of the country, ought to have been accompanied by a state¬ ment that this Church disapproves of existing ecclesiastical arrangements in Ireland, and in the absence of such statement seems to commit us to a policy which tends to the perpetua¬ tion of the grant to Maynooth, and to the upholding of the Church as by law established. III. —Because the alternative before the country being one of either a general endowment, or a general disendowment, these Resolutions contain no protest against the former, and will undoubtedly, be interpreted in favour of it. IV. —Because we hold it to be the duty of the Assembly at this juncture, to look, in the spirit of Christian patriotism, beyond its own immediate interests, and to declare, that it prefers a system of general disendowment to a system of indiscriminate endowment—inasmuch as there is in the one case merely the sacrifice of endowment, whilst in the other there is the sacrifice of the true principle of an Ecclesiastical Establishment. V. —Because looking at the present aspect of the question of ecclesiastical endowments in Ireland, and remembering that no opportunity has ever before been offered to us of having the evils and injustice to which Presbyterians have been subjected for upwards of two hundred years removed, and at the same time of securing that the endowment of Antichristian error by the State be withdrawn, we believe that the opportunity now afforded of accomplishing these great ends should not be allowed to pass, and that the Assem- Appendix. xm bly should have declared that a measure of disestablishment and disendowment, such as that now proposed, if impartially carried out, would be for the good of the Protestant Churches of this country, as well as for the benefit of the entire population. VI. —Because, whilst the Resolutions contain a protest against the withdrawal of the Regium Donum , they neither suggest a remedy, in the event of its being withdrawn, nor embody any recognition of the all-sufficiency of our Heavenly King, who, by opening the hearts of His people, can provide adequate means for the sustenance of His ministers. VII. —Because said Resolutions, and the policy they would inaugurate, tend to isolate this Church from the great majority of the Evangelical Churches of the world. VIII. —Recause, at such a critical time as the present, no Committee should be invested with power to deal with matters of so grave importance, without being required to advise with the General Assembly. On Wednesday, the 10th of June, the following answers, drawn up by the Committee, were read to the Assembly, and ordered to be inserted in the minutes. REPLY TO THE REASONS OF PROTEST. “ 1. In reference to the first reason, the Assembly regret to observe that their brethren of the minority have entirely misapprehended the view of our ecclesiastical establishment presented in the Assembly's resolutions. It is nowhere stated in those resolutions that ‘ endowment’ (in all cases) constitutes ‘ an essential element of an ecclesiastical estab¬ lishment.’ And there is the less reason for such misappre¬ hension, inasmuch as the resolutions state most distinctly— 1st, what it is the duty of the State to do; and, 2nd, what it is the duty of the State not to do, in reference to religion. 1st—‘ That it is the duty of the State to recognise and endow the truth.’ Standing as a distinct proposition, it XIV Appendix. seems to us quite impossible for our brethren of the minority to dissent from this statement, without contravening the teachings of the Westminster standards, founded upon the plain declaration of God’s Word. The Westminster Con¬ fession of Faith, chap, xxiii., sec. 2, teaches that civil magis¬ trates ought especially to maintain 4 piety’ as well as 4 justice and peace.’ Taken in connection -with the more specific statement in the Larger Catechism (ii. 191), it is clear that the compilers of the Confession intended to include in the maintenance of piety the support and endowment of the Church as the Divinely-appointed agency for pro¬ moting piety in the land. In answer to the question— 4 What do we pray for in the second petition?’ we have these words:— 4 We pray that the Church’ may be 4 countenanced and maintained by the civil magistrate.’ 2nd—That the State ought not to give any 4 encouragement to Antichris¬ tian error,’ and ought not to 4 control the Church in the exercise of her proper functions,’ but leave her free to serve and submit to the authority of 4 Christ alone, her King and Head.’ 2nd. The second reason of protest appears to us even more unreasonable than the first. Our brethren tell us that our declaration of adherence to the principle of an ecclesiastical establishment ought to have been accompanied by a state¬ ment that this Church disapproves of existing ecclesiastical arrangements in Ireland. We submit that a mere expression of 4 disapproval of ecclesiastical arrangements’ would have been a most unsuitable and unworthy mode of dealing with this great question; for, in the first place, we must in such expression of disapproval have included the arrangement according to which this Church has received, and continues to receive, her own endowments with a good conscience; secondly, because such disapproval of mere ecclesiastical arrangements must have borne a political aspect rather than an ecclesiastical one, and would thus have committed this Church to a judgment on a question of party strife, instead Appendix. xv of to a declaration of Scriptural principle; and, thirdly, because all possible misapprehension of the views and inten¬ tion of the Assembly has been precluded by the use of a clear and most comprehensive statement which occurs in the third resolution of the Assembly, ‘ declaring it -to be the duty of the State to withhold all encouragement from Anti¬ christian error, while the Church is left free from State control in the exercise of all her proper functions.’ It seems to us quite unaccountable why such a statement can even seem to the brethren of the minority 4 to commit us to a policy which tends to the perpetuation of the grant to Maynooth, and to the upholding of the Church as by law established.’ “ 3. It is much to be regretted that the brethren of the minority have not informed themselves better on the subject of the proposals of statesmen in reference to ecclesiastical endowments, before announcing so authoritatively, and in their third reason, that the 1 alternative before the country is one either of general endowment or general disendowment.’ So far as we are aware, there is no such alternative before the country. No statesman has now before the Legislature or the country any project for a general endowment; and for the Assembly to have assumed that such was the case would have been unwarrantable and untrue; besides, that which is the proper subject of condemnation in any scheme of general endowment of truth and error is the endowment of error. Against this the Assembly has emitted a clear, intelligible, and emphatic protest, declaring it to be the duty of our civil rulers to withhold all encouragement from Anti¬ christian error. And, with such a testimony before them, it is wholly unjustifiable on the part of the minority to assert or insinuate that there is anything in our resolutions which can in any way be interpreted favourably towards a scheme of general endowment. “ 4. The answer to the third reason forms a sufficient reply to this; and as the mode of putting the question of L xvi Appendix. ecclesiastical endowments by hypothecating an alternative without any historical basis is wholly beneath the importance of the occasion, and unworthy the dignity of this Church, it must follow that no consciousness of the possession of a spirit of 1 Christian patriotism’ could transmute such a feeble protest and vacillating alternative into an adequate and decided testimony suitable to the present crisis, and becoming the character of a Christian church witnessing for the truth, and against all antichristian error. “ 5. The fifth reason of protest supplies unintentionally a very happy illustration of the wisdom of the course adopted by the General Assembly in the matter of ecclesiastical en¬ dowments, and also of the singular inconsistency and in¬ decision of the brethren of the minority; for, whereas, in their fourth reason, they merely express their preference for a scheme of general disendowment over one for indiscrimi¬ nate endowment, thereby intimating the possibility of their acquiescing in and accepting the latter branch of the alter¬ native, should our rulers see fit to force such a measure upon the country. In the fifth reason of protest, our brethren of the minority have abandoned the idea of ‘ paltering in a double sense’ between two political measures, both of which are objectionable and injurious to the interests of religion, and have boldly assumed the ground that all Churches should be disendowed, and that the Assembly should have possibly declared that a measure of disestablishment and dis¬ endowment 4 would be for the good of all the Protestant Churches of this country, as well as for the benefit of the entire population.’ Now, it is obvious that if it was the duty of the Assembly to have declared in favour of what the minority call ‘ these great ends;’ and, if such im¬ mense benefits must result to the Church and the country from such a measure, then the Assembly would have fallen very far short of their duty, if they had been induced to adopt the resolution of the minority, expressing a mere pre¬ ference for such a scheme as competing with another scheme Appendix. xvn that might also have had something to commend it to the in¬ terests of the Church. The Assembly have happily avoided assuming such a false and foolish position, by adopting reso¬ lutions which, in most unmistakable language, declare for the recognition of endowment of truth against any en¬ couragement of Antichristian error. “ 6. It is a sufficient answer to the sixth reason to say that the resolutions of the Assembly protest not against the with" drawal, but against the threatened withdrawal of the Regium Donum , and they do not recognise the completion of such an act of spoliation and injustice. We confidently affirm that there is no danger of its immediate withdrawal, and that even though there were the immediate danger (which seems to be regarded by the minority as a boon rather than an injury), the proper mode of meeting such an exigency is certainly not the incidental suggestion of a remedy attached to a number of resolutions, bearing upon other, though cog¬ nate subjects, but the organization, wisely and energetically, with full confidence in our people, as well as with^devout submission to our King and Head, of a scheme for a grand Sustentation Fund, in which the Assembly will enter when necessity arises, in a spirit worthy of our name and history. “ 7. Our resolutions being the clear announcement of great Scriptural principles, for which the Presbyterian Church has witnessed in her purest days, we cannot believe that any policy upon them can have the effect of isolating us from truly Evangelical Churches. But, should it be found that any Presbyterian, or so-called Evangelical Churches, had declined from the faith which rests on Christ as King of nations as well as King of saints, and should they be found to have abandoned their own principles, we trust that grace may be given us to stand up for the glorious truth, even though we should stand up alone. “ 8. The objection raised on the eighth reason against the instructions given to the committee, appear to be alto¬ gether captious, inasmuch as the brethren who compromise L 2 XV111 Appendix. it can be safely trusted not to conclude any matter of vital importance to the interest of this Church, without taking measures for convening the General Assembly. “ The Assembly, in conclusion, would affectionately sub¬ mit to their brethren of the minority, to consider well the dubious and equivocal position in which they have placed themselves by elaborating so many arguments for a general disendowment, whilst, at the same time, all the ministers among them (with one exception) are either recipients or ex¬ pectants of State endowments, and, consequently, responsible, if their own reasoning be correct, for all the evil effects which they themselves charge against it. For such an in¬ consistent position there are two ways of escape for our brethren, to one or other of which they are undoubtedly shut up—either to abandon their protest and the reasons connected with it, or the Regium Donum , with the evil effects which they have charged upon it.” Appendix xix APPENDIX C. INCOME AND EXPENDITURE OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. Freeman's Journal, March , 1868. A. Income. 28 Bishops at £500, 1,036 Parish Priests at £200, 1,400 Curates at £80, ... £14,000 ... 207,200 ... 113,280 (Estimate of Abbe Perraud), 550 Regular Clergy at £100, 2,321 Churches at £50, Maintenance of Hospitals, &c., ... £334,480 ... 55,000 ... 116,050 ... 250,000 £755,530 B. Expenditure since 1800. 1,842 Churches, 218 Convents and Schools, 41 Colleges and Seminaries, 42 Hospitals, &c., 2 Dioceses not returned, 600 Parochial Houses, 2,990 Non-vested Catholic School-houses, 70 Establishments of Christian Brothers, .. £3,698,627 (in 26 Dioceses) .. 1,061,215 300,018 147,135 300,000 300,000 299,000 70,000 -£5,690,995 C 1 . Scale of Payments to Roman Catholic Clergy Proposed in Draft Bill by Lord Castlereagh. * 32 Roman Catholic Prelates, 32 do. Deans, 500 Parish Priests, 1st Class, 500 do. 2nd Class, 500 do. 3rd Class, 1,000 Curates, ... £24,000 11,200 60,000 50,000 40,000 50,000 £235,200 These sums were to be raised by Presentment of Grand Juries, on requisition of Diocesan, approved by Lord Lieutenant in Council. * Memoirs and Correspondence of Lord Viscount Castlereagh , [vol. iv. pages 125-33 XX Appendix. APPENDIX D. Suggestions by Colonel Adair for a Re-Arrangement of Bishoprics and Dioceses, submitted for the con¬ sideration of the Commission. The maintenance of episcopal supervision is essential to the system of the Protestant Church established in Ireland. And it is evident that alterations may be effected in order to greater efficiency of ministration. It is not easy to proportion payment precisely to labour, computing either by benefices, population, or surface; but it may be assumed that as regards supervision of the clergy, space is as population. The question of arrangement on purely geographical considerations is now modified, and difficulties obviated, by the general extension of railways. The lines point in the direction of the positions eligible for the future cathedral cities, the sole change requisite being from Downpatrick to Belfast. And there are not more than eleven or twelve districts in Ireland more than eight statute miles from some line. (See Schedule). Now, in reviewing the distribution of duties and the necessities of ministration by the episcopate in the system constructed under the Church Temporalities Act, 3 & 4 Wm. IV., c. 37, great discrepancies will be perceived to exist. It is therefore advisable to re-adjust and classify existing Sees. Schedule of Distribution of Sees. Appendix. xxi co co «£> co b- (Moomio (M ^C^CO H CO O kT CO !>* o o o o 10»0>0 10 C+$ Srp|§Jrp.§3 « QMOhSMhlO § 8. CC £ t 6 ,m «. O O ~ ^ *C ,2 'S a m2 ^ 9 12 S3 g g 6 3 M O H i pq S3* pq CO 03 CO CO GO CO l> (M to I 2 C- I 2 „ a> r- £, "aS S o3 -P 8 Ja § £ •s r 2 o 3 o poo CP co O •I ?> . o rG 3* bL Pq 1 -s < i 4-3 •<>> * ~ € 1 B & g ftn ^5 ?si 2 Pq ^ I o o o o © O O O O I o C+j C^o »0 K5_ ©„ of of r—T l-T I b^ PQ u pi o o 73 >73 £3 p cS c3 p >> £ £ o tu PQ § o CO S* pq t CP m S s E*! 11 q} 77U Q^ I o„ ««