#.^ ii\.^ " I. l: If' Mm ifiLiLsri--^ YALE UNIVL.K.,, LEBRAI^Y A LETTER HONORABLE A. KINNAIRD, TBEASUEEE OF THE MAETLEBONE AND PADDINGTON ADHLLARY SOCIETY FOR CHUECH MISSIONS TO THE EOMAN CATHOLICS OF lEELAND, By WILLIAM SHEE, Esq. SEHJEANT-AT-LAW. LONDON: BURNS AND LAMBERT, PORTMAN STREET. 1852. Price 6rf. ''lhx4-7 :) LONDON: RAYNKR AN» HODGES. PRINTRH'^ log. Fetter Lane, Fleet Street. SlE, A Circular has been left at my house, purporting to be addressed to the inhabitants of the parishes of Marylebone and Paddington by an "Auxiliary," of which you are the Treasurer, in aid of the Society for Church Missions to the Roman Catholics of Ireland. Haying the best opportunities of knowing how readily the inhabitants of Marylebone and Paddington respond to caUs upon them for charitable and religious objects, and how urgent are the occasions for the exercise of their hberality at home, — I am anxious that before they are induced to give from their abun dance to your Auxiliary, you and they should be informed, of the existing resources for Protestant rehgious purposes of the District which it is proposed to benefit by their subscriptions. It seems from your Circular, that a sum of £1500 per month is calculated to be required for the Irish Church Missions, and from a Circular enclosed in it of the Parent Society, that the Diocese of the Bishop of Tuam is the locality in which its endeavours are intended to be most vigorous, — the one in which " a great door and effectual has at length been opened," and " God's blessing most largely outpoured." Strange as it may appear to many of those who will read your Circular, — perhaps even to yourself, — there is no part of the British dominions out of Ireland, so little in need of subscriptions for Church purposes, — none in which Clergymen of the Estabhshed Church are so numerous relatively to the extent of their duties, — so comfortably circumstanced, — so amply remune rated, and so little require assistance, — as in the dioceses of the Bishop of Tuam; and I have great hope, that when the real facts of the case are brought under your notice, you will think with me, that in your attempt to obtain money from the people of Marylebone and Pad dington, for the Irish Church Missions, you have been the unconscious instrument of as gross a deceit as was ever practised on the credulity of the Public. The Diocese of Tuam, Killala, and Achonry ex tends over 1,590,894 statute acres of the Counties of Galway, Mayo, Sligo, and Roscommon. It contained A. D. 1834, a Population of 736,732 souls, of whom 22,765 were Members of the Estabhshed Church and Wesleyan Methodists; 548 Presbyterians; 231 Pro testant Dissenters, and 713,188 Roman Catholics. These numbers had increased six per cent, in Galway, six per cent, in Mayo, five per cent in Sligo, and one per cent, in Roscommon a. d. 1841, according to the census of that year, and have since decreased twenty- nine per cent, in Galway, twenty-nine per cent, in Mayo, twenty-eight per cent, in Sligo, and thirty-one per cent, in Roscommon, according to the census of 1851. I give you the statistics of Population, at these dates, for three reasons, 1st., because there are no au- thentic means of ascertaining the relative proportions of Protestants and Catholics at a later period than 1834 when the Report of the Commissioners of Education was published ; 2ndly, that you may form some notion of the dreadful trials through which the People, whom your Missionaries propose to deprive of the consolations of the Religion they now profess, have lately passed ; — and thirdly, to enable you to determine whether, judg ing from what has yet happened, — you are hkely to have much success in your effort to promote the objects which you desire to accomplish, — through the instru mentality of the Estabhshed Church in Ireland. It certainly has not been for want of money that " the Work" has not hitherto prospered in Dr. Plun- ket's Diocese. Forty-five thousand acres of land, described by his Lordship's predecessors in their Returns to the Eccle siastical Commissioners as "profitable," and fifty-three thousand acres, described as " unprofitable," constitute the Estate of his Sees (a). It is true that the result of very questionable arrangements between the Bishops and their Tenants has been to limit the actual receipt of Church Revenue from these lands to an annual sum of £9101, but there they are, the undoubted property of the Churches of Tuam, Killala, and Achonry, and avail able surely by more thrifty management rather than the means of the people of Marylebone and Padding ton, for all the purposes for which the Irish Protestant Church has been established and maintained. It is true also, that the actual amount of income received by the Bishop for his own use, does not exceed £4600, but he is, in other respects, most comfortably (a) 1 Rep. Ecc. Comm. pp. 81—209. 210. 6 circumstanced. He has a palace, on the repair and improvement of which, between the years 1808 and 1823, more than £10,000 was expended, surrounded by a demesne and home farm of 314 acres (a) ; he liyes in a country where property and assessed taxes are unknown ; the expenditure incident to the sojourn in London of a Peer of Parliament is rarely required of him ; he has no parochial duties to perform, and cure EpiscopaUy of only 23,000 souls. On the first blush of the thing, it would seem more reasonable that his Lordship should contribute to the Church Missions in Marylebone and Paddington, or to any other laudable institutions, the alms houses, or hospitals, e. g., supported by their inhabitants, than that we should be called upon to lend a helping hand to him. It may be thought, perhaps, that the Bishop, con sistently with the duty of providing suitably for his family, (should God haye blessed him with children), is not in a position to display as much liberality as he might wish. But it rarely happens, that the good example set in the house of a Bishop does not deter mine the vocation of some at least of his sons to the Church, and of some of his daughters to matrimonial engagements with young men piously inclined, and unless Dr. Plunket is more than ordinarily unfor tunate in this particular, the patronage at his disposal must have relieved him, now that he has beeto for some years a Bishop, of any great anxiety on this score. There are sixty Benefices in his Lordship's Diocese, (o) 1 Kep. Eccl. Comm. p. 17. of which fifty-two, of the annual value of £17,676, are in his own patronage. Of these twenty-eight exceed in value £300, nineteen £400, nine £500, four £600, three £700, and two £800, per annum. A Bishop, with so much preferment to dispense, can have no difficulty in finding godly men for "the Work," without sending a begging-box about the streets of Marylebone and Paddington, and when he has found them, it is hardly possible to conceive circumstances more favourable for the doing of " the Work," than the circumstances in which they are placed. That you and the pious and exemplary persons by whose names your Circular is recommended to our attention, and the inhabitants of Marylebone and Pad dington may be the better enabled to judge of the alleged need of spiritual help in the Dioceses of Tuam, Killala, and Achonry, I request your attention to a Table of Benefices in those Dioceses, which has been carefully prepared from the returns of the Bishop and beneficed Clergy to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of Ireland. These Returns are of undoubted accuracy. They are vouched by the signatures of the most distin guished Prelates of the Irish Church, and relied upon in the Annual Reports of the Commissioners as the authentic Records, (aUowance being made for the changes occasioned since their date by alterations of the Law) of the circumstances and value of the Irish Benefices : — TABLE OF BENEFICES IN 1. 2. 3. 4. Benefice. Church Revenue Union, Rectory, Vicarage, or Patron. from Glebe, Rent Charge, Cost of Perpetual Cure. &o. Glebe Houses. £ £ Achill .... Bishop 75 — Athenry Crown 801 — Aughaval . Balla . Bishop 662 1199 Bishop 308 BallinakiU . Bishop 207 607 Ballinrobe . Bishop 490 1633 Burriscarra . Bishop 280 Burrishoole Bishop 187 701 Castlebar Bishop 466 __ Clare Galway Bishop ]35 Cong . Bishop 384 720 Crossboyne Bishop 205 738 Dunmore . Crown 547 1476 Headford . Bishop 828 2195 Hollymount Bishop 499 1618 Kilcolman . Bishop 266 2946 Kilcummin . Bishop 196 461 Kilkerrin Bishop 378 710 Killascobe . Bishop 526 , 1738 Killererin . Bishop 449 843 Kilmaine Bishop 460 738 Kilmeen Bishop 135 Kilmina Bishop 246 Kilmolara . Bishop 411 936 Kiltullagh . Bishop 588 divine Bishop 87 Louisburg . f Bishop and Rector of West- "1 1 port . . . J 83 461 Mayo Bishop 217 830 Monivea Rector of Athenry . 92 Moore Bishop 227 Moylough . Bishop 917 646 Oranmore . Bishop 285 Ross Bishop 323 Tuam . Bishop 574 1364 Turlough . Rector of Castlebar . 249 Wardenship of Galway. Bishop 555 — Totals 13,241 22,979 THE DIOCESE OF TUAM. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. statute Acres of Cost of Protestant Parish Number of Persons for whom Accom modation Number of Members of Established Church Number of Presbyte rians and Number of Catholics in Church Accom modation pro Glebe. provided in in Beneiice, Dissenters Benefice, vided by Law \.fA^ U.1 ^.fil^O 1 Parish A.D. 1834. in Benefice A.D. 1834. for Catholics. Churches. A.D. 1834. £ 200 260 156 5583 On this head — 1384 300 170 „_ 7454 the reader is re- 12 1327 900 1211 111 30335 ferred to the Acts for the Uniformi 77 — 4935 ty of Divine Wor 64 16 553276 120 350 582372 8 44501 9263 ship, 2 EMz. c. 2, and 17 & is Car. 2, c. 6, by which — 827 100 102 9672 aU persons living 63 unknown 350 497 2 12135 within the Dio cese are required 4 2400 450 1236 10 23157 to resort, on Sun 41 590 150 10 108 — 38288880 days and holi days, to the churches, of 38 324 200 61 6127 which the origi- 11 unknown 150 145 — 11330 nal cost and ac commodation are 32 983 280 233 — 15342 ?iven in co 12 923 200 354 16 6402 lumns 6 & 7. Most of these 14 1753 300 181 1 8822 were built with 26 553 70 138 10359 monies assessed 64 555 100 97 — 12891 on the Parish ioners, Catholic 38 461 200 43 1 11458 as well as Pro 40 461 100 112 — 7611 testant, at Vcs- :ries from which 14 not stated 60 80 — 6423 "atholics were, , __ 2 911 by law, excluded. 11 — — 276 — 9384 12 Geo. I, c. 9. Under the pro. 20 — 200 68 1 4632 visions of 3 & 4 5 692 120 367 — 36679 Wm.4, C.37, they are now kept in _ — — • 2006 repair, enlarged rebuilt, and the 32 461 150 102 12660 graveyards a- round them are 40 553 100 37 , 3312 jlanted and fen. — 267 250 151 5334 ced, and Bibles, Prayer books, — 830 200 149 9204 stoves, candles, 23 22 184 150 76 76 11923 7450 surplices, and sa- cramental ele ments are pro , ^__ 33 4663 vided, free of 61 553 550 533 _ 29380 cost, to those who worship in 830 250 760 10406 hem, by the Ec 34 1000 5000 978 81 45255 clesiastical Com missioners of Ire- and. 760 17,847 7130 9619 434 467,970 000 10 TABLE OF BENEFICES IN 1. 2. 3. 4. Benefice. Church Revenue Union, Rectory, Vicarage, or Patron. from Glebe, Rent Charge, Cost of Perpetual Cure. &c. Glebe Houses, £ £ Ballysakeery Bishop 238 1164 Castleconnor Bishop 461 1000 Crossmolina Bishop 468 1679 Dromard Bishop 232 800 Dunfeeney Bishop 198 310 Easky Bishop 234 738 Kilcommon Erris Bishop 134 — Killala Crown 99 , — Kilmacshalgan . Bishop 321 308 Kilmore Erris Bishop 128 581 Kilmoremoy Bishop 781 1104 Lackan Bishop 200 unknown Skreen Trin. Coll. and Bishop 412 777 Totals . 3781 8460 TABLE OF BENEFICES IN 1. 2. 3. 4. Benefice. Church Revenue Union, Rectory, Vicarage, from Glebe, Cost or Reut Charge, of Perpetual Cure. &c. Glebe Houses. £ £ Achonry . Crown 573 2179 Ballysadare Bishop 197 738 Castlemore Bishop 229 738 Emlaghfad Bishop 563 1580 KUconduff Bishop 321 738 Killaraght Bishop 306 Killedin . Bishop 315 KiUoran Bishop 237 942 KiUmacteige Bishop 303 1273 Straid Bishop 377 Tobercurry The Dean not stated — Totals 3322 8230 11 THE DIOCESE OF KILLALA. 5. 6. 7. Number of 8. Number of 9. Number of 10. 11. statute Members of Presbyte Church Ac . Acres of whom Accom- Established rians and Number of commodation Glebe. Protestant Church Dissenters Catholics in provided by vlded in in Benefice, m Benefice, Benefice, Law for Churches. Parish Churches. A.D. 1834. A.D. 1834. A.D. 1834. Catholics. 14 £ ^46 21262204 400 807 31 7276 See Table of 50 58 503 600 747 1452 2 8516 28309 Benefices in Tuam Diocese. 24 553 300 193 2191 32 766 300 542 6039 16 1238 200 602 48 5618 56 — 80 99 19 14551 32 1153 300 430 26 3699 10 1200 350 679 6759 64 738 150 235 9597 65 1292 800 904 51 14591 32 unknown 150 152 7788 34 1107 150 610 — 4175 526 13,.328 4153 7729 177 136,383 000 THE DIOCESE OF ACHONRY. 5. Statute Acres of Glebe. 6. Cost of Protestant Parish Churches. 7. Number of Persons for whom Accom modation pro vided in Parish Churches. 8. Number of Members of Established Church in Benefice, A.D. 1834. 9. Number of Presbyte rians and Dissenters in Benefice, A.D. 1834. 10. Number of Catholics in Benefice, A.D. 1834. 11. Church Ac commodation provided by Law for Catholics. 3532 42 32 21 7564 £ 1476 unknown 461 2500 553 cot stated ditto 921 unknown 400900 250 250 200650 150 200 40 450 100 240 180 10541580 144 946 63 272 28 973 169188 137 27 6 17416 6151 131231402510267 9312 10060 5363 7867 15351 See Table of Benefices in Tuam Diocese. 305 7513 2670 5417 170 108,835 000 12 If you will have the goodness to glance down the first and second columns shewing the names of the Benefices, and the persons in whose patronage they are, you will see that Dr. Plunket has abundant means, by the translation of earnest men from in ferior to more lucrative preferments, of stimulating a zeal for conversion; and when I tell you that thirty- eight curates are employed by the beneficed Clergy to assist them in doing what to be sure is next thing to nothing, at stipends which, in two instances only, exceed the sum of £75, you will judge whether there is not already under his Lordship's orders a plentiful supply of Missionaries, with every conceivable motive, temporal and spiritual, for exertion. The third column sets forth the present amount of Church income in every Benefice. The greater part of this revenue is derived from Rent- Charge, some times called "First-Charge," because it has priority over every description of incumbrance, mortgage, judgment or family settlement to which the lands within the benefice are subject. The original cost of the glebe houses, and the num ber of acres of glebe land attached to them are given in columns four and five, that you may be the better able to reahze in your mind's eye the condition of ease and comfort in which most of the incumbents live. From columns five, six, and seven, you will learn the original cost of the Protestant parish Churches; the number of persons for whom accommodation is provided in them, and the number of members of the Established Church of all ages in each Benefice (a). These Churches were built by the Protestants when they had all their own way, on a scale which, in their (a) Sec Column II, p. 9. 13 judgment, justified by the result, and in the judgment of their Bishops and Clergy made the amplest aUow ance for the most sanguine expectation of increase in their numbers. Since the year 1837, more than a million sterling has been expended by the Commis sioners on the building and repairing of Churches and the expenses of Divine Worship in Ireland, and they have thought it right to erect only six new Churches in the Dioceses of Dr. Plunket,— one at Headford, for the accommodation of 280 persons, — one at Kilkerrin, for 100 persons, — one at Ballyovie, for 100 persons — one at Lacken, for 158 persons — one at Kilcommon, for 80 persons — and one a.d. 1850, at Achill, so long trumpeted as the scene of sudden changes like to that, on the strength of which j^ou ask us to subscribe to your Auxiliary — for 260 persons ! ! ! We are told, indeed, by the Circular of the Parent Society, that the Bishop of Tuam has lately issued an appeal for the building of eight new Churches, and the enlargement of two others; but I cannot find that the actual insufficiency of Protestant Church accommodation is attested by the signature of any one Incumbent speaking of his own knowledge in his own parish, to the fact. Appeals of the kind referred to, are, at all events, unnecessary, inasmuch as if there were any real need of new Churches, the funds placed at the disposal of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, by the 3 & 4 Wm. 4, c. 37, for that special purpose, furnish abundant means for its supply. Some further information on the head of Church accommodation may be obtained from the eleventh column to which, and to the tenth, I invite your attention. The number of Roman Catholics, according to f'^" 14 population statistics already noticed, has diminished nearly one-fourth since the year 1841. It does not now probably much exceed 500,000 souls,— so fearful have been within the last ten years the ravages of eviction, famine, and disease.— -StiU there remains a vast population of Christians to whom the State, which makes no allowance for their ignorance of God's Law in its Courts of Justice, has denied all the material means of Religious Instruction and Public Worship, except upon the terms of their abjuring their own Faith to embrace a Faith which no country in the world but England holds. If you look at the figures you will see that before the famine there was hardly a parish in any one of the three Dioceses which did not contain a larger popula tion than aU the State Churches in the Diocese if put together could accommodate. " The stones," to use the language of the Prophet (a), " cry out of the waUs, and the beams out of the timbers," of these little Churches, that the Establishment is not, and is not likely to become, the spiritual guide of the Irish people. Is it not a dreadful thought, that during the forty years that the responsibility of Government in Ireland has been upon the Parliament of Great Britain, more than £1,400,000 has been raised in these Dioceses for Religious purposes, and yet that their inhabi tants, simply because they chng to the creed of the most numerous body of professing Christians, have, upon system, been allowed no more benefit from the expenditure of such vast resources than they would have done had their Rulers been Heathens ? But how came it, let me ask you, that the people thus treated as if they were beings without souls to (a) Hubakkuk, chap. 2, v. 1 1. 15 save, unaccountable as the brutes which perish, when it pleased God to visit them with the plague of hunger, were nerved to the display before their fellow-subjects and the world of a noble example of submission to human law, and resignation to God's holy wUl? By hundreds, every week, for months and months, without tumult or intimidation, almost without complaint, they laid down their bodies in the dust, and died, — innocent of the smallest infraction of the Rights of Property or the least disturbance of the Public Peace. Could this have happened — I put it to your conscience and honour — had it not been for the influence of the Religion the Priests of which are reviled by your Parent So ciety, and which your Auxiliary is plotting to destroy ? My object, however, is not to discuss the utility of the end which you hope to attain, but to point out to those friends and neighbours in Marylebone and Pad dington, to whose generosity and forbearance in Religious matters I had, some years ago, much reason to be grateful, the falseness of the pretences by which you, and many other excellent persons, have been betrayed into the course you are now pursuing. There is no want of money for Church purposes in the Dioceses of Tuam, Killala, and Achonry; — so far from it, the Establishment there is in a condition of shameful opulence. And I speak from some ex perience of the good sense of the inhabitants of Mary lebone and Paddington, when I tell you, that your only chance of getting subscriptions from them for the Irish Church Missions — is to keep them in igno rance of the facts of which I now inform you. WILLIAM SHEE. 5, Sussex Place, Hyde Park Gardens, Paddington, I7th June, 1852. *i 4 . V "^r '¦' :if#v'? #is-' k.-*, *" . n ¦^ *. ". '^S- .^ '