and their tithes are so regularly paid, and their situation in the midst of an attached, contented, and loyal people, is so extremely enviable and happy? Is it because the Irish generally are so extremely burdened with direct taxes that no additional ones would be productive, and therefore the clergy, as the most defenceless class in the community, must be subjected to partial taxation? Is it because the Irish landlords are so uniformly residents on their estates, and spend so large a portion of their time and income in encouraging the industry of their tenantry, and are burdened with so overwhelming a poor's rate, that they are entitled to exemption from any additional burdens? If these are the grounds on which the arbitrary and partial taxation is to be vindicated, let them be at once stated, and the facts brought forward which justify their adoption. But if the reverse of all this is notoriously and avowedly the case; if the Irish Protestant clergy are in a state of unexampled destitution; if their sons and daughters are literally obliged, in many cases, to go out to service to obtain bread for their once opulent and respected parents; if the stoppage of their income has become so universal, from the combination against tithes, that they were obliged to be thrown upon the English Treasury, and L.90,000 issued from Exchequer in Dublin,to meet their most pressing exigencies; if the Irish generally pay hardly any direct taxes-if they never felt the income tax, and are now infinitely less burdened, than the corresponding classes on this side of the Channel-if the landlords are, for the most part, non-resident, and draw large incomes from their estates, which are spent in Paris, London, or Naples if they pay no poor's rates, and have hitherto contrived to throw their enormous load of paupers upon the industry of England and Scotland-on what conceivable ground, either of justice or expedience, are the clergy to be selected out as the victims of present and partial spoliation, and in addition to their other numerous and almost unbearable grievances, a tax-gatherer to be imposed, with a demand for a tenth or a seventh of their wasted and

diminished incomes? Why, this is a heavier tax than ever was imposed on British opulence, to withstand the power of Napoleon; and now it is to be imposed on Irish Protestant indigence-to do what? To remove an imaginary or exaggerated complaint from the Catholic priesthood. We say an imaginary or exaggerated; for it appears that the church cess which it is intended to supply, is only L.90,000 a-year; a burden which, on a nation of 8,000,000 of souls, with a rent-roll of L.14,000,000, and 12,000,000 arable acres, is obviously nothing.

But supposing the church cess had been as real and substantial, as in reality it is a fictitious and imaginary grievance, on what principle is it to be imposed on the clergy alone, to the exclusion of all the other classes of the State? Why is the burden of upholding or repairing churches, or equalizing livings, to be imposed exclusively on the clergy? Do they alone share in the benefits of religious instruction, or spiritual consolation? Was Christianity formed for them alone? And on what conceivable principle of justice or equity, is the expense of a national establishment, intended for the benefit of all classes, to be laid exclusively upon one of the most industrious, meritorious, and destitute of society? The thing is obviously indefensible: it may be carried, and probably will, by the strong arm of legislative power; but it is untenable in the eye of reason,-unbearable in the scales of Justice; and if this is the first specimen of the equity of a Reformed Parliament, it will be manifest to the world, that Astræa, in forsaking the British Isles, left her last footsteps in the assemblies of its predecessors.

Do the great proprietors, whether in land, stock, or money, not perceive the immediate application which may be made of the principle thus established, to the spoliation of themselves and their children? If, to get quit of a democratic clamour against a particular tax, so small as to be altogether trifling in a national point of view, the example is to be set of fixing an arbitrary and peculiar load upon the higher classes of the clergy, on what ground will the great Leviathans in the House of Peers, or the

Stock Exchange, be able to withstand the analogous but far more terrible outery which will be raised for the exclusive taxation of their immense properties, to effect a reduction in the heavy and real burdens which press upon the people in Great Britain? The Radical papers announce with most ominous accuracy, that a list of 1500 gentlemen in and round London has been framed, whose fortunes would pay the national debt. If fifteen per cent is levied by the authority of the Legislature on the suffering and destitute Irish clergy, because the tithes of their parishes nominally exceed L.1000 a-year, how will they be able to resist the demand for twenty-five per cent, or fifty per cent, out of their ample rentrolls? The principle of exclusive taxation is just as applicable to the Duke of Devonshire, the Duke of Bedford, the Marquis of Westminster, the Earl of Lansdown, Earl Grey, Earl Albemarle, the Duke of Sutherland, as to the suffering and persecuted vicars and rectors of Ireland. There are hundreds of thousands in existence, who mark the application of the principle, who are preparing to follow it up with unwearied zeal, and anticipate with delight the irresistible application of the present precedent to the greater and far more popular spoliation which they have in view. When their turn comes, as come it will, if the march of the movement is not by some unforeseen event arrested, they will meet with no commiseration: the nation will turn to their recorded votes against the Irish clergy, and deal out to them the justice which they have dealt to others.

3. As if the present bill had been purposely intended (which, however, we do not believe) to involve and recognise every revolutionary principle, it contains a clause providing also for the gradual and certain extinction of the Protestant Church in Ireland. We do not say, that the clause in question was framed with this view, but unquestionably it has this tendency. It is declared, that if for a certain period the discharge of parochial duty has been suspended in a parish, it shall cease to be a Protestant living, and the tithes shall be vested in the Parliamentary Commissioners, In this way a certain

and infallible method of extinguish ing the Protestant religion is opened up to the Catholic desperadoes. They have nothing to do but shoot the incumbent, the moment that he settles in the parish, or drive him out of the country by threats to roast him and his family alive in their house, or burn the church, or assassinate all the Protestant parishioners, and the living will, after the lapse of a very short period, be extinguished. And what is to come of the tithes ? They are to be vested in the first instance in the Parliamentary Commissioners, and as the intention is announced of providing out of the funds in their hands for the payment of the Catholic clergy, the transference of the tithes to the Catholic priesthood will ultimately be certain and progressive. By the simple expedient of burning the houses, and murdering the persons of the Protestant clergy and parishioners, the national Establishment will be gradually and certainly broken up, and the funds in the hands of the Parliamentary Commissioners so much enlarged as gradually to give the Catholic clergy a just and irresistible claim to the whole ecclesiastical property in the country. We are confident that the authors of the Bill had no such diabo. lical intention in view when they framed it: the clause was probably drawn without attending to the consequences, or the use which might be made of it at all; but it is obvious that it has this tendency, and is susceptible of this application: and when we recollect that under the fostering hand of the political and religious agitators, the crimes of extreme violence in Ireland have risen to more than 1500 in the last three months of 1832, being at the rate of SIX THOUSAND a-year, it may readily be conceived what a formidable weapon we put into the hands of the Catholic Agitators, and what numerous and well-drilled bravoes are at their command to effect the gradual extinction of the Protestant establishment.

There is something singularly contradictory and absurd in bringing forward this clause, for the gradual extinction of the Protestant Establishment, in default of regular parochial service, in one bill, at the very time that in another bill, which is at the

same time before the legislature, Ireland is stated, and stated with justice, to be in such a state of disorder and crime, that the execution of the laws has become impracticable, and life and property are in many places utterly insecure. The Government tell us with one breath that the state of Ireland is such that unless the disorders are arrested, life and property in great part of the country are not worth two years' purchase; and yet they declare in another statute, at the very same time, that unless service is regularly performed in the Protestant churches, the living is to be extinguished; in other words, the tithes are ultimately to be assigned to the Catholics. Is no allowance to be made for those situations where the incumbent has been murdered? or residence, or the performance of duty in the parish, been rendered impossible by the intimidation or violence applied to him or his family, or the violent deaths or exile of all the Protestant inhabitants ? As the Bill now stands, it must operate, though we believe unintentionally on the part of its authors, as a direct bounty upon the commission of murder and arson by the Irish Whitefeet, and their instigation by the Agitators, or connivance at by the priests. It would be obviously better to establish the Catholic religion at once by act of Parliament, than to subject the Protestant Establishment, as this Bill tends to do, to a slow and agonizing process of dissolution, brought about by the commission of atrocious crimes on the part of the Catholic desperadoes, and the incitement to ruinous agitation and conspiracies among their artful and unprincipled leaders.

In days of revolution, every public measure is to be judged of by the principle which it involves; the precedent it affords, rather than its actual and immediate consequences. Measuring it by this standard,—a more ruinous and disorganizing clause was never introduced into the Legislature than this-which provides for the gradual extinction of the Protestant Establishment. The essence of every religious Establishment is, that it is universal; that it runs through the whole realm, and embraces alike all the subjects of the Crown, of what

ever persuasion or character. The principle on which it is founded, is, that Government, after deliberation and experience, have established that species of religious instruction to be afforded to the people by the holders of tithes, gratis, which they deem most advantageous, upon the whole, for their temporal and spiritual welfare, and suitable to the inclinations of a majority of the whole empire. This Establishment being once fixed on in conformity to the wishes and determination of the whole nation, the minority, though a majority in a particular district, are required to contribute to its support, on the same grounds as the minority in the political world are required to pay the taxes, and acquiesce in the measures passed by the majority, how contrary soever to their inclinations, and though carried in spite of their most strenuous opposition. The Catholics, though a majority in Ireland, are required to contribute to the general Protestant Establishment of the Empire, because they are not a fourth-part of the number, nor a fortieth part of the wealth of the whole empire, and it is unreasonable that so small a fraction should shake off the rule of the majority, or establish an Imperium in Imperio, in the religious any more than the social world. The Tories made the utmost resistance by legal means to the Reform Bill; but they never were so absurd as to propose on that account that they should have a separate parliament of their own, though, if they had, it would comprehend three-fourths of the property, and four-fifths of the education and worth of the kingdom.

This then being the obvious and well-known ground on which the social union, both in civil and religious matters, is founded, it is an utter abandonment of the whole system, the establishment of a precedent of ruinous application, to admit the principle, that because religious service has ceased for a time in any quarter, even from the most atrocious violence or intimidation, the Establishment is to be broken up, and a new faith introduced more agreeable to the wishes of that particular district or parish. If this is the case, it is a good

reason why the diocesan should be called to account for his negligence, if any fault is imputable to the clergy; or the civil authority enforced and aided, if the surcease has been owing to the disorders or resistance of the people; but it is no reason at all why the fatal precedent should be adopted, of breaking up the uniform establishment, and let ting the whims or caprices of the people, or of their spiritual demagogues, be the rule for determining what sort of creed they are to contribute to support. If an entrance is once given to this principle, the Protestant Church will speedily be broken up, and the creeds of different districts become as various as the colours on a harlequin's jacket. The Dissenters in many districts will say that they greatly preponderate over the Church of England, and therefore, if they can only contrive to prevent the celebration of service for a year or two, by burning the church, or massacring the incumbent, they will be entitled to insist on the principle of Lord Althorp's bill, for the extinction of the parish, and the appropriation of the tithes to a pastor of their own selection. If it is intended to abolish ecclesiastical establishments at once, and pay every clergyman from the Treasury, without any regard to the faith to which he belongs, we understand the principle, and are prepared, if it is necessary, to combat it. But the present bill seems calculated to pioneer for the same purpose, by the infernal agents of murder, robbery, and fire-raising.

It exasperates, if possible, the feeling of hostility with which this measure for the spoliation of the Church must be regarded by every thoughtful person, that while it is fraught with such dangerous principles, and proposes to realize such obvious injustice, it has no tendency whatever to relieve any of the real evils under which Ireland labours. Sir Robert Peel declared, in his inimitable speech, that the relation between landlord and tenant, was the real and prolific source both of the disorders and the misery of Ireland; and the Attorney-General added, that of 150 cases of Whitefeet outrage which he had investigated, every one originated in the desire to dispossess obnoxious

VOL. XXXIII. NO. CCVII.

settlers on the land. This then being the case, what is the real and practical tendency of the measures which are proposed as such boons to the wretched and starving Irish tenantry? Church cess is to be taken off, and laid on the clergy; the consequence of that of course will be, that the rent of the land will rise to the full amount of the burden taken off; and in lieu of the church collector, the formidable land-bailiff will make his appearance. In like manner, the reduction of the Protestant Establishment by the extinction of the Protestant parishes, will occasion no reduction in the burdens of the cultivator; the tithe, with all its vexations, will continue, with this difference, that it will be drawn by the Catholic instead of the Protestant incumbent of the parish. The result of this great remedial measure, which is to heal the multiplied wounds of Ireland, therefore will be, that the whole amount of the church cess will be gained to the opulent landlord, in the shape of augmented rent, at the expense of the unhappy clergyman, ground down by partial taxation; and that the whole amount of the Protestant tithes in the extinguished parishes, will be gained by the Catholic priesthood. The condition of the unhappy cultivators will, by both changes, be rendered worse than before. And it is for such deceitful illusory benefits as these, that the precedent of spoliation, partial taxation, and the destruction of the Establishment, is to be afforded to a hungry and insatiable revolutionary generation!

The proposed reduction in the number of bishops, is to be judged of on the same principles. It is to be viewed as a part of the general system of the movement; a concession to the party who openly avow, that their object is, the destruction of the Aristocracy, the established Church, and the Throne. O'Connel has declared himself in an especial manner gratified with this commencement of the great work of demolition, and the invaluable principles which it contains; and let us attend to his avowed designs in regard to the remaining institutions of the empire. He declared, at the meeting of the Political Union in London," what I struggled for was, 2 P

to annihilate the aristocratic principle, and to establish the pure principle of democracy." Now, this vehement supporter of "the pure principle of democracy," declared himself highly satisfied with this great principle involved in the destruction of the bishops; and in order to show the peril with which any concession to such a party is attended, we must pollute our pages by the following extract, from a new journal entitled, "A Weekly, Radical, Christian, and Family Newspaper :

"The Bill of Blood has passed through a Christian Senate! The law of Nature and Religion has been nullified by the law of Man! Commit_no_murder' is repealed; and the conflicting Religions of Christ are again about to be made the excuse for human bloodshed, and the signal for mortal collision between brother and brother!-Was there no opposition?—

Where were the Right Reverend Fathers in God? Where were they, we demand? And, Oh! that we could startle their

perjured souls by the thunder of Hell into a sense of their Satanic apostacy! And this is your quarrel."

*

depend upon steadily resisting in this particular the invasions of democratic ambition.

The proposed reduction, too, is as pernicious in a civil as it is perilous in a political point of view. The Irish have told us a hundred times, that the ruin of their country has been the non-residence of the landed proprietors, and in spite of the paradox of Mr M'Culloch, there can be no doubt that the observation is in a great measure well-founded. They have, however, twenty-two resident landed proprietors, whose income, amounting in all to L.130,000, is all spent in Ireland, and which contributes, in a certain degree, to vivify its industry, and uphold its charity. These twenty-two proprietors are the Bishops; and because they have so few resident proprietors, the Government propose to make them still fewer, by reducing the Bishops to twelve, and cutting diture of that, the single and only off L.60,000 a-year from the expenbody of permanent resident proprietors. This the Ministry considers a prodigious boon to Ireland, and it was received with shouts of delight by the reformed House of ComThe cutting off L.60,000 ayear of expended rents in Ireland, evils of absenteeism, and furnish they think will go far to correct the bread to the hundreds of thousands who now pine for want of employment, in its densely-peopled realms. What is to be done with the L.60,000 a-year thus cut off from the Bishops, is done with it, one thing is clear, is not very apparent; but whatever that it never will assume such a beneficial form for Irish industry as it now has obtained.

mons.

The alteration on the Grand Jury, is another of the concessions made by Ministers to the Revolutionary party, from which no practical good can be expected. There may be abuses in the present system, which should be remedied; but the idea of effecting it, by inundating the Grand Jury Room with the delegates of the Ten-Pounders, and neutralizing the gentlemen of the country by the admission of the Catholic democracy, is too absurd to bear an argument. Will the destruction of the funds levied by the Grand Jury assessments be reformed, or the com