Statement the episco the bishops, have been even more exaggerated than these concerning in reference to the incomes of the parochial clergy. But pal revenues when the facts are fairly inquired into, instead of the prein Ireland. lates having, as a body, eagerly grasped at gain, and sought to aggrandize themselves out of the property belonging to them, it will be found that their long-settled practice has been to claim and to receive, in addition to the small head-rents of the estates assigned to them, a renewal fine of only one-fifth of the value, after deducting that rent; the remaining four-fifths being enjoyed by the numerous and respectable class of landholders to whom they have been leased for many generations. Is there any other property in the kingdom, I would ask, out of which so small a benefit is claimed by its proprietors? When the provisions of the Church Temporalities' Act shall have come into full operation, (and it is in this light that our ecclesiastical establishment must be viewed, by all who really wish to ascertain the condition in which it will be in future,) the revenues of the episcopal body will be reduced by the payment of a heavy tax, so that their average nett amount will but little exceed that of the judges of the courts of law. And when it is considered that the prelates form a portion of the peerage of the country, one of the highest estates of the realma privilege of their order as ancient as the House of Peers itself, and handed down to the bishops of the Irish Church by a succession which has suffered no interruption, a succession reaching further back than does the title of any temporal peer of Ireland; and when the income assigned them out of their properties is compared with that of even the poorest of the noble order, of which from time immemorial they form a part, it will appear to be not excessive in its amount." Views of The limits of this volume being such as to exclude the possibility of dwelling at greater the main length on the valuable matter contained in the specting Charge from which the above passages are tenance of quoted, it may be proper in connection with the clergy. the last of them, to draw the reader's attention to the following judicious observations of the celebrated Edmund Burke, in his Reflections on the French Revolution, (pp. 153, 154.) After alluding to the relations existing between the teachers of religion, and the wealthy and powerful in the country, and remarking on the evil consequences likely to result, if the latter individuals were to behold the former body elevated, "in no part, above the establishment of their domestic servants," Edmund Burke proceeds to speak thus:— French Re "Our provident constitution has therefore taken care Extract that those who are to instruct presumptuous ignorance, from his those who are to be censors over insolent vice, should Reflections neither incur their contempt, nor live upon their alms. ene Nor will it tempt the rich to a neglect of the true medi- volution. cine of their minds. For these reasons, whilst we provide first for the poor, and with a parental solicitude, we have not relegated religion, as something we are ashamed to shew, to obscure municipalities or rustic villages. No we will have her to exalt her mitred front in courts and parliaments. We will have her mixed throughout the whole mass of life, and blended with all the classes of society. The people of England will show to the haughty potentates of the world, and to their talking sophisters, that a free, a generous, an informed nation honours the high magistrates of its Church, that it will not suffer the insolence of wealth and titles, or The Church property of only a small that em- any other species of proud pretension, to look down with scorn upon what they look up to with reverence; nor presume to trample on the acquired personal nobility, which they intend always to be, and which often is, the fruit, not the reward, (for what can be the reward?) of learning, piety, and virtue. They can see without pain or grudging an archbishop precede a duke. They can see a Bishop of Durham, or a Bishop of Winchester, in possession of ten thousand pounds a year, and cannot conceive why it is in worse hands than estates to the like amount in the hands of this earl or that squire; although it may be true that so many dogs and horses are not kept by the former, and fed with the victuals which ought to nourish the children of the people." But in truth by far the greater, although the the country less turbulent, portion of those who desire to see the confiscation of Church property completed in this country, look on the measure with comparatively small interest, as affecting but an inconsiderable portion of their cherished "rights." "The people" and their political guides, lay and clerical, of native blood, and native sentiments, (for those of English extraction and English connections are but little acquainted with their mind on the subject,) look on the existence of any proprietors of an "Englished condition" in Ireland, as a gigantic wrong, to be put down by might and violence, whenever safe occasion allows. But to attack directly so extensive and influential an interest, would raise too formidable a front of opposition. The communist Cyclop will be content to leave the lay proprietor for digestion last. The land he holds can hardly be meddled with. Even in the way of its partial alienation by a "tenant right" enactment, impediments are found to exist. His ancestors may have wasted their property, and encumbered their successor with poverty-spent their time on dogs, and wine, and carousing-neglecting all care of tenants or of tenements; yet the landlord's remaining interest must be protected; and to attempt to deprive him of more than is needed for the payment of legal debts, contracted by his family, would be looked on as contrary to all principles of social order, and to the general good feeling of an honest-minded public. glebe no grievance to the poor bourhood. of his neigh The neighbouring rector inherits a Church The rector's holding, the scene perhaps from time immemorial, of the labours of some industrious monk, or thrifty parson, or in almost the worst case, of a resident gentleman, superior in education to his rural neighbours, and likely to raise their feelings, manners, and principles, by the influence of example, if no further. Culture and attention have given to his glebe a corresponding appearance of productiveness, improvement, and comfort. It belongs not however to his family. Any tradesman's child, any humble individual, of industry, intellect, and character, may become the next inheritor. How are the poor of the neighbourhood more oppressed here? Or what advantage would they gain, if that Church farm were to become in perpetuity the property of some publican, grocer, or cattle-jobber, and his family, instead of continuing to be the residence of a ministering servant of the Church of God? Sham arguments however, and quasi reasonIreland ings, have more weight with the dull and the ferred from perverse, where ecclesiastical property is conone body of cerned; and what would be unprincipled and men to ano- intolerable in connection with the sacred rights The Church property of never trans ther. of the secular community, is all fair and honest in dealing with the Church's inheritance. So the wily agitator, largely countenanced in fomenting a popular cry against "the transferred property" in possession of the Irish Church, is enabled to insinuate into the public mind, a principle of most extensive, and almost unlimited, application, to the lay property of Ireland; applicable to it more strictly. For where the layman's inheritance has been repeatedly confiscated, and thus really transferred to a new proprietary, the Church's portion was never possessed by any other body.* Only the civil power has from time to time procured the nomination of particular individuals to succeed to particular offices in that body, just as the visible head of Vid. p. 1068 sup. |