CHAP. IX.]

grievance like this was ignored by a government which called itself liberal, and friendly to Ireland. Now that the ministers had at last discovered that they had grievance, as well as agitation, to deal with, the method in which they proposed to deal with it was this-that all compositions for tithes should cease from the 1st of next November; and that the amount should be paid in the form of an annual land-tax to the king, who should cause provision to be made out of it, in land or money, for the clergy and other tithe-owners. This landtax was to be redeemable. Mr O'Connell, and other members from Ireland, vehemently opposed this proposal, reasonably alleging that it would merely establish the same impost under another name. They did not succeed now in delaying the introduction of the bill; but on the 30th of July, when it was in committee, Mr O'Connell had his revenge for the moment. He objected to the proposal that government should recover the amount of the tithes; said that they would never succeed in taming the Irish people by pretending to throw salt on the tails of the landlords; and moved that the tithes should be made payable immediately from the landlords to the clergy, after being reduced 40 per cent. This motion was in the form of an amendment to the third clause of the bill; and it was carried by a very large majority-the numbers being 82 to 33.

After taking time to consider, the ministers determined to go on with the bill. They never would have proposed a large reduction in the incomes of the Irish clergy; but as the House of Commons had declared itself broadly in favour of such a reduction, and it would facilitate the settling of the system, they could have no objection. And they believed that the clergy-to whom individually the reduction would be only 22 per cent.-would be willing and thankful to receive that amount, in consideration of the security, punctuality, and peaceableness which would now attend the payments. The lord chancellor put it to the Peers, when the bill came before them, whether any one of them deriving a nominal income of £100,000 from his estates, would not be very glad to receive in gold, on a certain day, without a chance of disappointment, £77,500, with a release from all disputes, pains, and penalties, from bad or impoverished tenants. If their own bishops were to be believed, however, the great majority of the Irish clergy were hostile to the measure. In that case-if they were still able and disposed to stand out, under the risk of Irish outrage, for the full hire of their spiritual service the compassion of parliament was thrown away upon them, and that of the nation must be reserved for the suffering minority of the clergy, who were ready to sacrifice something for peace, and to avoid causing their brother to offend. But even these more high-minded sufferers were not to be aided yet. On the motion for the second reading in the Lords, Lord Ellenborough moved that the bill should be read that day six months, and threw it out by a majority of 67 out of 311 votes, by proxy or present. The bishops who were in favour of the measure were those of Derry, Chichester, and Norwich. On the other side were the Archbishops of

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Canterbury and Cashel, and nineteen bishops. The division shewed that the spiritual peers were quite of Lord Melbourne's opinion-which was earnestly expressed-as to the unspeakable importance of the measure; only they took an opposite view of it. It was but for a short time, for within five years they had to yield; and meanwhile, their conduct, whether attributed to pride, to greed, to enmity to the Catholic Irish, or merely to such narrowness of view as ill becomes legislators, went as far to impair the dignity and influence of the Church among those who watched the case, as their success in throwing out the Reform Bill three years before.

Thus ended in failure the endeavour of the Whig administration to deal with the Irish tithe question; a difficulty so radical as to require radical treatment, as has been since practically acknowledged. The effect of merely tampering with it was very disastrous: the government was foiled; the clergy sank into a deeper slough of popular hatred; and the Irish Church lost every year more of its dignity in the eyes of its own well-wishers.

The great question of its preservation in any form had now for some time been discussed; and so discussed that it was necessary for the administration of the time-whatever it might be-to take up the argument. Everybody knew that the chief incitement to the repeal agitation was the hope of getting rid of the Church. The Tories were disposed to defy the repeal cry, and all agitation, and to uphold the dues of the Church, even to the last penny of church-cess, and the smallest fraction of a farthing of tithe. A large number of the Liberal party were for so abating the Irish Church as to throw its maintenance upon its own members, and reduce its ministers to some proportion to their flocks. The endeavour of the administration was to keep a middle course between these extreme parties. In 1833, the government proposed to empower a board of ecclesiastical commissioners, by act of parliament, to make extensive changes in the Irish Church, which, it was hoped, would be so manifestly for the advantage of all parties as to secure a sufficient support in parliament.

It appears, by a census purposely taken in 1834, that the proportion of the numbers of the Protestant Church in Ireland to that of Catholics and Dissenters was this: The Catholics were 6,436,060; the members of the Established Church were 853,160; and the Dissenters, 665,540-that is, while the Catholics were above 80 per cent., the Church Protestants were just above 10, and the Dissenters 8, per cent. The revenues of this Church were £865,525—above £1 per head of its members! There were nearly 1400 benefices-of which forty-one did not contain a single Protestant; twenty had under five, and 165 contained under five-and-twenty. In 157 benefices, no service was performed, the incumbent being an absentee. There were four archbishops and eighteen bishops for this little flock. It was impossible that such a Church could long be endured in a country so peopled; and the reductions now proposed by government were very considerable.

Two archbishops and ten bishops were to be the last of their name. Their dioceses were to be

was expected that by the sum thus raised-about £69,000 a year-a sufficient provision would be secured for the repair of churches and conducting of the service, so that the odious impost of church-cess might be abolished, its amount being estimated at £70,000 a year. The one remaining point was that which occasioned the fiercest disputes; disputes which lasted for a course of years, and are certainly destined to be renewed hereafter. In opening the scheme of government for altering-to the advantage of all other parties, without injury to the clergythe terms for letting the lands of the Church, Lord Althorp did not conceal his opinion that any additional funds accruing from such change of management were fairly to be considered state funds, applicable to general state purposes. Supposing the Church left where she was before-deprived

of nothing present or future-the profits of any improvement suggested and achieved by the government might be claimed by the government for the good of the state. The amount anticipated from this source was about, or nearly, three millions.

The government were anxious to lose no time, 'under existing circumstances,' in carrying this bill. It was brought in on the 11th of March. There was debate about the time of the second reading, and one of those mistakes to which the present ministry seemed to be doomed; so that a delay of many weeks ensued. This was a tax-bill, and it was necessary to introduce it in a committee of the whole House; and thus, as the point had to be argued, the ministers to be convicted of error, and the whole matter gone over again, it was the 6th of May before it reached the second reading. It was then very nearly

CHAP. IX.]

dismissed a second time, on account of an oversight of ministers in reciting a message from the king which had never been delivered to parliament; but the speaker decided that the objectors should have brought forward their point before the first reading, and must now wait till the bill was in committee, by which time the necessary message from the king might be received. The majority on this occasion was large in favour of the measure—many members, however, giving notice that they should ultimately oppose it, unless it was decided in committee that all accruing funds whatsoever should be devoted to ecclesiastical purposes. It was in vain that government explained that the fund from new church leases should be applied to educational and other objects which ought to be those of the Church. That provision was expunged from the bill in committee. It was also decreed that the tax on clerical incomes should date only from the death of the present incumbents. With these alterations, the bill passed the Lower House, on the 8th of July 1833, by a majority of 274 to 94; a proportion which shews how much stronger was the apprehension of danger from Ireland, than the cry, loud as it was, about confiscation of the property of the Church.

The Peers were believed to intend to make a vigorous rally against this very important bill, with whose passage the existence of the ministry was understood to be bound up. On a recent occasion, when the Reform Bill had been in danger, a welltimed vote of the Commons of confidence in ministers had been found of service; and it was now proposed again to intimate to the Peers that the Commons had a very decided will in regard to the reformation of the Irish Church. Sir J. Wrottesley, after due notice, and in opposition to the entreaties of ministers, moved for a call of the House on the 17th of July-the day of the second reading in the Lords; and he was nearly successful-125 voting with him, and 160 against him.

The opposition in the Lords was strong, but not effectual. The support given to the measure was somewhat grudging; but it was sufficient-no doubt for the reason assigned, in a few remarkable words, by the Earl of Wicklow for his share in carrying the bill through. He could not be taken to be a supporter of ministers because he meant to vote for their present measure. He conceived that every act of theirs bore upon it the stamp of revolutionthe present no less than others; but he would for that very reason vote for the present bill, because, if he did not, he might on a future occasion-like him with the books of the Sibyl-have to pay a higher price for less value.' The Duke of Wellington, who had more reason than most men to know what to dread from Irish discontent, supported the bill, on condition of certain amendments; and all went well, except that ministers were outvoted on the point of the disposal of the revenues of suspended appointments. By a majority of two it was decided that such revenues should be applied to the repairs of the church and glebe-house; and then, any surplus should go into the hands of the commissioners. After consideration, Lord Grey and his colleagues determined not to throw up the bill for the sake

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of this one point. It passed, on the 30th of July, by a majority of 54, out of 216 votes, and in the midst of a vigorous recording of protests by alarmed peers. Of these protests, the most remarkable one is that of the Duke of Cumberland, who reverts to the old ground-by that time forgotten by every one else of the coronation oath, of which he declares this measure a clear violation. The commissioners appointed under the bill were the Primate of Ireland and Archbishop of Dublin, the lord chancellor and chief-justice of Ireland, and four of the Irish bishops. Their powers were great; and it was confidently hoped that they would be put to vigorous use. But no one supposed that anything that they could do would finally settle the difficulty of the Irish Church; and it would be so long before the relief of their measures could be practically felt, that much might happen meantime.

Though the state of Ireland was less disturbed, in the course of a few months, the agitation for repeal went on so vigorously that the royal speech made express reference to it at the opening of the session of 1834, and both Houses of parliament replied in a special address; it being well understood by all parties that the Church grievance supplied the whole body and spirit of the agitation. Men who agreed that the fact was so, were far from agreeing as to what should be done; and none differed more irreconcilably than the members of the cabinet, as events presently shewed.

In the preceding year Mr Stanley had ceased to be Irish secretary, having entered the cabinet as colonial secretary, when Lord Goderich became Earl of Ripon, with the office of lord privy seal. It was at that time that Mr Littleton (since Lord Hatherton) became Irish secretary, and entered upon the warfare which his office imposed upon any one compelled daily to hold a sort of conservative ground against Mr O'Connell and his friends in the House. Towards Mr Stanley the Irish members had been to the last degree fierce; and he was not of a temper to keep the peace under provocation, or so made as to conceal the disgust and contempt from which he has ever appeared to suffer, as from a chronic malady, all the days of his life. What the colonies might have to say to the change would be known in due course; meantime, it was a comfort to the ministers to see a good-tempered man, who seemed to be liked by the Irish members, in the place of one who was so vehemently hated by them. The difference of opinion in the cabinet about the power of the state over any new revenues of the Irish Church, was of less consequence, as the chief of the minority-who called such a doctrine a plan of confiscation-was now occupied with colonial affairs. The difference might for some time longer have caused nothing more serious than preparatory discussion, but for the subject of the Irish Church being brought up by Mr Ward, member for St Alban's, on the 27th of May, in a motion for the reduction of its establishment, as it exceeded the spiritual wants of the Protestant population, and as it is the right of the state to regulate the distribution of church-property, in such manner as parliament may determine. The motion was seconded by Mr

Grote, one of the members for London, who had scarcely begun to address the House when Lord Althorp received some information which induced him, at the close of Mr Grote's speech, to request the House to adjourn the debate from the present Tuesday to the Monday following. On this question -of the right of the state over any proceeds of church-property-the administration could not bear a touch. The news which had reached Lord Althorp was that the leaders of the minority in the cabinetMr Stanley and Sir James Graham-had resigned. They had hurried on their court-dresses, and gone to the king, to surrender office. Their example was immediately followed by Lord Ripon and the Duke of Richmond. The single Tory, and two 'Canningites,' were now gone; and the ministry, being wholly Liberal-or supposed to be so-could henceforth work more freely. Such was the speculation in the House of Commons, in Lombard Street, and in Ireland. Lord Auckland went to the Admiralty; Mr Spring Rice to the Colonial Office; and the privy seal was held by Lord Carlisle. Mr Poulett Thomson at the same time became president, instead of vicepresident, of the Board of Trade; and the Marquis of Conyngham succeeded the Duke of Richmond at the Post-office.

The opponents of a liberal policy knew what was the weakest point of the administration-of this administration, as of several that had preceded; the timidity and deficient ability of the king. They lost no time in attacking this weak point. The day after the debate had been so strangely interrupted was the king's birthday festival; and the Irish bishops went up to the throne with an address, signed most numerously by Irish prelates and clergy, deprecating changes in the establishment. Whether the king's mind was overfull of the subject before, so as to flow out at the first touch of his feelings, or whether any circumstance at the moment tempted him away from the ordinary practice in replying to such addresses, there is no saying; but he poured out a set of sentiments, ideas, and promises, which placed himself and his government in a position of great embarrassment, and grievously aggravated the prevalent excitement. This extraordinary speech began with the words: 'I now remember you have a right to require of me to be resolute in defence of the Church.' The king went on to assure the eagerly listening clergy that the Church of England and Ireland should be preserved unimpaired by him; and that, if any of the inferior arrangements in the discipline of the Irish Church required amendment' which, however, he greatly doubted-he hoped it would be left to the bishops to correct them, without interference on any hand. He was completing his sixty-ninth year, and must prepare to leave the world with a conscience clear in regard to the maintenance of the Church.' 'I have spoken more strongly than usual,' he said in conclusion, with tears running down his cheeks, 'because of unhappy circumstances that have forced themselves upon the observation of all. The threats of those who are enemies of the Church make it the more necessary for those who feel their duty to that Church to speak out. The words which you hear

from me are, indeed, spoken by my mouth, but they flow from my heart.' He had, somewhat unnecessarily, assured his hearers that his speech was not a prepared one, got by heart, but uttered from the feeling of the moment. As such an indiscretion must be infinitely embarrassing to his ministers, the utmost pains were taken to scatter this speech through the country without the delay of an hour, that the House of Commons and the ministers might be overawed before the renewal of the debate on Mr Ward's motion, the next Monday.

Meantime, the ministers did not resign. They had had experience before of the weakness of the king, and did not think it right to give up the country to be governed by the leaders of the minority, under a sovereign who could not help agreeing with the last speaker, and who was always impetuous on behalf of his latest impression. The ministers did not resign; but the general conviction of their insecurity in office was so strong that Mr Ward declined to withdraw his motion, saying that the assertion of its principle was made doubly important by the probability that men would presently be in power who would need such a check from the legislature. During the week, it had become known that Lord Grey had declared that he had neither nerve nor spirits for the vigorous reconstruction of the cabinet; and that his predominant wish to have Lord Durham there-had been overborne by the lord chancellor and Lord Lansdowne. Two addresses to the premier had been presented on the part of members of the House of Commons: the one, a declaration of confidence in Lord Grey; the other, prepared after the intrigues in the cabinet had become known, expressive of dissatisfaction at the discountenance of popular principles in the new appointments. The ministerial papers themselves openly warned the nation that the government was only patched up,' to get through the session; and that, before the year was out, unless the matter were looked to in time, the nation would be at the mercy of the court, which was itself in the hands of the Church.

Under such circumstances, Mr Ward refused to withdraw his motion. He was probably aware that Mr Hume was about to quote a letter from Lord Anglesea to the premier, in which he insisted on a large reform of the Church as absolutely essential to the peace of Ireland; and he could quote as a sanction to his motion the words of Lord Althorp himself, a few months before: 'If, by any act of the legislature, new value can be given to any property belonging to the Church, that new value will not properly belong to the Church, because it is an acquisition dependent on such act of the legislature, and may be appropriated immediately to the use of the state.' Mr Ward's anxiety was to reassert this principle; and pitiable was the position of Lord Althorp, if he was really about to evade that declaration of his own. His position was pitiable. He was wont to say, with his good-humoured smile, that it was hard upon him to force him to be a statesman, when nature had made him a grazier; and the lot was doubly hard which threw him into a cabinet where there was no power of will, no enlightened union, no combined working faculty, to sustain the efficiency

or dropped them, strove in the first place always to evade difficulties which they had not faculty or influence to overcome, had long lost their popularity, and stood a spectacle of weakness to the weak sovereign himself. Thus, Lord Althorp's position on the evening of the 2d of June was truly a pitiable

one.

By prodigious exertion, a plan for a commission of inquiry respecting the Irish Church had been framed, and commissioners found, by the Monday morning. In the afternoon, a council of the supporters of the cabinet was held in Downing Street, at which the procedure of the evening was determined on. Mr Ward was to be outvoted at any risk, as his success would bring on a decision of the perilous question

about church-property, cause the dissolution of the ministry, and, no doubt, a general election, in which the Church and State question would be the watchword. The supporters of the ministry knew that their constituents were in a mood which it would not be pleasant to encounter; and they were thankful to learn that government had provided a means of escape from either affirming or denying Mr Ward's principle.

When they went to the House, they found it surrounded by a crowd, and so filled that it was difficult for them to make their way to their seats. Mr Ward's speech was brief, courteous, but firm. Lord Althorp then announced the intention of the government to issue a special commission of