sums payable by him or them respectively shall be, or may have been, payable to any party entitled to the receipt of any composition, or to any landlord who may have taken upon him the payment of such composition, to apply to the lord lieutenant of Ireland in council, praying, on behalf of such parish, a revision of the composition established therein; and in like manner it shall be lawful for any person who would have been, in case this act had not been made, entitled to any composition for tithes, to apply to the said lord-lieutenant in council, praying the revision of such composition, and such application to be made by memorial, within six weeks next after the passing of this act with the clerk of the Privy Council of Ireland, and the party making application shall cause notice of every such application to be posted on the church-door and on the usual places of posting notices of applications for grand jury presentments in the barony or half-barony in which the parish to which such application may refer is situate, and once inserted in some newspaper circulating within such parish, within ten days next after such memorial shall be so lodged with the clerk of the council; provided always, that where the effect of any composition may have been suspended previous to the passing of this act by virtue of any lease or agreement in writing, the owners and occupiers of any lands upon which collectively a sum exceeding one-half of the amount of such composition may have been allotted, shall be deemed and taken to be qualified within the meaning of this act to make such application. 10. And be it enacted, that every such memorial shall state the particulars, grounds, and reasons for making such application, and the material allegations of every such memorial shall be verified by some one or more creditable person or persons, according to the best of their knowledge and belief, on oath, before one or more of the justices of the peace for the county, or one of the counties wherein such parishes may be situate (which oath any such justice or justices is and are hereby authorized to administer); and if by any such memorial so verified, and of which due notice shall have been given as hereinbefore directed, it shall appear to the said lord-lieutenant in council that the amount of the composition to which such memorial may relate exceeds by more than one-fifth the actual amount of the average of the sums really and truly due and adjudged to be paid during the seven years on the average of which such composition was calculated, or that any sum was added to the actual amount of the average of such true and real sums without just and sufficient grounds and reasons for such addition, or that any fraud, concealment, misrepresentation, or circumvention was practised upon the entering into such composition, whereby the amount of such composition was unduly effected, or that such composition was made upon ex-parte evidence, whereby the amount of such composition was unduly effected, then and in every such case the said lord-lieutenant shall cause the same to be revised in manner hereinafter mentioned: Provided always, that when an appeal from any certificate of composition has before the passing of this act been decided upon the merits by the lord-lieutenant and privy council, or by any judge of assize, it shall be at the discretion of the said lord-lieutenant and council to cause such composition to be revised or not, as to them shall seem proper. 11. Barristers to be appointed for the purposes of such revision. 12. Rules to be observed in the revision of compositions under this act. 13. Barristers revising compositions shall make order for payment of the expenses by such party as they shall think fit, subject to certain rules. 14. Barristers shall transmit their award to the lord-lieutenant, who shall amend certificates and applotments accordingly. 15. Treasury may order advances from the Consolidated Fund, to defray the expenses incurred in revision of composition.. 16. Barristers may compel attendance of witnesses. 17. Barristers may allow expenses to witnesses not interested in the matter. 18. Witnesses and barristers how to be paid, and expenses of revision how to be repaid. 19. Appeals now before privy council may be referred to barristers under this act. 20. Lord-lieutenant may cause applotments to be amended. 21. Proceedings where the liability of land to rent-charge shall be disputed. 22. When tithe-free lands have been subjected to composition, such composition shall be reduced. 23. What prescriptions to be valid in law in cases of claims of exemption from tithes. 24. To what cases the hereinbefore-contained provisions shall not extend. 25. Time during which lands shall be held by persons entitled to the tithes thereof, to be excluded in the computation; as also the time during which any person capable of resisting any claim shall be an infant, &c. 26. What it shall be sufficient to allege in proceedings relating to the exemption of lands from tithe under this act. 27. No presumption allowed in support of any claim for any less period than herein-mentioned. 28. Rent-charges, to whom payable. 29. Effect of certificates of compositions as the right of parties entitled thereto. 30. And be it enacted, that the said rent-charges shall have priority over all other charges, liens, mortgages, and incumbrances whatsoever, affecting the lands chargeable therewith; and shall and may be recovered by the ways and means hereinafter mentioned; (that is to say) by bill in equity, action of debt or on the case, or, if not exceeding twenty pounds, by civil bill, in the court of the assistant-barrister or chairman of the sessions of the county wherein the lands charged therewith may be situate, or by distress, subject to the provisions hereinafter contained. 31. Where person liable to payment of rent-charge shall occupy the land, rent-charge in arrear may be distrained for. 32. Where rent-charge in arrear, and the person liable thereto shall not be in occupation of the lands charged therewith, or where such person may not be known, a court of equity may order the rents of such lands to be received in liquidation of such rent-charge, &c. 33. Rent-charges may be apportioned. 34. Rent-charges to be variable in like manner as tithe composition. 35. Holders of leases of tithes &c. may surrender the same, or compel the lessors to reduce the rents. 36. Arrears of instalment of certain monies advanced by commissioners of First Fruits, and due 1st July, 1836, 1837, and 1838, not to be sued for. 37. But incumbents to pay same by yearly instalments, commencing 1st July, 1839. 38. Tithe Composition Acts shall be taken to extend to her Majesty. 39. The provisions of this act shall extend to her Majesty. 40. Notices, how to be served 41. Interpretation of words used in this act. 42. Act may be altered this session. PETITION OF IRISH CLERGY, IN REFERENCE TO THE PROPOSED BILL AFFECTING CHURCH PROPERTY IN IRELAND. Ar a meeting held in the Chapter Room of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, on Thursday, 3rd of July, 1838, the Venerable the Archdeacon of Ardagh in the chair; Resolved, That the following clergymen be appointed a committee to draw up a petition to parliament, in reference to the bill affecting church property in Ireland, now in progress though the Commons' House of Parliament : The Ven. the Archdeacon of Ardagh The Rev. James H. Todd, B.D. Resolved, That the petition, when drawn up, be immediately published by the committee, and forwarded to the archdeacons in the different dioceses for signature. CHARLES LE POER TRENCH, D.D., Chairman. At a meeting of the committee, held in Trinity College, on Thursday, July 5th, the Venerable the Archdeacon of Ardagh, in the chair; Resolved, That the following petition be adopted, and be transmitted, when signed, to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, for presentation in the House of Lords; and to Sir R. H. Inglis, for presentation in the House of Commons. CHARLES LE POER TRENCH, D.D., Chairman. To the Right Honourable and Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, in Parliament assembled. THE PETITION OF THE UNDERSIGNED CLERGYMEN OF THE ESTABLISHed CHURCH IN IRELAND, Humbly sheweth,-That your petitioners have observed with alarm the introduction of a bill into parliament, having for its professed object to make great changes in the nature and amount of church property in Ireland, which, if passed into a law, would in their opinion do serious injury to the church, and permanently impair its efficiency. That your petitioners are of opinion that the sum of £580,000, stated by Lord Althorp, in 1833, to be the gross amount of the revenues of the parochial clergy in Ireland, is not disproportionate to the wants and necessities of an increasing church population, dispersed over 1422 benefices, the incumbent of each benefice having, under the operation of existing laws, (Lord Stanley's Act,) an average income of £258; each benefice containing, on an average, according to the government returns, upwards of 600 members of the united church of England and Ireland. That your petitioners are of opinion, that in each of those benefices (some of them of a very wide extent) there will be required the residence of at least one minister of the church of England, and in one-half of them the additional aid of a curate. That by the operation of the present bill, and of other causes already in existence, the gross amount of the property of the beneficed clergy will be reduced to one-half. This fact will appear thus Gross amount of property of parochial clergy, ac- Deduct, Given to the landowners by the present bill, (,3% on Tithe Composition, £498,148) Too on remainder, to cover loss and collection 5 Too (minimum poor rate) Tax on benefices, to replace church cess under Total minimum deduction, even supposing the compositions are not opened Remainder left to the incumbents . VOL. XIV.-August, 1838. £580,000 £149,444 21,527 21,527 42,000 53,325 That your petitioners are of opinion, that such a reduction of church income is not just or expedient. That your petitioners are also of opinion, that such a payment to landowners is quite exorbitant, and cannot be called " a reasonable allowance" for any "greater facility and security of collection," which the church may be supposed to obtain. That the amount of ecclesiastical tithe composition in Ireland is no heavy burden upon the land, the rental of Ireland being, on Mr. Griffith's (the government engineer and valuator) survey and valuation, £12,715,578, (see Report of Select Committee of the Commons on Tithe, Feb. 21, 1832, No. 2902,) which he states to be computed as being the one-fourth of the gross produce.-(Vid. same Report, No. 2892.) The ecclesiastical tithe composition is £498,148. Thus, the gross amount of all the tithe composition payable to the parochial clergy of Ireland is less than the ONE-HUNDRETH part of the gross produce. That the landowners of Ireland (who are almost exclusively members of the established church) have only a few years since obtained a large share of the church property, by the abolition of church cess, an amount estimated by Lord Althorp (Mirror of Parliament, Feb. 12, 1833) at about £65,000. That this sum of £65,000, along with the sum given by this bill,-viz., £149,444, would leave the result thus: Appropriated to the landowners Allowed to remain of tithe composition, to the clergy £236,560 That there exists no necessity for such a surrender of church property, and that, therefore, your petitioners are of opinion, that so great an abstraction of the property of which your petitioners are the trustees would be contrary to justice. Tithe composition in Ireland is thus circumstanced already, under existing laws : Payable by landowners Payable by land occupiers £257,083 For the security, or facility of collecting the former sum, (it being already a rent-charge,) the proposed bill can do nothing, and professes to do nothing. With the latter sum, a great part of which is now paid, and which must be shortly, under Lord Stanley's Act, all realized, the bill proposes to act thus: To give to landowners To leave to the clergy £149,444 That besides making so unjust a division of this sum, £241,953, now payable by the occupiers, the bill, by opening the compositions and changing the nature of the security, renders unsafe the other amount, £257,083, which is at present safe, being in fact a rent-charge. That the provisions of the bill, which render legal the opening of the compositions, in most cases for a long time established, and where, it is to be supposed, the means of proving the claims of the clergy, and of refuting the claims of opponents, have, by the death of witnesses, the loss of documents, and the change of incumbents, long since passed away, are unjust and vexatious. That the provision of the bill which takes away the tithe composition as the first charge upon the land generally, and permits it to be transferred to certain circumscribed portions of the surface of the country, (provided the rental amount to three times the value of the composition,) is a provision, against the enactment of which your petitioners feel especially bound to protest. They object to it partly because the support of the church may be thus thrown upon the worst parts of the country, but principally because they conceive that the claims for the support of an ESTABLISHED CHURCH should be made coextensive with the land. That your petitioners are therefore opposed to the present bill. Your petitioners are most solicitous for the peace and welfare of the country, temporal as well as spiritual. They have, they trust, as a body, given unequivocal proofs that they are so. But they conceive that the truest interests of the country will be maintained by consulting for the permanency and efficiency of the established church. It has been proved by the returns to government in 1835, that the church-of-England population in this country is increasing. So far from the revenues of the church being too great, they are, in truth, even at present insufficient; there is in many parts of Ireland great want of church accommodation. The burden of support of the fabric of the church has been taken off the land and put upon the income of the church; and it is found that the revenues appropriated to this purpose are inadequate. Statements recently made in parliament, in reference to the debts and engagements of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, prove that none of the revenues of the church can be spared; and the efforts made by voluntary societies for the building of chapels of ease, and increasing the facilities of public worship, shew that the income of the church is at this instant inadequate to its necessities. Your petitioners, as the trustees of the property of the established church, and guardians, under Providence, of the interests of millions who may yet in this country worship within her sanctuary, enter their protest against this measure. They have not, so far, urged upon the notice of your honourable house any of the individual grievances which would affect the clergy were this bill passed into a law. Existing laws have already placed certain charges upon incumbents entering upon benefices; these charges are proportioned to the former gross income of the benefice; under the operation of the proposed bill these charges would amount, in some cases, to four years' income of the benefices out of which they are payable; and it is needless to point out that such a state of things would operate greatly to the prejudice of the church, and, to say the least, would be productive of great hardship to individuals. And your petitioners therefore humbly pray, that your honourable house will pass no measure affecting church property in Ireland, which will not preserve a strict and reverential regard for the principles of justice, the stability of property, and the efficiency and permanency of the united church. JOHN TORRENS, D.D., Archdeacon of Dublin. CHARLES LE POER TRENCH, D.D., Archdeacon of Ardagh. CHARLES RICHARD ELRINGTON, D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity. JAMES H. TODD, B.D., Fellow of Trinity College, and Treasurer of JOHN TARLETON, A.M., Prebendary and Rector of Tyholland, Diocese of Clogher. JOHN C. CROSTHWAITE, A.M., Rector of Locka, Diocese of Kildare. DR. LAMB AND ARCHBISHOP WHITGIFT. From the Cambridge Chronicle of Saturday, April 28, 1838. We shall not be thought by our readers to speak with insincerity, when we say that, from feeling as well as a sense of duty, we are very jealous of the honour that belongs to the departed worthies of our church and universities. Moreover, of those whose lot was cast in the troublous times about the period of the Reformation, we hold that the men of this day should be slow to speak harshly, even in regard to those parts of their conduct which may not seem justifiable upon "liberal" principles. We hold it to be sufficient for any man to exempt him from the condemnation of posterity, that he be among the best |