One leading principle of the Act is, that all life interests shall be respected; and, therefore, when the transfer of all ecclesiastical property to the Commissioners will have taken place, an ecclesiastical person will receive from the Commissioners, in lieu of tithe rentcharge, an annuity until he commutes; but he will retain his beneficial ownership in houses, lands, farms, &c., unless and until he commutes. Commutation is optional with each person. By commutation is meant the capitalization of any annuity, and of the value of any life interest in ecclesiastical property reserved by the Act to any ecclesiastical person; and payment of the capital sum calculated at 3 per cent. to the Church body, charged with the payment of the yearly income in respect of which such capitalization has been made.1 The Church body relies on private subscriptions by its members to enable it to pay the full life annuities on commutation being made. No application can be made for commutation until after January 1, 1871. The Commissioners, at any time between January 1, 1871, and January 1, 1873, but not afterwards, if it appears to them, as respects any diocese, that not less than three-fourths of the whole number of ecclesiastical persons therein have commuted or agreed to commute their life interests, are to pay to the Church body an additional sum of 12 per cent. on the commutation money payable in respect of each life interest. All churches in actual use at the passing of the Act, and schools attached to said churches, are, on the application of the Church Representative Body, to be vested in that body. The application must be made within six months after January 1, 1871. Life interests in glebe houses are preserved. All other ecclesiastical buildings vest in the Commissioners. 1 'The Irish Church Act, with introductory statement,' p. 20. By William G. Brooke, M.A., barrister-at-law. THE CHURCH PROPERTY CAPITALIZED. 399 -The Presbyterians are to receive fourteen times the annual amount of the Regium Donum and of other Parliamentary grants, and a further sum of 15,000l. in respect of the building of their new college in Belfast. The total sum payable to them will be about 700,000l. The trustees of the Roman Catholic College of Maynooth are to receive fourteen times their annual grant; and 20,000l. due by them to the Board of Works are remitted. The total received by them will be about 400,000l. It is calculated that the total capitalized value of all the Church property is 16,000,000l. The life interests of incumbents of all kinds, bishops, dignitaries, and the parochial clergy, are estimated as worth 4,900,000l. Lay compensations for advowsons, and to clerks, officers of ecclesiastical courts, abolished by the Act, and others, are set down at 900,000l. The charges for private endowments are stated at 500,000l. Compensation to the Presbyterians for the Regium Donum and to the Catholics for the Maynooth Grant, are calculated at 1,100,000l. These, with building debts and other charges, will absorb between 8,000,000l. and 9,000,000l., and will leave about 7,000,000l. at the disposal of Parliament for the relief of unavoidable calamity and suffering, yet not so as to cancel or impair the obligations now attached to property under the Acts for the relief of the poor.' This contemplates the application of the surplus to the maintenance of lunatic asylums, county hospitals not under the poor law, reformatories, and other similar institutions. In the general rejoicing at the passing of this Act, the Catholics of Ireland have not, in a single instance, indulged in any 1 Tithe rent-charge, 22 years' purchase £9,000,000 6,250,000 750,000 £16,000,000 expression of feeling that could be construed into an unbecoming tone of triumph over their Protestant fellow-countrymen. Far from blaming the Protestant clergy and laity of the present day for the errors and persecution of the past, they know that, generally speaking, the course formerly pursued was one that would meet their strongest disapproval. It is now to be hoped that, the sole cause of difference being removed, the professors of all creeds, standing on an equality, will live harmoniously together as fellow-subjects and fellow-Christians. As regards the clergy of the now disestablished Church, they are, as a class, deservedly esteemed and respected by all denominations. Educated gentlemen, kindly neighbours, good family men, good citizens, and most exemplary in their lives and the discharge of the duties of their profession, they have, in these relations, done all that could be done towards neutralizing what was objectionable in the ascendency of a small minority. That their life interests have been so carefully guarded, and that so large and liberal a provision has been made for the future Church representative body in Mr. Gladstone's Bill must be a cause of general satisfaction to the country. IRISH AGRICULTURE NOT IMPROVING. 401 CHAPTER LXXXIII. BUT BRIEF REVIEW OF THE AGRICULTURAL CONDITION OF IRELAND; LITTLE IMPROVEMENT THE LAST TWENTY YEARS; MR. CAIRD'S EVIDENCE TO THIS EFFECT; DECREASED GROWTH OF CEREALS-STRANGE THEORY THAT STATE INTERFERENCE IN THE LAND ARRANGEMENTS OF IRELAND WOULD BE A CONTRAVENTION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY; FALLACY DEMONSTRATED—A COMPLETE CHANGE IN THE LAND ARRANGEMENTS OF IRELAND DEMANDED BY PUBLIC POLICY; CIRCUMSTANCES FAVOURABLY COMBINING ΤΟ RENDER THAT CHANGE NOW PRACTICABLE; STATESMANSHIP OF MR. GLADSTONE; ENLIGHTENED VIEWS OF MR. BRIGHT; POWER OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, RESULTING FROM PARLIAMENTARY REFORM-THE PRINCIPAL REMEDIAL MEASURES PROPOSED ITS ON THE LAND QUESTION: FIRST, MASTER FITZGIBBON'S PROPOSAL ; SECOND, A LAW OF COMPENSATION FOR UNEXHAUSTED IMPROVEMENTS; THIRD, LEGALIZING AND EXTENDING ALL OVER IRELAND THE TENANTRIGHT OF ULSTER; FOURTH, MR. CAIRD'S PROPOSALS; A MODE SUGGESTED OF INDIRECTLY OBLIGING LANDLORDS TO GRANT LEASES; IMPORTANT OPINION OF AN EXTENSIVE LAND AGENT ON IRISH LEASES; FIFTH, REMEDY PROPOSED, FIXITY OF TENURE, WITH A PERIODICAL ADJUSTMENT OF RENT -IMPORTANCE OF THE END TO BE ATTAINED THE GREAT OBJECT, SECURITY OF TENURE-600,000 FARMERS, SECURE IN THEIR HOLDINGS, A POWERFUL GARRISON IN THE COUNTRY-VOTE BY BALLOT-ABOLITION OF THE LAW OF DISTRESS-THE GRADUAL CREATION OF A PEASANT PROPRIETARY MR. BRIGHT'S PROPOSAL CONCLUSION. We have now seen that Ireland has certainly made some progress in manufacturing industry during the last six or seven years. We have also seen that the wages of labour have increased, and that, on the whole, the condition of the working classes has considerably improved; but this is owing to continuous emigration, and not to any increase of agricultural industry. We have further seen, by the deposits in the banks and other tests, that the farmers are better off than they were, which is mainly the result of three or four successive years of good harvests and high prices. But, on the other hand, having regard to reliable Government returns, and looking around at the general aspect of the country, we must come to the conclusion that, on the whole, the actual state of Ireland is far from satis D D factory—that is, whether viewed in relation with her resources, or compared with other countries, her economic condition is very much below what it ought to be. When, in addition to this, we take into account the still continuous outflow of the population-the young and vigorous leaving our shores-a circumstance which is already most seriously affecting the labour supply of the country, the prospects before us are by no means reassuring. This naturally leads us to the consideration of the all-absorbing topic of the day, now that the Church has been disposed of,—the settlement of the land question. This question will immediately engage the serious attention of Parliament, and there is evidently a disposition on the part of Ministers and the people of England to bring it, as soon as possible, to a satisfactory conclusion. In former chapters we have fully reviewed the whole state of the land question. We have seen how the landlords generally, blind to their own interests, withhold that security of tenure which would insure a large increase of agricultural produce, with most beneficial results to themselves, the farmers, the labourers, and the whole community. We have seen how the great majority of the farmers of Ireland are tenants-at-will, and how consequently the country, with rare exceptions, is undrained and badly cultivated, and the land does not produce more than onehalf of what it ought. Did we entertain any doubts whatever on these points, those doubts would be dissipated by the following evidence of an eminently competent authority: I visited (says Mr. Caird) the worst and most distressed, and also some of the best districts of Ireland in 1849, immediately after the famine, and on recently traversing nearly the same tract, after an interval of twenty years, I cannot say that its agriculture presented much evidence of general improvement. The people are better clothed, better housed, and better fed, not because the produce of the ground has been materially increased, but because it has become of more value, and is divided among two-thirds of the numbers who shared it then. Most of the wet land is still undrained. The broken, worn, and gapped fences remain too much as before. Except in Ulster and |