Lord Russell has republished his recent speech in the House
of Lords in favour of dividing the revenue of the Irish Church among all the different religious bodies of Ireland in a given proportion to their numbers and needs, with an excellent preface, in which he replies very neatly to the chief objection that has been urged, —namely, Lord Derby's,—" that the Church established in Ireland has as much right to its property as the Duke of Bedford has to Covent Garden and Woburn Abbey." "If this objection," says Lord Russell, "is meant to place the right of the present Archbishop of Dublin, during his life, and that of the present Duke of Bedford, during his life, to property formerly held by the Roman Catholic Church, on the same footing, I fully admit that right. But who are their heirs ? The heir of the Duke of Bed- ford is known to the law, and will succeed as a matter of course. The heir of the bishops and clergy of the Church established in Ireland is the State. If the State chooses to dispose of the pro- perty in a manner different from its present appropriation, it has a full right to do so." And Lord Russell urges that Mr. Justice Shee's proposal to make the Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, and Church -of England Clergy the heirs to the present tenants for life, is the solution most likely to appeav the chronic discontent of the Irish people. It is a question, says Lord Russell, which cannot be postponed beyond 1868.
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