2 AUGUST 1873, Page 12

DISESTABLISHMENT IN IRELAND. [To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:'] Sin,—You

say in your notice of the British Quarterly Review on Disestablishment, that " the Irish Church, by the voluntary action of its clergy in commuting, secured half of its property in per- petuity." This is altogether a misconception. The money received by the Church on account of commutation is little more than the equivalent of the life-interests of the commuting clergy, and its interest and principal are charged with the payment of the incomes so commuted. When the commuting clergy have died off, there

will be consequently but little of the Commutation Fund left. The advantage of commutation is not that it has endowed the Church, but that it is a valuable help to the Church in the work of re-