THE CHURCH IN IRELAND.
CATHOLIC Emancipation was a boon to the aristocracy and gentry of Ireland. They are now eligible to places of honour and emo- lument, which were formerly closed against them. Nothing could be more unjust, intolerant, and indefensible than their exclusion from the privileges of freemen and loyal subjects of the Crown ; and they were perfectly right to struggle might and main to be relieved from this stigma. But it would be difficult to point out in what manner the great body of Irish Catholics—the million— the nation in fact—were directly benefited by the removal of the Catholic disabilities. Absenteeism was not diminished ; rents re- mained as outrageously high as ever; tithes, Vestry rates, and Grand Jury assessments, were just as oppressive and annoying as if Mr. O'CoNNELL and Lord KILLEEN were still excluded from the House of Commons. It was evident, therefore, to the meanest capacity, that the great measure of the last reign should have been speedily followed up by other measures of a more practically remedial nature, if any alleviation of Irish misery and discontent was to be expected. The collection of tithes soon became impossible; and the Re- forming Ministry undertook to relieve the farmer and the peasant, and protect the clergyman, by commuting them for the future, and endeavouring to collect the arrears of past years. How miserably this plan has failed, is known to all the world. Tithe prosecu- tions, by tens of thousands, have irritated the Irish peasantry al- most to madness. The clergy have been hunted out of the country like a drove of wolves. Some have been murdered—many more despoiled of the means of subsistence, and forced to exchange affluence and comfort for the bitter bread of charity. This state of things, of course, was not to be endured. Vast multitudes of the peasantry have been cut off by famine and disease. But famines, as the Duke of WELLINGTON coolly remarked, were periodical in Ireland; and the typhus fever was one of the best friends the poor wretches possessed. As soon, however, as gentle- men with their families became sufferers—as soon as clergy- men, with their eight or ten children, fled to England to seek refuge at the paternal mansion, and to eat up the mortgaged revenues of the paternal estate—then we well knew that the reform of the Irish Church Establishment was at hand. Accordingly we find, that the Ministry have determined upon a plan which really promises to effect extensive good. It is not a piece of archiepiscopal delusion; there are no special exemptions in it for the pluralities of Bishops—no disgraceful provision for titled laziness. The man of purple and of palaces is made to feel the knife of the operator, while the poor curate of the village is spared. Lord ALTHORP, who brought forward the measure in the House of Commons, surprised many persons by stating, that the income of the Irish Bishops only amounted to 130,000/. per annum. We presume, however, that their astonishment was materially dimi- nished, and the mystery of this comparative poverty of the Right Reverend Bench satisfactorily solved, by another fact, which his Lordship stated, namely, that the Church lands were really worth about 600,000/. per annum although the Bishops received only 10D,0410/. Simpletons will cry out at once—" What charitable and disinterested beings! What wickedly calumniated men these Irish Bishops have been ! Only think, they take but one sixth of the money that is fairly due to them !"—But wait a minute: .what is the amount of fines, upon the renewal of leases, which these charitable divines are in the habit of pocket. ing? When the annual rent is so utterly disproportionate to the annual value of their lands, it is clear that the fines must be enormously large. Here lies the grand secret of episcopal wealth. In England, the Bishops can let lands for three lives. We know of an estate in the diocese of London which pays tha modest rent to the Bishop of somewhat less than 90/. pet, annum: it is really worth- nearly 900/. annually. Does the Bishop give up the remaining 8101.? Certainly he does ; and only asks about 3,000/. to renew one of the three lives whenever it may drop in. One of the poorest Bishoprics in England is that of Chester, We have heard, however, that one of the late holders of that sea was fortunate enough to receive upwards of 20,000/. during a short residence there, in the way of fines for the renewal of leases. It is clear that no accounts may be more deceptive, as to the real value of a bishopric, than those which very correctly supply the annual rental.
If we are right in conjecturing that very large sums must have been received by the Irish Bishops for the renewal of their leases, the proposed measure of reform will indeed be a heavy blow upon these dignitaries. For it is part of the plan, that the present lessees shall be empowered to acquire a perpetuity in their leases at six years' purchase ; the annual value to be calculated upon a fair corn-rent. The 3,000,000/. which will thus be obtained, is to form a fund which is to belong to the State, and to be applied to secular purposes. Thus, the first step will be made towards the appropriation of Church property to other than Ecclesiastical uses. The other parts of this measure seem honestly calculated to allay irritation in Ireland ; although the amount of pecuniary saving effected will not be sensibly felt by a starving population of six or seven millions.
It seems almost like insanity in some of the avowed friends and defenders of the Establishment, that they should still persist in maintaining the indissoluble union between the two Churches of England and Ireland,—as if the former had not sins of her own in sufficient abundance to answer for, without being encumbered with the manifold iniquities of her bloated sinecure sister. In one respect, these sagacious persons will, we doubt not, prove true prophets,—that is, in saying that the reform in the Irish Church is only a preliminary to the purging of the English Establishment. We suspect that no reform will render the former secure; but the latter has sounder timbers, and may yet weather many a storm.
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