EQUITABLE APPROPRIATION OF THE IRISH CIIURCH REVENUES.

THE question of the future appropriation of Irish Church pro- perty will be discussed in the House of Commons on Tuesday next, when Mr. WARD brings forward the resolutions to which we solicited attention in this journal a fortnight ago.

The principle on which Mr. WARD'S plan of Irish Church Re- form is based, is clearly laid down in his first and second resolutions.

"I. That the property now held by the Irish Church, whether consisting of Bishops' lands, glebes, tithes, or any other species of endowment, is the property of the State, and ought to be preserved fiir such purposes as the Legislature may determine. "2. That in the opinion of this House, the Protestant Establishment in Ire- land, as now established by Jaw, exceeds the spiritual wants of the Protestant poptilation ; to which standard it ought to be reduced."

This was the doctrine of the Whigs in Opposition. It was preached by them in the House of Commons, in pamphlets, and itt te. ' sVs,, the acknowledged organs of their party. The Edin-

ale

btifgli viewers proclaimed it vehemently in almost every one of the n , erous articles on the state of Ireland and on Catholic Emancipation, with which their journal teemed for many successive years. We will just quote one or two passages from the Number of the Review published in January 1S23; by way of reminding Ministers of the opinions they formerly held, and upon the strength of which they were enabled to overthrow the High Church and Tory domination.

"Tithes are said to be the property of the Church ; and any scheme for their abolition en even commutation is represented as founded on a principle of rapine and spoliation! We are really astonished at the confidence with which this ridi- culously absurd dogma has been maintained Tithes are not the pro- perty of the clergy. They are the property of the public ; who gave them to the clergy as a reward for their services, and who may, consequently, apply them to other purposes the moment they choose to dispense with those services, or to reduce their wages." (Edinburgh Review, No. 82, p. 3S1.) So much as regards the right of the State to dispose of the property held by the Clergy. It could not have been asserted in more express terms, by the most thoroughgoing of those who are now termed Radicals, for adhering to principles which formed the staple of Whiggism, mut any rate of Whig professions, in 1825. - The Protestant Establishment, says Mr. WARD'S second reso- lution, "exceeds the spiritual wants of the Protestant population; to which standard it ought to be reduced." On this point, the Whig Reviewer of 1825 declared, that out of the seven millions of which the Irish population consisted in 1821, at the very least six millions were Catholics ; " and that the remaining million was about equally divided between the members of the Established Church and the Presbyterians and other Dissenters." He then goes on to say- " Now, without presuming to question the policy of making the religion of ramal: a fraction of the population the established religion of the country, it ss surely impossible to deny, that the numbers of the Established clergy, and

the revenues destined for their support, ought to bear some reasonable propor- tion to the number of their flocks and the extent and laboriousness of their

duties. These considerations flocks, however, been entirely overlooked in Ireland."

Again-

" Every one who knows any thing of the state of Ireland, must be satisfied that one Archbishop for the whole country, and a Bishop for each of the four

provinces, would be amply sufficient The simple and obvious plan would be, to make over the whole Church property to the Treasury ; to provide, in the first place, handsome incomes for the Archbhishop, and the four Bishops, and the necessary parish clergy ; secondly, to build churches and provide glebes where they are wanting; and, thirdly, to make some decent provision for the Catholic clergy."

According to this mode of proceeding, it is shown, that, al- lowing double the number of clergymen to the Irish Protestants that the Scotch Presbyterians require, the whole charge of the parochial clergy, with an Archbishop at 8000/. a year, and four Bishops at 5000/. a year each, would not exceed 210,000/. an- nually, " or not more than one-third part of the entire revenue that either is, or might be, derived from the Church lands alone."

This was the style in which the Whigs in Opposition were wont to talk about the reform of the Irish Church. It is too true, if these vigorous measures on paper were corn- pared with what they have attempted to accomplish since they have been in office, a miserable falling off would be discerned. But there is no reason, because the Whig Ministers have shrunk from the peiformance of a duty which they pressed upon their prede- cessors as one of extreme urgency and importance, that the House of Commons—the Reformed house of Commons l—should not take it up. There is nothing startling or new in Mr. "%Tunis propositions. Were it worth while, we could multiply extracts similar to those which we have made, from the Edinburgh Re- view, and from speeches of the leading men now in office : but he miist be very ignorant of the recent political history of his country, who is not aware that the Whigs are pledged chin-deep to under- take a very different reform of the Church in Ireland from any which they have yet attempted. As, however, there is some rea- son to apprehend the usual shuttling on the part of the Ministe- rial leaders on Tuesday next, and as Mr. WARD will probably be met with the old accusation of a design to rob the Church, it is as well to he reminded that these spoliating doctrines were laid down in the strongest language by the acknowledged organ of the Whig party a very few years ago.

Mr. WArin's resolutions differ from most of those with which self-styled patriots have been much in the habit of deluding the public. They are not got up merely for a field night, like Mr., DUNNING'S famous declaration about the "influence of the Crown," &c.; which sounded very fine and Whiggish, but which pledged those who maintained it to nothing disagreeable to the King or his Ministers, and was in fact an attempt of the Aristo- cracy to divert public attention from the vast and progressive in- crease of their own undue power over both King and People. But Mr. WARD has pointed out a mode in which the principles indi- cated in his opening reso!ut ions may be reduced to practice. Here it is that their peculiar merit lies.

He recommends that the Commissioners appointed by the Irish Church Reform Bill of last year "ho empowered to act as trustees for the whole of the Church property in Ireland, including Bishops' lands, glebes, tithes, and every other species of endow- ment." He then proposes that these Commissioners shall pay their incomes in full to all present incumbents ; but after their death, to continue such payments to those parishes only where the Protestant population amounts to a certain proportion of the whole —that proportion being left to Parliament to fix. The Bishops' sees, also, which do not contain a certain Protestant population, he proposes to annex, on the demise of the present diocesan, to the bishopric nearest adjacent.

• The next provision appears to he a very wise and efficieat one. Out of the fund arising from the Church property of various de- scriptions gradually falling in, the Commissioners are to be em- powered to extinguish all private rights of presentation and ad- vowsons by purchase; and where, owing to the scantiness of the Protestant population, no issues of money are to be made for livings in the gift of the Bishops, those livings, and the right of presenting to them, are to be extinguished without compensation. In certain cases it may happen, that although the number of Protestants in a parish may fall below that which entitles them to receive money from the fund at the Commissioners' disposal, yet there may be a prospect of future increase: in such cases, the Commissioners may, according to the plan, advance them 150/. annually out of the fund, giving an account regularly to Parlia- ment of all such cases.

Lastly, we come to the appropriation of the surplus, which, if the resolutions be adopted and enforced, may be safely calculated upon. The tenth resolution says-

" That the surplus fund remaining in the hands of the Commisioners be ap- plied either in the promotion of education, or in the employment of the poor, or in making a provision for the religious instruction of the people by the ministers of every branch of the Christian Church, or in such purposes of public utility as Parliament in its wisdom may think fit."

This plan, taken altogether, appears to us to he the most ra- tional, just, and feasible, that we have yet seen. Of course it can- not be expected that the wild zealots of the Orange party will vote for it. We have had too many proofs of their obstinate attach- ment to those abuses of the Establishment which have undermined its foundations, to expect themr to exercise a discreet judgment on this occasion. But to the liberal and temperate (if there be any

temperate) portion of the Irish Members, how much soever they may differ on other matters, we trust that Mr. WARD will not in

vain look for support. Even Ototereess and the 'tepeelers ought to accept of this as a payment. in full of all demands in regard to the Church. And we would remind the Independent Members of all the three sections of the United Kingdom, that every day the settlement of this question iideferred, its difficulties are multiplied; that young incumbents and patrons of livings are constantly ac- quiring new life interests, which must be extinguished at higher rates of purchase than eild ones ; and that the exasperation and power and numbers of the Catholic Dissenters are augmenting with fearful rapidity. Who can estimate the risk even of another year's procrastination ?

But what will the Ministers do? For one of them at least all must be prepared to answer. Lord JOHN RUSSELL has declared most explicitly, that lie considers his vote for Mr. SPRING RICE'S address against Repeal a virtual pledge to support a more equi- table appropriatien—that is, to a certain extent an alienation—of the Irish Church property : he therefore must divide with Mr. WARD—he ought to second his resolutions. How Mr. STANLEY, Lord ALTHORP, or indeed any man who voted in the Anti-Repeal majority, can oppose the resolutions, is what we find it difficult to imagine; unless his sense of justice is so obtuse, that he thinks the Church Establishment in Ireland is no grievance to the mass of the Irish population. All such are past reasoning with. But we have a right to assume that they form a small minority of the House of Commons.

There is, indeed, one argument—not a new one—by which Mi- nisters and many of their regular supporters may seek to justify their opposition to Mr. WARD'S resolutions: it may be said that the House of Peers will not concur in the principle on which they rest, far less sanction the plan proposed for carrying it into prac- tice: and therefore, that the only practical effect of their adoption by the House of Commons will be a collision between the two Houses, and probably the overthrow of the Whig Ministry. If this argument is conclu ive—if the 'louse of Peers really possesses, and is to be allowed the uncontrolled exercise of, the power to put a stop to all extensive measures of reform,—if the Ministers are merely the puppets of the Peers, and the majsrity of the House of Commons the puppets Id the Ministers,—the question which at once suggests itself is, why do we elect Representatives at all? It must be admitted that elections are the source of great annoyance, irritation, and inconvenience, both to the electors and elected. Men sacrifice time, comfort, health, money, for the purpose of electing independent Representatives. There are many Members of the House of Commons who undergo extreme toil in the pubic service, or what they erroneously have been in the habit of con- sidering such. But cid bono .9 It is of no avail to let the Peers understand what the national wishes are upon any subject of im- portance, for they disregard the expression of those wishes; and they may do so, according to present appearances, with perfect impunity; for the Representatives of the People will and do submit to Lave their best measures mutilated and rejected, arid abstain from supporting others of' paramount im- portance and immediate necc,sity, from the fear of hazard- ing the existence of that Ministry which is the object of their fond and constant rare. The question therefore returns—is a House of Commons, acting on this principle, of any benefit to the nation ? Is it not, on the contrary, merely an impediment in the way of public business ; which might, with far less trouble and expenditure of time and health, be transacted at once in the great council of appeal and reversal, to whose decisions Ministers and their majority humbly submit? We solicit a reply to this question, from all those gentlemen who mean to oppose Mr. Wenn's resolutions on Tuesday next, on the ground that the con- thluance of the Ministers in office is on no account to be hazarded by a vote which is likely to be reversed by the Peers.