IRELAND.
At the meeting of the National Association in Dublin, on Thurs- day week, the amount of Justice Rent for the week was stated to be 3651. 3s. 3d. A contribution' of 20/. from Lord Stourton was an- nounced; and of 5/. from Mr. J. Ashton Yates, of Bryanstone Square, London.
Mr. Sharman Crawford addressed the Association on the necessity of acting on some definite and aeclitred principles ; and proposed the following string of resolutions ; the discussion on which, he said, might be taken on some future day.
" Resolved—That in our opinion it is not compatible with justice to Ireland, and with the theory and practice of the British_ laws as applied either to Eng- land or Scotland, that the great body of the people should be taxed to pay for the church of the minor portion ; and that it is equally incompatible with the principles of religious liberty that any man should be compelled to pay for the ordinances of a church with which he is not joined in communion. "'That as, under the present application of the tithe composition, a tribute is levied from the whole nation for the uses of the church of only the tenth por- tion of the community, the people of 'Ireland are therefore justified in demand- ing the total extinction of an assessment so applied.
" That whilst we demand relief iron this ecclesiastical impost, we at the same time require, that as the tithe assessment was in the original institution a levy from the profits of land for the public benefit, an assessment equal in amount shall be imposed injust proportion on those possessing profitable inte- rests in land, to be applied to the instruction, relief, or employment of the people, or to such other general purposes as Parliament shall hereafter appoint.
" That, in our opinion, any settlement of the tithe question which shall not be founded on the foregoing principles, cannot be satisfactory to the people of Ireland ; and we call upon our countrymen not to desist from all legal and con- stitutional means of redress till they have obtained full and complete relief from this oppressive and degrading impost."
Mr. Crawford said that he had a particular motive for taking a part in these affairs- " I am a Protestant, belonging to the Church of England. I am a member of that class which has been productive of the greatest possible evils to my country. I think I am then justified in coming forward more prominently to advocate their rights. It might be a matter of suspicion, if I were a Roman Catholic, to urge the question too strongly ; but with me it cannot. My ob- ject iu coining forward is to make amends to my country for the position in which the class to which I belong has placed it ; and I wish to place my church upon that ground upon which alone it should rest. I wish to sustain it upon the principle of civil and religious liberty. Protestantism does not deserve to to be sustained, if it cannot be sustained Without making itself a burden upon the unfortunate people of Ireland, who have too much to do to support their own religion, without being called upon to support a religion which has no affinity with it, and the professors of which of them every insult. Under these circumstances, I hope it will not be considered that I am pushiug myself forward too much."
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