tion of the property of the Irish church, which some are beginning to hint at, if not propose; and which many more secretly cherish as a cure for the sufferings of Ireland, or rather of the poor of Ireland. How ignorantly, I ought perhaps rather to say, how selfishly, such reason, a very little examination will suffice to show. Deferring for a moment the consideration of the mode in which that part of the church rental which consists of tithes, is at present collected, I shall now contend that, while the ownership of such property by the clergy is, generally speaking, no detriment to the Irish cultivator, supposing his landlord to have a spark of honesty; it is, on the other hand, an actual advantage to the country at large,-assertions which perhaps may at first startle some, but which are nevertheless true. None can be so weak as to suppose, that were the tithes of Ireland abolished to-mor row, and all the glebe lands of the country confiscated, the spoil would be bestowed on the wretched cultivators. However it should be disposed of, they would have no share; and as surely as every landlord in the empire lets tithe-free land at a proportionably higher rate than titheable, so certainly would the rent of the land thus exonerated be advanced to the full amount of the difference; nay, I believe, frequently far beyond that amount; the ecclesiastical proprietor generally consenting to accept much less for his rights, that is, his proportion of the property, than the lay one does, or would consent to do. It must be well known to every one, that a branch of the Irish legislature passed long ago a resolution exonerating all the island from agistment tithe; an act of audacious spoliation seldom ex

ampled, in the advantages of which the little culti vator never did nor ever will share: the Irish clergy, therefore, who many of them possess very little glebe, were thrown solely on the tithe of the arable land for their support. Turning again to the barony of Rathvilly, I find that, out of the 49,745 English acres, of which the barony consists, there are but sixtyfive acres of glebe. I believe it is reckoned one of the most fertile in the country: the whole appears to be titheable; the total amount of the tithes is £3156. 9s. 7 d., or nearly fifteen-pence farthing per acre, or, as the report states it in Irish measure, two shillings and a halfpenny. Now as the average produce of that quantity, in Winchester measure, throughout the island, is stated to be, of wheat upwards of thirty-three bushels; of bere, sixty-nine; of barley, fifty-four; of oats seventy-two, and upwards; and of potatoes, more than 22,094 pounds, I leave the reader to draw his own conclusions as to the rapacity of the ecclesiastical proprietors.

But, if these fifteen pence an English acre, on all the cultivated lands of Ireland, supposing tithes to amount to that sum throughout', were wrested from the incumbents; can any one, I repeat the question, be weak enough to suppose that it would be presented to the occupier as a bonus? Wealth has always a tendency to accumulate into large masses; but whatever became of these fractions of it, we may be very certain that none of them would rest with the inmate

'I think the evidences, in some of the Reports on Ireland, state the average as much lower where commutations have taken place.

of the Irish cabin. In point of fact, too many of the landlords of Ireland, and more especially the sublandlords, the middlemen, as they are called, are so eager to wring all they can from the cultivators, that the clergyman is often actually defrauded of his maintenance, from the utter impossibility of the little tenant paying him his tithe-rent, after having satisfied the larger exactions to which he is subject, and which are rarely mitigated. If a full and adequate allowance is not made, in respect to the tithe, I say the landlord, and not the clergyman, is the real oppressor, while the latter, in virtue of his equally legal and more ancient right, insists upon his income in the only way in which he can obtain it. Perhaps a more flagrant instance of profound ignorance, or rather selfishness, cannot be imagined, than that some of the Irish proprietors, a vast majority of whom are Protestants, and who, in most cases, received their estates for the very pur pose of supporting that religion, should talk about the hardship of tithes, and not talk only, but throw the burden upon their poor Catholic tenants. Why, the titles of their own estates, in many cases, rest upon what they would fain represent as injustice and oppression; they were, in very truth, bestowed for the purpose and on the condition of supporting the religion which they desert, as far as their personal presence and influence goes, inveighing against parting with that small portion of them which was at the same time reserved as a maintenance for those who are to this hour discharging the duties imposed upon them in reference to it. Most of the property of Ireland is of this protestant pedigree, though some of it would

now, it seems, be very glad to bastardize its ancestry; but it would be curious enough if such would plainly set forth the superior nature of their claims, contrasted with those of the ecclesiastical proprietors. It would be unique, as a legal as well as a moral demonstration, to show that, whereas their title is in the full bloom and vigour of perpetual youth, that of these spiritual persons is actually become superannuated, and ought to be allowed to expire as soon as possible. If the large proprietors of Irish estates, or those who possess property transmitted through such, are not tired of their titles and possessions, it would be advisable in them to discuss the rightful claims to the ecclesiastical property of the country in a very different spirit.

(2.) But if the cultivators are not injured by ecclesiastical persons owning a part of the joint property of the country, excepting so far as the lay proprietor is accessary to the abuse sometimes occasioned; the public at large are highly benefited by the circumstance. The church property, were it seized, would inevitably find its way into the possession of the great proprietors; and of these, as certainly, a large proportion would be absentees,-causing another immense sum to be added to that which is at present abstracted from the country, and expended elsewhere, still increasing the evils of that absenteeism, which is the curse of Ireland.

(3.) Here, I am aware, I shall be answered, that the Irish clergy are many of them absentees. I meet the assertion by a direct denial; and I do it on the authority of the official returns, relative to the clergy

of Ireland, published by the House of Commons, in 1824. These returns, not having been called for with any view to determining the point I am considering, nor being very uniform as to the mode in which they are drawn up, I am prevented from presenting a minute account of the number of ecclesiastics absent from the country. From turning, however, to those dioceses, where the actual residence of the clergy is particularized, it is plain that such must be very few indeed. It does not appear to me that there are a dozen regularly resident in England, nor half that number upon the Continent. Whether they reside on their respective livings, or supply their places by resident curates, it is wide of my purpose to inquire, but which it behoves, I think, some of those who make public statements on the subject, to examine into a little more narrowly, before they pronounce so calumniously, as I fear they do, upon this subject.

(4.) It may, therefore, be pronounced, that the clergy of Ireland are discharging their duty more completely and beneficially to the country, than any class of the gentry it contains, or rather that it ought to contain; for I presume we may still venture to call men of their education, and connexions, and manners, gentlemen. And their influence on society, notwithstanding it is grievously lessened by their being in great measure deserted by the laity of their own station, is still more beneficial even than the expenditure of their whole income in the country. One of the government inspectors, on a late trying occasion, Major Woodward, having traversed nearly the whole of the most distressed districts of Ireland, thus ex