of the tithe, in addition to the ordinary renty with which alone he must have contented himself if the land had remained still subject to tithe. We are not, however, to regard republican revolutionists as the only description of men who consider the revenues of the church as a fit object of depredation. Of this the possession of a third of the tithes of the kingdom, acquired under the old established monarchy, by laymen, may perhaps be some proof. The glebes of many parishes have in times of profound peace been surreptitiously curtailed, or totally absorbed in the surrounding estates of the gentry. I have been astonished at hearing certain gentlemen declaim with most violent invectives against the French revolutionists, for their plundering of ecclesiastical property, while. themselves were possessed of glebes, the property of the church, which they were determined by every chicane of law to detain from the rightful owners. But, though the clergy may complain of the usurpation of so great a portion of revenue, long appropriated to the church, yet perhaps to the possession of tithes by laymen may the clerical order ascribe, in some degree, its permission to retain the rest, Men of estates and influence, who would most willingly vote for the abolition of this kind of rent, if it belonged exclusively to the ecclesiastical establishment, are prevented from that measure by self-interest, when themselves are proprietors of tithes. That this must be the case can hardly be doubted, when we see some men of fortune so utterly averse to the payment of tithes to the clergy, while they carefully exact those which are their own property, that they avoid, much to their own loss, the tillage of the lands which they immediately occupy, lest they should augment the revenue of the clergyman. Of this I mean to give some instances in another publication. As the emissaries of the union interested the feelings of the peasantry with respect to tithes, so also they endeavoured to prejudice the opinions of the laity in general against the hierarchy and other parts of the ecclesiastical establishment. They represented that, while the revenues of the Irish prelates amounted collectively to above eighty thousand pounds a year, besides large sums levied as fines on the leases of their lands; and while the revenues of chapters and parochial clergy amounted to above seven hundred thousand pounds annually*, the vast expences of this establishment were useless for the purposes of re * Doctor Duigenan in his State of Ireland, (London, 1799, page 60) supposes the whole revenues of the church of every nature scarcely to amount to two hundred thousand pounds a year. I have in another work, (Gordon's Terraquea, Vol. iii. p. 317, 318) supposed them at above eight hundred thousand, including impropriate tithes. Perhaps both suppositions may ligion, or the encouragement or support of literature; since preferments were given solely from temporal or political motives, without regard to moral character or literary merit; and since the religious offices of the church were performed for about sixty thousand pounds a year, by a number of curates who laboured in penury and consequent contempt, for salaries, which compared to the revenues of the prelates, demonstrated a scandalous inequality, inversely proportionate to the utility of their employments. † To enter into any defence of the ecclesiastical establishment is not my object here, nor is this a fit place. All human regulations are liable to abuse; and we must admit that attention to the encouragement of literature and exemplary conduct in the parochial clergy in each diocese, or the neglect of patronage to these qualifications essentially be wide of the reality. I have been long endeavouring to gain accurate information on this subject, for an intended publication, the present State of the Church of Ireland, which, when com pleted, will be given to the public. Doctor Duigenan's authority is certainly of no small weight, and I take this opportunity of observing, that the clergy of the established church owe the highest gratitude to this gentleman for his repeated exertions in their favour. + By an act of parliament since made, bishops are empowered to raise the salaries of curates to seventy-five pounds a year; and in some cases, where glebe-houses are unoccupied by the rectors, to ninety; whereas formerly fifty pounds only, constituted in general the annual salary. necessary for the honour of the established church, depends on the personal character of the bishop. Hence family interest, and political considerations, predominate far less in respect of clerical promotions in some dioceses than in others. The remedy, however, proposed by some, the appointment to ecclesiastical benefices by popular election in the several parishes, would place affairs in a far worse condition. In the present state of landed property a popular election would virtually give the absolute nomination of the rector to the squire, or landlord, of the parish; in which case family interest would alone be considered, or sometimes perhaps qualifications little requisite for the proper discharge of clerical duties; for instance, the qualifications of a jolly pot-companion, a jovial singer, or a keen huntsman. We should then see gentlemen literally hunting for preferment, of which a few, even at present, are not without accusation.* If, which is by no means to be expected, the state of landed property should be so altered that * An admirable and most laudable instance of lay patronage, was exhibited some years ago, by the Right Honourable David' Latouche, who conferred the benefice of Clonnegall, worth six hundred pounds a year, in the diocese of Ferns, merely as a compensation for his long service as curate, on the Reverend John Browne, with whom he had not had the least previous acquaintance or connexion. Mr. Latouche had actually paid a high purchace for the presentation. parochial elections might be popular in fact, as well as in name, the suffrages of the parishioners being left without control, real merit, always unassuming and incapable of stooping to mean artifice, would have little chance of success, in competition with presumptuous effrontery and low intrigue, among men ill fitted to form a right judgment in such a case, and easily deceived by impudent pretensions and crafty manage ment. Though the liberty of the press had been circumscribed much by the precautions of the legis-、 lature, means were found still to employ this engine to the augmentation of the popular discontent, and disposition to subvert the established government. Two papers, called the Northern Star and the Press, were printed in succession for that purpose, and industriously circulated. The former, instituted at Belfast, in the summer of 1797, was not suppressed otherwise than simply by an act of military execution; a party of soldiers taking possession of the printing-office and destroying the types: the latter, established in Dublin toward the close of the same year, and afterwards, (in consequence of a new law,) published under the name of Arthur O'Connor, as proprietor, or the person respon sible for its contents, who is now known to have been then a member of the Irish directory, was interdicted by another act of parliament, which |