Page images
PDF
EPUB

NEVER SUBMIT TO PAY TITHES, never submit to obey the laws appointed for the preservation of property, nor upon the zeal and energy with which the inhabitants of that part of this ill-fated land, over which he claims jurisdiction, are exerting themselves to carry into effect his wishes. I shall at once proceed to the question of existing revenues.

"In Dr. Doyle's opinion, the Church lands produce two-elevenths of the whole rental of Ireland, or £2,545,454. But this, he says, is too low an estimate, because the Church lands are in the most fertile districts, and because-risum teneatis, many are set at a low rent and renewed on fines. That is, he calculates the value of the land on an average, and then because in some places that value is paid partly in rent, partly in fine, he adds the fine to the full value. He seems, however, ashamed of having thus made the income of the Church five millions, and he lowers it to three, (p. 131,) which, by deducting his estimate of the tithes, will give the rental of lands held by the Church £2,291,050. Now this I believe to be three times their value, and nearly eighteen times the sum received for them. Doctor Doyle has not told his readers why be rejected the estimate given by Baron Foster; did he doubt his accuracy, or did he think that he was too much prejudiced in favour of the Established Church? I believe that the calculation was sufficiently accurate, and certainly did not underrate the property of the Church. Baron Foster states the extent of the see lands to be 617,598 acres, and that of the glebes to be 91,137 acres. Granting therefore that these lands average at £1. per acre, the annual value of the land will be but £708,735.

"But then tithes, there are 1289 benefices in Ireland, the tithes of these scarcely in any case under £500 per annum, in many cases £1000 to £5000, but say £550, which gives £708,950.' What an appearance of moderation does this statement assume, to take £550 as the mean value between £500 and £5000,--scarcely a benefice in Ireland worth less than £500 per annum! I should be very glad the reverend prelate would prove that one benefice in which I am much interested was worth £500 or £400 per annum, though it is a monstrous union of six parishes. But what shall we say to this statement having been made by a man while the very county in which he lived, and with which he was well acquainted, gave him materials for refuting it. Of the twenty-three benefices in the county of Carlow, eighteen have been set in whole or in great part under the tithe composition act, the parliamentary returns of their value are in every person's hands, and of these benefices, all but five are under £500 per annum. The tithes of the twenty-three benefices in the County of Car. low, one of the best cultivated parts of Ireland, give an average of but £368. 8s. 8d.; and the forty-three parishes of which these consist, give an average of £188. 6s. 2d.; and this is the total value of the parishes; for there is not, I believe, a parish which possesses a glebe that is not paid for by the incumbent, and some of them are now an incumbrance instead of a benefit. Still more erroneous is the other limit. I do assert,-and I defy the enemies of the Church to produce any instance which will refute my assertion,-that there is not at this day a benefice in Ireland worth £5000, or £4000, or £3000 per annum.

"Had Doctor Doyle made use of the parliamentary document to which I have alluded, he would have derived a very different value of the tithes. In that return the incomes are given of 1153 parishes, which give an average of £241. 2s. 10d. for the value of a parish, and that multiplied by 2450, the number of parishes, will give £590,797. Is. 8d. as the amount

and he assigns as a reason for it, that the Clergy did not require it, that'they were the most distinguished in Europe for their poverty of spirit, their habits of mortification and self-denial.' How strange that, when quoting Giraldus for one fact, he did not continue bis extracts. The character Giraldus gives is rather different from Dr. Doyle's: Sed utinam post longa jejunia tam sobrii fuerint, quam seri, tam veri quam severi, tam puri quam duri, tam existentes quam apparentes. Inter tot milia vix unum invenies qui post jujem tam jejuniorum quam orationum instantiam, vino variisque potationibus diurnos labores enormius quam deceret noctu non redimat-Sunt pastores qui non pascere quærunt, sed pasci. Sunt prælati qui non prodesse cupiunt sed præesse. Sunt episcopi qui non omen sed nomen; non onus sed honorem amplectuntur.' I agree perfectly with Dr. Doyle that the Irish Clergy were the most distinguished in Europe for their learning, piety, and zeal;' but we differ as to the time, I place it centu ries before, when the Irish Church rejected the doctrines, and spurned the yoke of the See of Rome."

[ocr errors]

of tithes. Thus the value of Church property is £1,299,532, and not five millions or three millions, as stated by Dr. Doyle. But much as I have diminished the statement put forward, a very erroneous idea will still be entertained, if it be supposed that the Clergy derive this income from their property. We have stated the value of the Bishops' lands to be £617,598, now of this they never receive one-fifth, or £123,519, so that the utmost at which the income of the Clergy in Ireland can be rated, is £805,453 per annum.*

"This valuation seems to me to rest upon principles, that it is difficult indeed to controvert, but as it has often been put forward nearly in the same form, and has not silenced misrepresentation, I would beg leave to suggest to my ecclesiastical superiors, the propriety of taking instant measures to lay an authenticated statement of the Church income before the public. When their property is made three times and five times its real amount, and held up as an attractive object of plunder, it is high time to come forward and unmask the dark plan of destruction.

"Another writer of the present day, in order to swell the amount, adds three new sources of revenue: 1. the incomes of the deans and chapters; 2. minister's money in corporate towns; 3. church fees. The incomes of the deans and chapters he calculates in an extraordinary manner: he assumes that the incomes of the deans and chapters in England amount to £494,000 per annum; he makes out the number of members in these corporations to be double the number in Ireland, and hence he most logically infers that the income is one-half, or £250,000 per annum. Now what is the fact? the deans and chapters in Ireland have scarcely any income whatever, their property had been swept away during the various scenes of confusion which have afflicted this country. I cannot specify their amount, but I shall give the instance with which I am best acquainted. The income of the dean and chapter of Ferns is £0. Os. Od, and the economy fund of the Cathedral is £3. 13s. 104d. per annum. Now as to minister's money, the incomes of the parishes which are paid in that manner are estimated in the averages of the 2450 parishes; and instead of adding £25,000, nothing ought to be added. Next, as to Church-fees, which he values at £250,000, I believe the hundredth part would be a large estimate; except in Dublin and a few towns NO FEES WHATEVER are charged; and in Dublin they are moderate indeed. I can speak from experience, having held for several years a parish in which there were two thousand Protestants, yet the fees did not average at more than £50. I had certainly not learned, as this writer would suggest, to charge fees for baptisms. I shall follow only one step further the author of the Black Book, and if that one step be not sufficient to overturn its character with every honest mind, I shall be surprised indeed. He assumes that the Clergy in Ireland are only eight hundred and fifty, that these persons hold all the offices connected with the Church, the list is as follows: Sees

22 Rural Deans,

[blocks in formation]

107

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Total of offices enjoyed by the Established Clergy, 3195 "Thus 3195 divided among 850 individuals gives an average income of £1678 to each person !!!!!

"In the first place, there is not a canonry in Ireland. In the next place, of the 325 offices which occupy the seven ranks, from deaneries to prebends, 227 are part of the 1701 parishes, and of the remaining 98 many have only a nominal income. As to the vicars choral, they are not always clergymen, and still less frequently beneficed clergymen; but the choristers and stipendiaries never are in any case clergymen. What the 175 offices in the ecclesiastical courts are it is difficult to ascertain, unless the number includes the proctors, and even the criers; it is sufficient to say none of these officers are necessarily clergymen, and most of them are necessarily laymen. 107 rural deans.—I thought after the lectures given to Mr. Hume in the House of Commons on this subject, no person would have the hardihood to bring them forward again. But the next class puts Mr. Hume's calculations quite in the shade. 30 diocesan schools.-To the enumeration of rural deans the only objection was that they gave trouble, and no emolument; but the schools actually diminish the income of the Clergy, they are supported exclusively by a per centage upon the value of the livings, the Bishop contributing one third. Such are the statements obtruded upon public notice as authentic reports of the Church revenues. I had almost forgotten to remark that the number of Bishops and beneficed Clergy this writer makes 850, whereas it ought to be at least 1200."- We maintain that the income of the parochial Clergy does not amount to £500,000. Editor.

"Did the public really believe that the property of the Church was not larger than it really is, they could not join in the clamour against it. The question would change into a very different one,-is there to be an Established Church? and many who are now deceived into a wish for the diminution of an overgrown and over-rich hierarchy, would startle at the attempt to separate altogether the Church from the State. If there are to be Bishops, if they are to rank with the peers of the realm, an average income of £6000. per annum cannot be considered too large. The cry raised against their wealth is excited by a very different calculation. If there is to be an educated clergy, an average income of £250. per an num cannot be excessive, when the expenses of that required education are taken into account. The income of the Scottish clergy is never less than £150, per annum, with a house and glebe; a greater inequality there is in the Irish benefices, hut that seems a necessary part of an Episcopal Church, and pluralities, its great cause, have now been entirely given up. "Unexpectedly as this note has increased in length, I cannot conclude without comment. ing upon the following passage: the Episcopal Church of Ireland contains, besides curates who do the duty where there are churches, 687 sinecure dignified clergy in 1829 parishes, who may be said, with few exceptions, to be non-resident.' I shall not stop to inquire whence the writer derived the number 687, or whence the number 1829, which is neither the number of benefices nor of parishes. I hasten to its concluding assertion, the clergy of the Established Church are, with few exceptions, non resident.' Again I shall refer to the County of Carlow, and ask Dr. Doyle does he not know that in that county there are but two nonresident rectors, one of them only recently appointed to a small living, which has neither church, glebe-house, nor glebe; the other having neither glebe-house, nor glebe, and preparing at this moment to get a residence if possible: and does not Dr. Doyle know, that eleven of these rectors, though resident, have curates to assist them in the care of their parishes, so that there are resident on the twenty-three benefices of the County of Carlow, thirty-one clergymen. For the general residence of the clergy, the parliamentary returns are sufficient evidence; but I shall quote the personal observation of a man whose work has been quoted by every enemy of the Established Church. Mr. Wakefield, in his Tour in Ireland, vol. ii. p. 475, says, the clergy in Ferns, Meath, Armagh, and Dromore, I know to be resident. In Dromore there is but one non-resident, and he resides on a living in another diocese. I by no means confine this remark to them; the case is the same I hope in many others,'

[ocr errors]

"These remarks will, I trust, prove that Dr. Doyle is not an authority to be relied upon when the Established Church is the subject of discussion. I solicit inquiry for that Church; an inquiry into the revenues of her clergy cannot but shame the existing unfounded clamor ; an inquiry into the residence and conduct of her clergy cannot but demonstrate their usefulness. Faults they have had, and will always have, for they are men and subject to the common imperfections of mortal nature:' but nevertheless I feel the most perfect confidence in stating, that there is not in Europe a body more pious, more zealous, more effective, tban the insulted, maligned, ridiculed clergy of the Established Church of Ireiand.”—pp. 35—42. Having made this ample extract from, perhaps, as honest, learned, and straight-forward a writer as Ireland can produce, we would, as a set off to this enlargement and reclamation of the revenues of the Established Church, made by Dr. Doyle, ask, what may be the amount of the income of Popish bishops and priests? The Romish Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, tells Mr. Spring Rice in his letter, that he has but a SCANTY PITTANCE-he also is pleased to announce, that he is unacquainted with avarice-and as Walter Enos would say, he is not of the "wiveing crew;" and yet, we would ask his Right Reverence to inform us, as he has been so generous in exposing the incomes of others, how much HE receives-how much his two parishes bring in-how much his share of marriage dues-how much his fees on reserved cases-how much his INTENTIONS amount to? We are modest, and would not enlarge the sum total beyond what we have heard to be the lowest calculation, £1500.-and yet this is no paltry pension for a

[ocr errors]

or a pay

batchelor, who keeps fasts and vigils, and has nothing nearer than a niece to look after. We are assured from authority we cannot doubt, that the Romish Archbishop of Dublin has an income of £2500. a-year; and all other prelates have revenues proportional to the population and wealth of their respective dioceses. We believe that, at the lowest estimate, the Romish priests amounting to about 4000, have, at least, £600,000. per annum,' ment at the rate of two shillings per head, from a population of 6,000,000, to be divided amongst them. And believing as we do, that the parish clergy of the Established Church have no more than £450,000. to be divided amongst about 2000, we, therefore, deem, that the Protestant minister, with all the drawbacks from, and claims upon his purse, is much (with his £225. a-year) worse off than a Popish priest enjoying £150.— but who still, with a wide pocket and a poor mouth, is not ashamed to STATION himself, and draw ad libitum on the BENEVOLENCE of his parish. We purpose more at large, and that soon, to enter upon the subject of the income of the Popish clergy in Ireland; we are making inquiries, and collecting documents, to aid in our development, and expect to make it ap pear, that if the Irish people are exhausted and overcharged by priestly blood-suckers, it is not the Protestant clergy that constitute the heavy and unhealthy incubus, but the Romish priesthood, who since the day that Purgatory was invented, have practised with unabated greediness the properties of a horse-leech.

We cannot conclude, without calling our reader's notice to that part of Dr. Doyle's letter, in which he makes use of language which has produced, and is likely to produce, immense mischief in the land-we allude to that passage where he says, THE IRISH NATION HAVE BEEN ALWAYS AT WAR WITH TITHE, AND I TRUST IN GOD THEY WILL NEVER CHEERFULLY SUB

• We think we can approximate as follows to the income of the Romish Clergy in Ireland, reserving to a future opportunity the grounds on which we make the valuation. Con. fession fees received twice a-year from 4,000,000 of people, at one shilling per head£400,000, (here 2,000,000 are left out of calculation as children and paupers); 60,000 marriages, at £1-£60,000; 100,000 burials, at 10s.-£50,000; ditto extreme unctions, at 2s. 6d. £12,500; ditto masses and months-minds, at 5s.- £25,000; 180,000 churchings of women, at 2s. 6d. -£22,500; Gospels for children, blessing of boly candles, exorcisms, &c. &c. £10,000; priest's corn- - £20,000: making in all the sum of £600,000, which divided amongst 4000 priests, gives these unmarried gentry a salary of £150 each. It is very questionable whether if the tithes were taken from the Protestant clergy and transferred to the priests, the change would have any effect in lowering the above-stated exactions, We rather think that it would only tend to introduce swarms of monks and friars, who, leaving the tithe to the secular clergy, would transfer to their own scrip what has latterly supported the Irish parish priest. That this is the case in all Romish countries, every one knows; and in Spain and Italy, and formerly in France, though in the enjoyment of tithes, and immense territorial possessions, the ecclesiastical body increased in their numbers and their exorbitant exactions. As pat to our purpose, we may be allowed to quote from a work written in France 227 years ago, entitled, "The Merchandize of Popish Priests. Written in French by John Chassa. nion, and truly translated into English. London 1604.” “ All (says our author concerning the French clergy) is welcome-all is scraped together-all things have good vent with them. It is a world's wonder to see that in their dealings nothing escapes whereof they cannot make use at their own pleasure--be it men or women, young children, either born or unborn; be it the bodies, the souls, the spirits of the living or the dead; be it goods visible or invisible; be it heaven, earth, or bell; be it vitailes; be it days or time; be it marriages, garments, sbavings, anointings; be it bulls, pardons, indulgences, or remission of sin; be it bones, or other relics, or rogations, expectations, dispensations, or exemptions; be it sacraments, and holy works of God; be it bread, wine, oil, flax, milk, butter, cheese, water, salt, fire, fumigations, ceremonies, seasings, songs, melodies, wood, stone, fellowship, invention, traditions, laws, impostures, and a numberless bead-roll of such things, whereby they are marvelously well skilled in getting money, and whereby the poor people are so pared, haled from, and so eaten up, yea, and so thrust father from God day by day, as it would seem impossible for men to believe."

JUSTICE.

MIT TO IT-their hatred to tithe, MAY IT BE AS LASTING AS THEIR LOVE OF Mr. Ryan, in his excellent reply to those dangerous passages, well demands from the Romish prelate, how he, who is bound to preach peace, can reconcile with his duty, such a mode of raising resistance to rights sanctioned by the laws, under which his own revenues are protected and respected. Well, indeed, may such a question be asked. Doctor Doyle knows as well as any man, the excitable character of his countrymen-he, in some of his writings has deeply deplored their tendency to be led astray, by those who can call forth their passions and their prejudices. What shall we say of a Christian bishop then, who applauds a war against what the laws of the land sanction-who evokes the people's hatred, and makes it perpetual-can it be supposed that Dr. Doyle did not foresee the results of this his fulmination, against tithe propertyand what has been the consequence throughout his dioceses? A determination not to pay tithe, however moderate the charge, has been expressed. In the neighbouring diocess of Ossory, Dr. Krefuses to pay tithe, and immediately a conspiracy is organized to carry their bishop's example into full imitation, and no Protestant clergyman can obtain a shilling. Respectable Roman Catholic farmers declare that they have the money, and individually have no objection, but that they dare not, and must not pay it. Well, what more, the fine Irish people, who, according to our Romish prelate's applausive language, "carry an indomitable hatred of oppression (that is of legalised tithe-paying) like a gem upon their fronts" -they have the effrontery to resist the laws-come forth armed to rescue cattle, seized under lawful warrant-attack the police-stone the magistrates and constituted authorities-and actually enter into a battle where many are killed, and more wounded. Now, at whose door lies the blood of these men-who are answerable for all the woe, and ruin, and suffering, that are likely to ensue? We shall conclude in the words of Mr. Ryan, "that Dr. Doyle should be anxious to overthrow the Established Church, is quite natural, while the state permits it; it is also natural, that he should endeavour to write it down; but I cannot reconcile the tone in which he has addressed himself to the passions of an irritable people, with the love of peace, the candour and soundness of argument, which I should expect in the divine, the gentleman, and the statesman."

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, with a Biographical Sketch of De Foe, written expressly for this Edition, and illustrated from original designs. In two vols. vol. 1.

Therefore, when the publisher of this new and beautifully embellished edition forwarded to us this specimen of what his future publications may be, we could not help acknowledg Marmontel said, that Robinson Crusoe was ing bis favour, and noticing in terms of apthe first book he ever read with pleasure, and proval, not only the beautiful, but at the he moreover expressed his belief that every same time, cheap form in which the edition one in Europe might say the same. We is brought out, and also speaking in praise of agree to the truth of the Frenchman's posi- the well written life of De Foe, which is pretion, and fairly confess, that such was the fixed to it; but as Christian Examiners, we case with ourselves; and we look back with must express our sorrow, that this admirable fond memory to that hour in early youth, fiction, conducive as it is to piety and morality, when immersed in this delightful narrative, should be but the forerunner of a series of nowe considered it as all reality, and our young vels, such as Perigrine Pickle and Tom Jones heart acknowledged that Providence, as good-fictions in which though there may be infiand gracious, which watched over the pious Crusoe in all his wanderings, and kept him in safety, whose mind was stayed on God.

nite talent, yet are so vile, so gross, so immoral in their tendencies, that we are assured no respectable parent would venture to admit

« PreviousContinue »