fourteen millions sterling. The proportion of the land composing Church Property, exclusive of tithes, has been estimated, by good authority, at two-elevenths of the whole, which is annually

The tithes of the 1289 benefices are

£2,545,454

said scarcely, in any case, to be un

der £500 per annum, and, in many cases, £1,000 to £5,000; but say £550, which gives

Total,

£708,950

£3,254,404

But this shows the revenues of the Church at much too low an estimate; because the church lands are generally situated in the most fertile districts, and they are let usually at the old low rent, not a fifth of the true value, because the incumbent receives a large fine, grassum, at the renewal of each lease-by which practice some dignitaries have amassed half a million of money :-Five millions therefore would probably be nearer the truth than any other sum, as the annual revenue of the Irish Church; and this for doing the spiritual duty of 490,900 souls. Such enormous waste of public wealth, for such a purpose, is altogether without example in the history of human extravagance.

I

Such a fund for the maintenance of the poor was, perhaps, never known in any age, and this, too, one of its primary purposes,—and yet we are asked, where is the fund from which to maintain Irish poverty, and suppress Irish beggary-the opprobrium of the empire?

It has often been proposed to commute the tithes, at a low valuation, which would undoubtedly tend to tranquillize the people whose feelings are constantly exasperated by the harsh proceedings of tithe proctors in seizing their poor pittance of potatoes, or their pigs, for such an offensively levied impost, for the support of a church of which they know nothing but by its practical oppressions,—which too readily prepares them to think ill of the heretical principles that can lead to such conduct in its ministers.

But the commutation of tithes, if the remission were made to the landlord, would not do much for the tenant, except to increase his rent, although it would so far be of benefit, as the payment would not be so vexatiously taken in kind, or enforced by the oppressive and expensive process of ecclesiastical courts, where the clergy are judges in their own causes, and ecclesiastical, officers reap the gain of the costs which ruin the tenantry,

I

The commutation should be accompanied with a legislative declaration that the proper maintenance of the poor was originally a condition of granting the tithe, and that the price should be low in consequence of this burden being expressly retained and re-enacted in the law of commutation, as a perpetual payment from the land,

A very small portion of the immense property in land belonging to the church, after the death of the present incumbents, would suffice for the liberal endowment of a fair proportion of dignified clergy, both Episcopalian and Catholic..

The great bulk of three millions a-year, belonging in property to the church, might form a fund for the most magnificent improvements, by em. ploying, at adequate wages, the Irish poor in cutting canals, making roads, draining and cultivating bogs, and morasses; exploring coal, lime, marl, and other minerals; forming harbours; enclosing and planting on the church lands; establishing fisheries, founderies, and various manufactures. By such means, the country might be indefinitely improved; and the demand for employment would raise the wages, the comforts, the character, the caution, the repugnance to reckless marriage, of the people; and retard the increase and improve the condition of the population.

There is another fund for defraying the expense of providing for the Irish poor, which is but little thought of, though it is most important. Were Ireland conciliated by just government, by the impartial admission of all religions to civil and political privileges-by a just arrangement of Church property, so as to provide fairly for all the teachers of religion, without taking away anything which any man has a right to enjoy during his life-and were that abject poverty in the people abated, and their comforts improved, by a judicious system of relief, we should no longer see desperate hunger in arms against political and religious monopoly and oppression. The minister of peace leading on troops to shoot his starving flock, for rescuing or secreting the animal which yielded milk to their famishing children. We should see Ireland protected as Scotland is, by a few skeleton battalions, instead of a regular army, at an expense of two millions sterling-besides another army of local yeomanry and armed police—all of whom, besides the enormous expense, so far from producing peace, seem only more to embroil the fray, by local grudges and religious animosity, carrying arms only on one side.

The pacification of Ireland, and above all the

elevation of the character of the common people, would render the country safe and comfortable for the wealthy land-owners to reside in, and would induce persons of skill and capital to establish manufactures. In the present state of that unhappy country, it is difficult to blame absentees, who have the means of living in the tranquil portions of the empire."

THE END.