"secular appropriation." We are happy to find that Dr. Wordsworth severely comments on the dishonesty of this gentleman's proposals, and sympathises with us, in showing that one wrong should be the cause of repentance, not the excuse of further sin. The mere fact that these three devices were divided in time, though one in principle, will never justify their supporters; not are the Commons of England justified in spoiling the Irish Church now, because the Commons of Ireland, in 1735, put an end to the tithe of agistment, and thereby reduced the clergy to a state of poverty, which continued until land was more cultivated. And, while we mention this fact, let us say one word as to the wealth of the Irish Church. The writer whom we have quoted is a valuable authority when his testimony is against his prejudices; and he declares that complaints of the penury of the Church are reiterated down to the middle of the last century. Protestant landlords were as grasping as professing Protestants in these days. The sin of sacrilege had then few more terrors, than it has for Messrs. Ward and Roebuck in these times. The gentry were as anxious to take away the glebes as Mr. O'Connell is to appropriate them to his schismatic priests. Archbishop King, in 1724, could see who were the enemies of the truth and for what end they hated the Established Church. And we will commend one of his sentiments to some members of Parliament, whether they sit on what are called the Opposition benches, or are near the Treasury benches. "There is," said he in a letter to Swift, "a party among us who have little sense of religion, and heartily hate the "Church." The Church of Ireland has been persecuted even by those who should have been its defenders, and now we hear it assailed for its enormous wealth; whereas, in truth, it is a poor Church, and is unable to assist itself in its dangers and difficulties. Sir Thomas Freemantle, in the late debate, expressed his opinion that Mr. Ward had overstated the average income of every clergyman in Ireland at £220 per annum.† It is confessed that at no period has Ireland had so laborious a body of clergy, and we see that with the increase of its wealth has come an increased devotion and an enlarged spirituality. Years of misrule have not destroyed its efficiency, for it is the Church of Christ, and, therefore, founded on a rock.

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Not all its primates have been such as Boulter, but we have lived to see one whose enlarged heart sets no bounds to his liberality, whose Christian devotion is only equalled by his patient endurance in well

The passages quoted in support of this view are "Swift's Works," vol. viii. p. 428; Mant, vol. ii. p. 353.

+ Mr. Colquhoun takes it at €150.

doing. Thankful are we that the primacy of Ireland has in God's mercy devolved upon one so noble in Christian graces. But we will not lose sight of the Church in noticing its ministers, except so far as it will expose the real character of such men as desire to spoil the Irish Church. Happily for us they find no excuse within the Church for their attempts; and, if its influence is not more widely diffused, to whom shall we attribute the necessary blame?

The spoliators show of what parentage they have sprung. If not lineal children, they are akin in acts to those, who in their day treated the Church as a mere creature of the State. For the sake of consistency, we are surprised to find Lord John Manners among the number of its assailants, though we are alive to the fact that Tractarians who have arrived at a certain state of genuineness, see so little difference between the Churches, that they have no desire to prolong differences so unimportant in themselves! It would have been thought a singular fact some ten years since, if men had foreseen that in 1845, every Tractarian in the House would support the endowment of Popery, but it seems that this thoughtful young statesman, who gained Sir Robert Peel's praise by his speech, has been seduced from his previous convictions by the thought that Irishmen are very ultra-Protestant, and that in Down the surplice is viewed with distrust and suspicion. How very important has doctrine become in the eyes of this class, for not long since the outward form was enough to constitute the essence of a Church; but in Ireland the case is different, and doctrine which is not Tractarian has so deadly an aspect, that Lord John Manners & Co. unchurch the true Church, and say that Romanists are not "guiltily schismatical." As if schism was no sin unless it was contrary to the inclination of the noble lord, and as if Church principles were only to be used as an excuse for condemning those, whose doctrinal teaching we disapprove. The spirit of usurping Rome peeps out more plainly perhaps than was originally intended, but, under all circumstances, we imagine that Dr. Wordsworth has no regret that the noble Lord is at variance with him. We cannot refrain from quoting, in reference to the above, some remarks which may elucidate the subject of existing Protestantism:

"For my own part I hope to be pardoned if I cannot but express my gratitudenot without mingled feelings of admiration-to Divine Providence, that the Church of Ireland-after the treatment which she has received from the powers of this world -from those very powers, be it remembered, which are now, I fear, plotting her extinction, because, forsooth, she does not possess the efficiency of which they themselves have deprived her!-because she cannot work with the hands which they have amputated, or see with the eyes which they have extinguished, or preach with the tongue

which they have torn from her mouth!-that this Church, I say, so crippled, so degraded, and then so reviled by some of the Statesmen and Legislators of England, should exist, even in her present enfeebled state-ay, and even that she should exist at all!

"It is of God's mercy alone that she is not destroyed; and by that same mercy, if we, my Lord, are but true to her and to ourselves, she will revive and recover her strength, and regenerate the kingdom of Ireland.

Here, my Lord, is a glorious object for your own Christian ambition. Let me humbly and earnestly appeal to you in her behalf! Aid not in the destruction of this Church; join not your voice with those who say, 'Down with it! down with it! ⚫ even to the ground!' Heal, if you may, its divisions; look with pity and charity on its failings: if it has been abused, remove, if you can, its abuses. Thus confirm its uses, and aid in every measure to restore it to itself, for the promotion of God's glory, and for the welfare of our country!" (Pp. 8, 9.)

It is very important that our readers should have before their minds an outline of the oppressions of the Irish Church; and, as Mr. Colquhoun's is far better than any we have yet seen, we will extract it :

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By the 28th of Henry VIII., the word of God was to be preached in England; in 1551, the English Prayerbook was to be read in the Irish churches, while the Irish language was almost universally prevalent.* Elizabeth went further, and required the clergy to read the Prayers in Latin. In the schools the Irish language was prohibited, the English enforced. In vain does Sydney's report to Elizabeth, in 1576, implore the English government to send out Irish preachers; in vain do Lord Bacon and James I., in a letter to Lord Chichester, state that the ignorance of Ireland arose from the want of these; in vain did the subject engage the attention of Charles I.'s government; with the exception of Bishop Bedell, none acted on their advice. His success, and the deep attachment of the Irish peasantry to him, show that, had they so acted, they would have sncceeded. The translation of the Bible into Irish only took place in 1686, and this was due, not to the exertions of the state, but of two individuals.

"In such a condition of neglect by the state, can we doubt what was the position of the Anglican Church? Was it so sustained by the state? It was in name; but from the Reformation to the end of the last century it was left a shapeless ruin. 'In 'Queen Elizabeth's time, (to take Sir Henry Sydney's report respecting the diocese ⚫ of Meath,) there was not one glebe-house, nor any place of residence for the clergy. The walls of many of the churches were thrown down, the windows and doors were 'ruined. If, he says, this is the state of the Church in the best-peopled diocese, and 'best-governed county, easy is it for your majesty to conjecture in what case the rest 'is. Your Majesty may believe, that upon the face of the earth, where Christ is pro'fessed, there is not a Church in so miserable a case; the misery of which consisteth in these three particulars: the ruin of the very temples themselves, the want of · good ministers to serve in them, competent living for the ministers, being well

* Leland, b. ii. p. 94.

+ Stat. ii. sec. 13.

Ed. Rep. 1813, p. 270.

'chosen. Lord Deputy Chichester, in the reign of James I., says, 'The churches I * found all ruinous, and many utterly defaced; for many years, during the reign of 'Elizabeth, even the sees of Derry, Clogher, and Raphoe, were suffered to remain vacant; and for years together, Divine Service was not used in any parish church of Ulster, except in the town.' Spencer justly says, referring the blame to the government, Many more Roman Catholics might have been converted, if the English ' government had done their part, and had supplied the country with learned, faithful, ' and pious preachers, that would have outpreached and outlived the Irish priests in 'holy and good conversation.' The state of the Church was no better in Charles I.'s reign. Bedell found his palace of Kilmore levelled with the ground, his cathedral church destroyed, and the parish churches all ruined, unroofed, and unrepaired. The revenues of the Church were diverted into the pockets of laymen, so that in addressing Charles I., the Convocation state, In all the Christian world, the rural clergy have not 'been reduced to such extremity of contempt and beggary as in this kingdom, by means of appropriations, commendams, and violent intrusions into their undoubted ' rights in times of confusion; having their churches ruined, their habitatious left desolate, and, by inevitable consequence, an invincible necessity for a general nonresidence, whereby the ordinary subject hath been left wholly destitute of all pos'sible means to learn true piety to God.'" (Pp. 25–27.)

Again:

With this single exception, (of Lord Ormond,) we travel through two centuries of abuse; the only principle of the Irish government, whether Whig or Tory, being, to maintain the administration of the day by the corruption of the rich and the oppression of the poor. The Anglican Church was used as a treasure trove to feed out of its revenues Irish and English landlords. The effect of the spoliation was such, that laymen obtained 1480 glebes once belonging to the Church, and the tithes of 680 parishes. From this arose the necessity of those unions of parishes, so general in Ireland, combined in order to make up a pittance of income for the clergyman. The state of the Irish Church is thus described in the reigns of Anne and George I., by Dean Swift, who lashed with caustic satire the robbery and oppression of his country. The clergy having been stripped of the greatest part of their revenues, the glebes being very generally lost, the tithes in the hands of the laymen, the churches demolished, and the country depopulated; in order to preserve a face of Christianity it 'was necessary to unite small vicarages sufficient to make a tolerable maintenance for a minister. To this state of things, the result of the scandalous misconduct of our own government, the Irish landlords added the coup de grâce, by refusing the tithe of agistment. Thus impoverished, the condition of the Church during the last century was this: 800 clergy, with 150 glebe-houses, and 400 churches. That is, 150 Anglican clergy resided where 2400 (for that is the number of parishes) were intended to reside. The improvements in the Irish Church date from 1770, when agriculture began to extend; with corn-fields came tithes aud income to the Church. Then glebe-houses were erected, ruined churches were rebuilt, and residence began be enforced, because it ceased to be impossible. Still, at the Union the Church had only 300 glebe-houses, and 689 churches, while there were then 1000 clergy. In other words, 700 had a good excuse for non-residence. Since that time, by the confession of all, progress has deen steady, until the Church presents the aspect of a laborious and useful clergy.

'Such is a brief but a just sketch of the Irish Church at the time when we write Let us not destsoy it. This would be a Luddite folly." (Pp. 28-30.)

Dr. Wordsworth holds that no argument is more conclusive than that the imperfections of the Irish Church are attributable not to the Church but to us, and in the following words deals with the theory of restitution:

"And let me now proceed to say, that we hear at this moment a good deal of a future work of Restitution to the people of Ireland. Too commonly, indeed, by Restitution is meant the confiscation of property, and the reduction of Irishmen to a spiritual thraldom of abject superstition, and their degradation to the condition of bondsmen to the see of Rome. This is, alas! the glorious privilege which is held out to the inhabitants of that country under the specious name of Restitution! their 'promised land' is a return into Egypt! The charter of their liberties is the creed of Trent! The payment of Peterpence is their immunity from taxation! Such is the blessed Emancipation with the hope of which they are fed; such the Utopian dream of enfranchisement with which they are mocked and cheated!

"But, my Lord, there is another work of Restitution to Ireland; I mean the restoration of her true, Catholic, and Apostolic Church to her ancient rights and former efficiency; a re-erection of her suppressed sees; a restitution of her confiscated property; a revival of her enfeebled energies; a reparation of her ruined edifiees; a reorganisation of her parochial system; a restoration of the funds formerly devoted to her schools; and therefore, my Lord, when we hear of the Restitution of the rights of the people of Ireland, let us not forget their very first right. And what, you may ask, is that? It is, I repeat, their right to their own pure, primitive, and evangelical Church. Let us restore to them that. But when, even by their vices as well as by their virtues, when by their monster meetings' as well as by the voices of their true bishops, they appeal to England for the supply of this, which is the paramount need of all, let us not delude them by giving them fuel for agitation, and then calling it Restitution; let us not endow Maynooth and expect to reap a harvest of peace; let us not build sceptical Colleges aud bid them look for the fruits of Christianity! When, by their famished spirits and the leanness of their souls. they cry unto us for bread, as we value their welfare and our own, let us not give them a stone!" (Pp. 10, 11.)

Dr. Wordsworth also very effectively quotes Hooker's opinion of popery, and at the same time fears lest even his meekness and patience should fall under the lash of Lord J. Manners. But we are making an individual of more importance than his talents and position warrant, except so far as indicative of the general leaning of Tractarians in this crisis. The love of Romanism beguiles them. We enquire with Dr. Wordsworth

"Are we, my Lord, for England, or for Rome? for the Crown, or the Tiara ? for the Queen's supremacy, or the Pope's? for Christian subjection, or antichristian rebellion? for the English Reformation, or (so-called) Irish Restitution? for Scripture, or Tradition? for Evangelical truth, or legendary fables? for sacraments mutilated or entire? for living prayers, or dead ones? for the Apostles' Creed, or for