ignorant of the place where she had seated herself. Surely, were there such things in Nature as we sometimes read of-strange, mysterious, and occult sympathies, by which kindred bloods wonderfully respond to unknown ties-this man could not have been so near his own, under such circumstances, and have looked upon the mother and her child, only as he would have looked upon a common street mendicant !

The other circumstance is this. When the sheriff's officers entered the house to levy the execution, her husband surveyed the process, not only with indifference, but with a sort of wild mirth, to see how the chairs, and tables, and beds were pulled about, and carried from room to room. His wife's dismay, his son's tears, moved him not. They were unheeded. He laughed, even, as they thrust him from the chair on which he was sitting, to remove it into the cart at the door. But, when two of the men were about to lay their hands on the picture by which he stood-on his Last Judgement-at which he still worked every day, and which doubtless owed some of the extraordinary effect I have described to the very frenzy of his thoughts, he sprang upon them like a chafed leopard, threw them to the ground, and, in a frightful struggle, while he literally howled with rage, would have strangled them, had they not been powerful enough to escape from his grasp. Terror-struck, they fled-he followed-and, snatching up a poker that lay in his way, when he had driven them into the street, he retreated to his room again, vociferating horrible maledictions against his antagonists, who were too prudent to renew their claims. It was this circumstance dwelling freshly upon his mind, which made him arm himself with his weapon when he came down to me; believing, as I afterwards learned, that I might be one of the officers returned to take away his picture. Nor was it till the admiration I expressed, roused his latent feelings of pride and joy, while it destroyed his suspicions, that he cast it away.

I have little else to add. That picture is now in my possession. I became the purchaser of it at my own price-a price which did more than merely pay its value. It brought back comfort to a house of mourning. It placed the artist under such medical care as ultimately restored him to reason. It authorized me to become an intercessor with his father, and to close the wounds that had so long and so unjustly rankled in his bosom; and I never look upon the picture itself without blessing the good old gentleman who called himself my uncle, for having taught me the lesson I have mentioned, and confessing to my own heart, that "SECOND thoughts ARE best!"

MEPHOSTO.

THE POET'S OLD AGE.

The Author of "Faust" is now eighty-five years old, having survived his friend Schiller thirty years.

BRING me a crown of cypress!-never more

Shall laurels wreathe their mockery round my brow,

The current of my blood ebbs dim and slow

The April visions of my youth are o'er ;

Bring me a cypress crown.

Once from the vault of yon high firmament,
Stars numberless and glorious shed their ray,—
Sphere-centering-mighty-yielding light and day
To unknown nations;-or commingling blent

In cluster'd glory shone.

But, one by one, I've seen them fade and die!
Some shooting wildly from their pride of place,
Some fading with a soft expiring grace,
Like flowers by evening's hand closed silently

Ere yet their bloom is shed.

Such were the radiant souls wherewith mine own
Held bright communion in its earlier dream;
Reflecting like a mirror every beam
Glanced from their scatter'd orbits!-Now, alone

Eclipse my planet shades!

Their minds were with me in my solitude;

Their hands were clasp'd with mine in friendship's hour;
Their hearts, with mine enwove by spells of power,

Seem'd as with kindred impulses endued,

And throbb'd with kindred life.

I lift my voice, and Echo mocks the cry

I stretch my hand, and meet a stranger's touch;-
Companions!-friends!-whom I have loved so much,

So long deplored-from your cold urns reply,

And summon me to rest!

Spring is around me-dawning years succeed

To that past age ;-their flowers are rich and rare-
Their young leaves quiver in the dancing air-
Their buds spring hope-like in the dewy mead-

Their birds are gay

But, like a mossy trunk, my spirit rears
Its uncongenial darkness mid them all.
Companions!-friends!—to you, to you, I call

For sympathy and love-oh! by these tears,

Tell me my hour is nigh!

C. F. G.

THE IRISH CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT.

THE heavy hand of Reform is fast descending upon this audacious institution. The main defences on which its manifold and unparalleled abuses were wont to rely-the Orange ascendancy in Ireland and the Tory ascendancy in this country, have happily been overturned; the arm of political corruption is no longer extended over it; it stands naked before the empire, its impurities and oppressions bare: the civil rights of the Catholic, and the religious rights of the Protestant-the spiritual exigencies of a class, and the physical exigencies of the country, cry equally loud for its reduction.

The chief abuse of the Irish Church Establishment is its magnitude: it cannot be reformed without being reduced. It is disproportionate to the resources of the nation; it is disproportionate to the numbers of its followers-enormously disproportionate!

The population of Ireland is the poorest, her Church the wealthiest in Europe. Its opulence would be excessive, were the entire population within its pale.

The population is about eight millions; seven millions of that number are Catholics; of the remaining million, not three-fourths profess the religion of the state. The whole population is burthened indifferently for the maintenance of that religion.

And how has that religion been maintained? Whilst the poverty of the country protests against the extravagance of the Establishment, and the Catholics declare against its injustice, the Protestant adds the interests of his faith to the other arguments for Reform, proclaiming its inefficiency for the sole end of its institution.

Thus are arrayed against the existing state of the Irish Church, economy, justice, and religion. If a revision of ecclesiastical affairs be called for in this country, in Ireland it is demanded still more imperiously. The disorganized and afflicted state of that part of the empire will soon engage the attention of a Parliament disposed and determined to redress its grievances. The Establishment-the capital grievance-should be the first subject of discussion.

A view of the Irish Church is necessarily a detail of abuses. We do not profess, in the following pages, to give a complete picture. Our limits are narrow, and the subject vast. We aim only at tracing the outlines of the evil, and we begin with the mitre.

In our remarks upon this, as upon every other branch of the subject before us, we shall diligently avoid two things-exaggerated statements and indiscriminate attacks. Our case against the Irish Ecclesiastics will be strong enough, after we have given them the benefit of the most mitigated account of the wealth they wring from the country, and the manifold abuses which they have suffered to disfigure and disgrace the Church. If episcopacy be a blessing, Ireland is certainly the most favoured spot upon the earth. A provision of two-and-twenty mitres for scarce a million of individuals is more than comfort-it is luxury. The Irish hierarchy consists of four Archbishops and eighteen Bishops. England, where the adherents of the establishment are supposed (however at variance with the fact may be the hypothesis) to constitute the great bulk of the population— England has but two Archbishops and twenty-four Bishops; on the whole, only four prelates more than Ireland; yet she holds her episcopal bench to be reasonably well furnished; and never, at least to our knowledge, has ejaculated a prayer for a single additional mitre. The question immediately arises-what has Ireland to do with twenty-two Bishops; or what can twenty-two Bishops have to do in Ireland? Taking the number of benefices in the two islands as a fair exponent of the extent of the episcopal duty to be performed in each, we find in England upwards of seven thousand incumbents to twenty-six prelates; in Ireland not twelve hundred incumbents to twenty-two prelates. In the former, therefore, every prelate has upwards of two hundred and fifty beneficed clergymen to superintend; in the latter little more than one-fifth of that number, so that the proportion of labour between the two hierarchies is about five to one. It follows that one Archbishop and four Bishops would be an July.-VOL. XXXII. NO. CXXVII.

F

ample provision of lawn-sleeves for the Protestants of the sister country. From the number proceeding to the revenues of the Irish bench, it can easily be shown that from lands alone, exclusive of every other source of emolument, the aggregate revenue of the Irish Bishoprics is upwards of £130,000. The average income, therefore, of each Bishop may be stated at £6000. per annum. Now let us pause and ask, what spiritual duty, or what duty of any kind, have these Right Reverend personages to perform, which would not be overpaid by one-half, or even one-third of this allowance? Let it be recollected that they are twenty-two in number, and that the Protestant population of Ireland is considerably under a million. Viewed in relation to these circumstances it is not too much to say that the average yearly payment of 6000l. to the Irish Bishops is as flagrant an instance of disproportion between emolument and service as any that can be produced even from the records of Irish jobbing. It is Erasmus, we believe, who says "Episcopatus non est artificium transigendæ vitæ ;" he did not see episcopacy in Ireland, or he would have reversed the observation. Either the number or the incomes of the Irish Bishops.must be reduced considerably. The lands of the Church alone might be made to bear the entire charge of the Establishment. Upon the demise of the several prelates, the Legislature might take possession of them without the slightest injustice to any interest and the abolition of the ecclesiastical tenure, so fatal to production, would be of singular advantage to a country, eminently agricultural like Ireland, and whose resources, compared with the demands of a great and growing population are so very imperfectly developed. It was stated by Mr. Baron Foster, that the estates of the Church (according to Dr. Beaufort's map one nineteenth part of the soil of the island) can be distinguished everywhere by their non-improvement; and the reason is obvious-any improvement effected immediately enhances the renewal fine, which is the principal source of the Bishop's revenue. Surely it is not Christianity which thus sterilizes the soil, and diminishes instead of multiplying the means of human enjoyment; yet there are persons who speak of the property of the Church as if it were the same thing as our holy religion itself.

In the preceding remarks we have confined ourselves exclusively to the demonstrable landed property of the Irish prelates; but we should form an incomplete idea of the prosperity of these individuals if we left out of view the enormous patronage which they have at their disposal. We have not space for

* We had intended to insert here a calculation of the incomes of the Irish Bishops, founded upon the returns to Parliament of the number of acres attached to their several sees; but we prefer presenting the reader with this statement, contained in a document just printed by order of the House of Commons. It consists of a return made on the subject of the First Fruits;" and amongst other important matter, contains the following valuations of the revenues of fifteen out of the twenty-two Irish dioceses :

"The yearly incomes of the Archbishops are stated to be-Armagh, 15,0801. 15s. 6d.; Tuam, 5,548l. 19s. 11d.; Cashel, 3,500l. and upwards; while of Dublin no return is made; of the others, Clogher is returned 9,000l. late currency; Derry, 10,000l. and upwards, late currency; Meath, 5,815l. 14s. 5d.; Raphoe, 5,3791. 14s. 1d.; Leighlin and Ferns, 5,000/. to a fraction; Ossory, 3,000l. to a fraction; Dromore, 4,8631. 3s. 5d.; Waterford, 5,000l. exact money; Cork, 3,000l. ditto; Limerick (renewal fines, nearly as much more, not included) 2,915l. 19s. 8d.; Cloyne, 2,000l. and upwards at the least;' Killala, 4,600l.; from the dioceses in Tuam there is no return made, as there is no record of the value of the several bishopricks and dignitaries of the province in the Registrar's Office.''

6

The average value of these fifteen dioceses, deduced from these manifestly incomplete returns, is very little under 6,0007. per annum. The see of Derry, here rated at 10,000l. a year, is allowed by the Bishop of Ferns to be worth little less than 15,000l. That there are nearly as large errors in the valuations of Cashel and Cloyne is unquestionable. A very moderate allowance for the sums concealed under the words "and upwards" raises the average above 6,500l. a year. Of the sees not contained in these returns, Dublin is allowed to be worth 8,000l. a year; and the remainder may be valued at about 6,000l. each.

↑ Evidence before the Committee of the House of Lords in 1825.

any details upon this subject; all that we can observe upon it is, that it far exceeds in amount the patronage of the English bishoprics, and is calculated to be equal in value to all the other emoluments of their sees. Indeed it seems

to have been the ecclesiastical policy of the sister island to make up to the hierarchy in temporal cares and concerns what they want in spiritual occupation. If their episcopal offices are sinecures, they have secular interests in abundance to exercise their activity and fill their thoughts. If they are not "about their Master's business," they are about their own; and between the management of their vast estates, the disposal of their rich patronage, and the exertions which they are continually impelled to make by the alluring prospects of more opulent mitres, they are certainly (after their own fashion) labourers in the vineyard.*

The character and deportment of the fathers of the Irish Church are, we believe, in general conformable to the merits of the system under which they flourish. All may not be covetous and worldly; but, notwithstanding that the Council of Constance has declared-"si quis dixerit episcopum aliquâ infirmitate laborare, anathema esto!"-we are bold enough to assert that piety and spiritual-mindedness are the shining exceptions, and cupidity and worldliness the melancholy rule. Nor indeed can it well be otherwise, unless there is a virtue in the office of consecration to change the character of human nature; for if we observe the appointments of the Bishops, we see that they are not made upon gospel principles; and if we mark their situations, we find that they are eminently unfavourable to the growth and exercise of gospel virtues. For what apostolic qualities many of the present race were elevated to their mitres, or by what train of Christian graces they adorn their high and holy stations, are questions which remain undecided; and yet how can it be difficult to answer them, when we observe in Dublin "the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit;" in Kilmore sanctity and learning; in Ferns the evangelic character of the primitive church; in Kildare nothing sordid or self-seeking, but a holy indifference to the things of the passing world; in Clogher no pride; in Waterford no avarice; a daily beauty in the life of Killala; and in Derry, Cork, and Killaloe, all the graces and excellencies that embellished and dignified the purest times of Christianity!

The establishment is formed on the same scale of wanton magnificence in the

* The recently published Report, to which we have already referred, contains an account of the Irish ecclesiastical promotions made since 1812. The influence of Parliamentary interest in procuring mitres is evident in the frequency with which the aristocratic names of Beresford, Jocelyn, Tottenham, Bourke, Ponsonby, French, &c. recur amongst the changes upon the episcopal bench. Except the single appointment of Dr. Brinkley to the see of Cloyne, we do not discover a single instance in which ability alone led to promotion. It is, therefore, with any thing but surprise, that we observe in the appointments to benefices, made by prelates selected upon such principles, the most discreditable abuse of patronage. The aggrandisement of their families appears, from this Report, to be their chief solicitude. In many cases, a glance at the names of the beneficed clergymen in a diocese is sufficient to inform us of the name of the Bishop. In the promotions to livings in the see of Derry, since 1812, the name of Knox occurs ten times. One gentleman, William Knox, appears five times. Altogether, the Knoxes have got, since 1812, £5230. 7s. 8d. per annum, and 3555 acres of land! We take for granted they are of kin to the Bishop. In the same way, we find the diocese of Killala studded with Verschoyles, that of Cork with St. Lawrences, Waterford with Bourkes, and Tuam with Trenches. The abundance of the Magees in Raphoe and Dublin leave no doubt that the brows of a Magee have felt the mitres of those sees. W. Magee, J. Magee, and T. P. Magee occur, like the Knoxes in Derry, ten times since 1819. The last-named person has been promoted five times. His last step was to the union of Wicklow, for the tithe of which he has refused to compound at less than 16001. a-year. We shall have occasion to allude again to this either extremely fortunate, or highly meritorious gentleman. As to the Beresfords, the Church of Ireland teems with members of that family. They have an Archbishoprick and a Bishoprick, and not fewer than fourteen livings, of which only four have their values annexed, amounting to 18571. 11s. 2d. and 64,803 acres of land!