should be stated that the observations on which we now venture were completed before the opening of Parliament, but withheld from publication in the hope that the Church might still escape this year alike the attacks of declared enemies and the mischievous interferences of fearful and injudicious friends. The writer had become aware of a project of so-called reform, hatched in secret, which would prove simply fatal to the Irish Church -a reform which Sir Hugh Cairns unhappily mooted in his speech at Belfast during the recess; and it can scarcely be doubted that we owe to the miserable scheme then timidly suggested, the revived hopes under the influence of which Messrs. Dillwyn and Osborne are now acting. It appeared as if the friends and supporters of the Irish Church were in such a fright that they were ready to propitiate their heterogeneous assailants by proposing a change in the territorial character of the Church-to accept, in fact, something very like a congregational system in its place, to be built up, too, by confiscation; and a system, moreover, attended by anomalies vastly more serious, as we shall show, than any of those proposed to be removed. The non-production authoritatively up to the present time of this vicious scheme would have still influenced the writer to withhold his manuscript from publication, had not the effect of Sir Hugh Cairns' early promulgation of the principle of this ruinous reform" been, as has already been stated, to reopen the entire question. Under the circumstances produced by the untimely and selfish Belfast demonstration, it appears necessary to declare the danger that impends from the hands of weak and officious friends, and to examine the whole subject of Church Reform with freedom and candour.

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Before entering upon this task, we protest against that fatal timidity which exaggerates small dangers, and creates serious perils by premature efforts to evade them. Last year there were some who trembled so unworthily in prospect of Mr. Osborne's attack as to seek safety in the suggestion of a Royal Commission. Happily their advice was not followed. The foe was confronted in a manly spirit, and the result was his utter

defeat. If the same result do not follow again, the fault will be entirely our own. The Dillwyn party can do us no harm, unless strength be communicated to them by the fears and feebleness of the false friends of the Church itself. It is only fair, however, to express here the opinion which we entertain, that Sir Hugh Cairns had no sanction, and would not have the support for the purposes of this project, of the Conservative party, or of its leader, the Earl of Derby. That nobleman's attachment to the United Church of England and Ireland is well known; the Irish clergy and laity gratefully remember his services in a former period of peril, and believe not only that the salutary legislation, then the result of his lordship's efforts, supersedes the necessity for any change in the institution of a revolutionary character, but also that they can rely upon him at this crisis for support equally against rash meddling and rude assaults.

We may state that the project of secret "reform" already alluded to contemplates, inter alia, the alienation of a certain portion of the revenues of such parishes, chiefly in the South and West, as contain but a small number of Protestant parishioners, in order that the moneys so confiscated may be disappropriated to the use of such civic and rural parishes at a distance as have not adequate endowment already for their growing wants. This scheme would be carried out by uniting three or more parishes, leaving behind only the income of one, and one incumbent, and substituting for the other incumbents in the widowed parishes a class of stipendiary curates on permanent and fixed salaries—somewhere about £100 per annum. We purposely omit all notice of the other plans of spoliation included in this scheme, as this one alone perpetrates every kind of wrong and injustice.

Before discussing the effects of the project upon the constitutional position, upon the nationality, upon the efficiency of the Church, and upon the rights of property and the indefeasibility and permanence of endowments and bequests, let us ask what are its objects. If to appease the Ultramontane party, everyone must see that as a mere shuffle of the temporalities it will fail. We appeal to

experience whether concessions of principle have ever rendered them reasonable. We can look back for a considerable number of years upon the results of such a policy, which have been uniformly disappointing. It must be obvious, moreover, that the temptation to future assaults would be greater after this change, as it would be a confession of weakness, and an acknowledgment of the justice of the agitation that designs the overthrow of the institution. In fact, if the payment of rentcharge were offensive to Roman Catholic proprietors, would not that grievance be vastly increased if the money of the landlord in Tipperary or Limerick were spent, not in the parish from which it was derived, and where its expenditure is a benefit, and the elevating influence of the clergyman's presence is felt morally, socially, and intellectually, but carried off to the town of Belfast or Londonderry, or the cities of Dublin or Cork, to support a minister and congregation on whom they never set their eyes, and from whom they never can derive a benefit of any kind whatever. It is impossible to conceive a state of things which would offer a stronger case for agitation and complaint. No one, of any party, would defend an iniquity so palpable.

Besides all the wrong and injustice suffered by the Roman Catholic landlord, the Protestant payer of rentcharge would have these additional and much stronger grounds for dissatisfaction with this scheme of quasi reform. First of all, as £370,000 out of £410,000 per annum--the whole rent-charge is paid by the Protestant landlords, the grievance would be in proportion. The Protestant proprietor would feel the loss in a variety of ways. He would miss the sole representative of his church, as he never sees his bishop; he would miss his pastor on Sundays, and perhaps have to travel many miles to some large town to attend the ministrations of religion; he could not surround himself with Protestant servants or tenantry for whom he had no teacher, however much he would feel the need of persons about him on whom he could confide; his children would grow up uncatechized, and without the hallowing influences of the parish church, its services, and

its associations; he would miss the gentlemanly companion in the intercourse of life, the natural dispenser of his charities, the cordial sympathizer and co-operator in all his benevolent schemes for the elevation and enlightenment of his dependents, and the man whose education, convictions, and antecedents are the tee that he will assist him in proguaranmoting the principles of respect for property, loyalty to the throne, order, and peace. Furthermore, in missing the invaluable support which the minister, and the congregation gathered round him, furnish, he would become powerless against the demands of the people, led by their priest and the demagogue, who would then propound any code that suited them respecting liberty and property. Whatever other result therefore would follow the success of this project, we are solemnly convinced that it would inflict irreparable injury upon the landlords of the south and west of Ireland.

Nor is the inestimable value of the residence of an educated and sufficiently endowed Protestant clergy among the people to be left out of sight. The object of all reformers has been to induce the Irish gentry to live upon their properties, in order to the social elevation of the people through their efforts and example. So greatly was the necessity of this residence felt, that Grattan suggested and Flood actually proposed in the Irish Parliament to tax absentees. An authority not over-friendly to the Irish Church, and hardly less eminent than either, thus describes the value of the resident Protestant clergy, as a moral influence of a superior class over the peasantry. Speaking in the House of Lords at a time when the condition of the Church was under the severest criticism, the Marquis of Lansdowne said

As regards the part of the plan which proposes the substitution of curates for the present class of incumbents, it must be obvious that they would lack the resources to gather the Protestant people around them; that they would be unable to maintain their schools; that they would be themselves placed at enormous disadvantage, without prospect of promotion, "out of sight and out of mind"-all the promotions taking place, in fact, at the other extremity of the island, at the expense of the parishes in which they would labour as stipendiary curates. Under such circumstances, what sort of men would the parishioners have to depend upon, and the gentry to associate with? Even now, from the competition of the civil appointments, and the miserable stipends paid to curates, with the uncertainty of ultimate promotion, there is one universal murmur of complaint from bishops, clergy, and people alike, that the higher order of men will no longer enter the Church. How, then, will the matter be when their position and prospects are made infinitely worse? The result must be the introduction into the Church of the "Richard Weaver" or collier class of clergy. That style of spiritual instructor may do very well as a Roman Catholic priest, who, if he has not the influence that intellect, gentlemanlike training, university education, and social position confer, compensates for it by the physical weight which the masses who follow him give him in all questions and controversies.

"Your Majesty may believe it that upon the face of the earth where Christ is professed, 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 when they shall be re-edified-competent living for the ministers, being well chosen.”

Writing in the reign of James the First, the Bishop of Leighlin and Ferns said, in like manner

"Some of the parishioners being by me blamed for carrying their children to Popish priests to be christened, answered that they were compelled so to do, in regard they had no curate of our religion near

unto them."

Until this time, the Roman Catholics had generally attended divine serIvice in the churches.

Of the degeneracy here referred to, Sir John Davis supplied a sufficient explanation when he said—

"The incumbents, both parsons and vicars, did appear to be such poor ragged ignorant creatures, as we could not esteem any of them worthy of the meanest of those livings, albeit many of them are not worth more than forty shillings per annum.'

The condition of the Irish clergy in those days of pluralism, poverty, and neglect did not, in short, materially differ from the graphic description given by Lord Macaulay of the state of the English rural clergy of some half-century later :

incumbent to bring up a family comfort"Hardly one living in fifty enabled the ably. As children multiplied and grew, the household of the priest became more and more beggarly, holes appeared more and more plainly in the thatch of his parsonage and in his single cassock. Often it was only by toiling on his glebe, by feeding swine, and by loading dung-carts, that he could obtain daily bread; nor did his utmost exertions always prevent the bailiffs from taking his concordance and his inkstand in execution. It was a white day on which he was admitted into the kitchen of a great house, and regaled by the servants with cold meat and ale. His children were brought up like the children of the neighbouring peasantry-his boys followed the

plough, and his girls went out to service. Study he found impossible, for the advowson of his living would hardly have sold for a sum sufficient to purchase a good theological library; and he might be considered unusually lucky if he had ten or twelve dog-eared volumes among the pots and pans on his shelves. Even a keen and strong intellect might be expected to rust in so unfavourable a situation."

Another important question is opened by this proposal. It would seem unjust to visit the ministers' with confiscation while the bishops' incomes are left intact. It is complained at present that they do not visit, or exercise any substantial supervision over the parishes of their dioceses. If the project succeeds, they will not have the parishes to visit; and if reform proceeds on the basis of numbers, we either shall not need so many bishops, or their remuneration must be regulated according to the scale of services and numbers, in common with those who are really performing the rough and difficult services of the Church. This reduction would be all the less objectionable if it be true, as is commonly alleged, that their administration hitherto is fairly chargeable with the larger proportion of the consequences which are now made the ground of accusation and attack, inasmuch as the Church, the State, and the public vested in them the ordination of the clergy, the patronage of the parishes, and the supervision of ecclesiastical persons and services without control of any kind. They have never, that we are aware, been backward in claiming for themselves these prerogatives.

We have shown the disastrous effects of this alarming scheme on property, and on the Church itself; but there is yet another most important interest that will be injurously affected. It may not be generally known that thirty-one livings are at the disposal of the University of Dublin, to be conferred upon the Fellows and other distinguished members of that body, in order to create vacancies in the institution for the rising talent of the country, and thus stimulate educational activity and literary ability. These livings represent property which is an educational endowment amounting to £24,139 per annum. The State, whilst giving large and liberal grants to educa

tion in the National Schools and Queen's Colleges with one hand, is asked with the other to aim a deadly blow at the highest class of education conferred in the land;-for of course those of these livings which may happen to come under the new rule could not escape upon any principle of argument or of justice, any more than that other description of property which consists in the livings which are in lay patronage. And if we are right in considering the scheme as having the inevitable tendency to overturn the Church altogether, it must be plain that this educational grant cannot survive the destruction of the rest of the Church Establishment. In short, we put it to the reader whether any other species of property, after this principle is once established, can hope to escape assault, when solemn bequests, made without regard to considerations of numbers, are to be swept away by the revolutionary application of an arithmetical test. The Government of the country, in sanctioning the perpetration of such wrongs as these, would indeed be carrying into operation what their own Commissioners, including a Fellow of the University itself, and a dignitary of the Church, have recommended, when they advised the alienation of the bequests of individuals for Protestant education, in order to appropriate them to an education never contemplated by the donors, and for no better reason than the same kind of application of the same perverted arithmetic.

Finally, if the object of the scheme which we are discussing be to provide a sum of money to be expended in promoting the efficiency of the Church in more thickly peopled districts, the measure would be miserably inadequate, as the fund so provided must be comparatively small. But it would be worse then inadequate, inasmuch as it would put a stop to the natural development of the Church by voluntary efforts to meet the increasing demands of wealthy and well-populated districts, the residents of which have shown both the ability and the willingness to provide for their own spiritual wants. In arresting this outflow of Christian liberality it would deprive the Church of the source upon which it must depend,

in the main, for future extension and efficiency; so that in robbing the parishes which most need the aid of endowment, the authors of this wild scheme would inflict deadly injury on the very communities they profess to benefit, and therefore upon the Church at large. What the voluntary principle, as an auxiliary to the Irish Church as by law established, has done in recent years, and is accomplishing, no one needs to be informed. It is rebuilding four of our ancient cathedrals at this moment, as well as erecting and endowing numerous churches and schools in every part of the land, in the faith of the principle of property which is thus immorally assailed.

If it be not superfluous to add, after we have proved it unprincipled, this policy is fatuous. It makes no provision for an altered state of facts and numbers, certain to occur in many cases. It would fix down the Church in the South and West to an unalterable loss of endowment, and close the door against improvement or remedy, no matter what accessions might be made to her numbers by the establishment of manufactures, by the redress of the inequality of the religions in the population now in progress, through the emigration to America, the immigration of English and Scottish Protestants, and conversions, in Kerry, Limerick, West Connaught, and many other places. We happen ourselves to know so many as six parishes, exclusive of the whole of West Connaught and we do not doubt but that a hundred such parishes might be mentioned-which if this scheme were in operation would have lost their endowments irretrievably—places where within a few years there have sprung up churches, schools, ministers, and thriving congregations. As we write we have received a letter from an excellent clergyman in the county of Sligo, describing the parish from which he has been recently transferred to his present sphere. The former parish had been part of a union which the previous rector never visited, as he lived fifteen miles distant, but on his death there was a division of the union, and our correspondent was promoted in 1850 to the parish in the distance and in the mountains. He was the first resident Protestant clergyman since the Refor

mation. He found no church, no.school, no ecclesiastical organization whatever. There was one landed proprietor occasionally resident. This clergyman commenced Divine Service in his parlour, for his servant, a schoolmaster and Scripture-reader, and one policeman, in all about ten people. At that time the Protestants of the parish were as 1 to 254 of the population, and in 1862 when he was promoted thence they were as 1 to 10. He left behind him two excellent schools, a congregation of a hundred people, and in the parish 200 Protestants of the Established Church, and a beautiful church, built by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, for which he collected three hundred pounds himself. We are in the midst of a process of change which is rapidly producing results of this kind, and we hope and believe will do so still more rapidly. We happen to be writing this article in a parish which, in Sergeant Shee's book on the Irish Church, is returned as having a Protestant population of nine persons, including the rector and his family, while the present rector is without a family; and on the last occasion of Divine Service in the parish church, two days ago, we counted in the church sixty-eight persons, in the parochial school twenty-five children, in the Sunday-school thirty-five, all the regular attendants, and representing at least 120 residents, regularly ministered to by their pastor; and this parish is not situated in West Connaught, nor in Limerick or Kerry, and has never been mentioned in public in connexion with conversions or accessions in any way. We are not in a position to say whether Sergeant Shee's statement was correct, but if it was, the argument is all the more conclusive. This parish is one of those which if the rule now projected had been adopted at the date of Sergeant Shee's book, would have neither minister nor congregation at present.

There was no period in the history of the Irish Church, in fact, and no diocese or district of the country, in which the policy now contemplated would not have been calamitous in its effects. Had it, for example, been applied in the case of the diocese of Derry a century and a-half ago the result would have been, instead of the