The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-09-26 00:00:00

Etc c=s,tourryikge 0125erber.

SATURDAY, SF,PTEMDER 20, 1808.

REPORT OF THE IRISH CIIURCH

COMMISSION.

A most valuable contribution to the facts ne-
cessary to the fur discu:s:on of the greatest
question of the day. has just appeared in the
Report of the Irish Church Commission. There
has Leon some extraordinary. awl, under the cir-
cumstances, much to be regretted deley in the
publication of this rerort, whieli was only pub.
lis'ae4 on tte 190 in.:taut, th•niiiii it is date.l
July Ili. What effect, 1100 lo.ve been prodnee.i
on the House of Cola/1101i bald this report been
isinel previously to the ilisen,shei of Mr. al:ia-
At,,t'd resolutions, or whether these resolution,
wouid have been modified, • t• II iv evci
sod. the light, it is now si..l-e lv rCi wli'le t
inquire. It tlint voluee.• .f
hundred folio le, ii• i •

seltedttles, Is
the Irislt Ch ih 1 tee et
It,t ;
II of t' : I '
pet , r
t'

. _
tt tw.lve niiaor .•: ,-• ,
thiet•..-tw.l,loans, t • ;,,' -
ono thousand live Inv.:o.n .1 :•I,:i 1,:•: •1' 1 I
inewoh,2nts, ana th,InIL IL
diary enr.d....s
Thu 4..
of thoLu

prOpOST c• 1., • ,
a re•lnettioa ~1

of 1.!10 f tirec-jitit a lug thus el ric,.
out: Meath to be united to Dublin ;
Ind Kilfehers to Litueriok ; Clonfert and Kil-
tencilosg to Toilet ; Cashel and Emily to Lime-
rick ; Waterford and liismore to 0 try ;
Ku-
tioru to Armagh ; mat Flpin nod A to
Tuatn. A major Az of Cot Commissioners think
that one arelthish•.p will be enough, and thit the
archbishopric to he rttained should be Arinah.
while the archbishopric of Dublin should be ro•
duced to a bishopric with precedence over every
other bishopric ; but the other Commissioaers
think title 6.1111-te is not regeired. The incomes
proposed arc, for the archbishopric of Arnevh. ,
t 6,000 ay. ; for Dublin, if tin archbishopric.
t 5,009, amt if a hisbnpric, e-1,500 ; for each of
the other bishoprics le,tla with five hundred per
annum extra for bishops who attend Parliament.
The Commissioners further recommend the
abolition of all the corporations of deans and
chapters except eight, and the reduction of the
number of archdeacons to two in each united
diocese. with the exception of the united dio-
ceses of Kiliewe, A rough. and Cloghen, where
there would he three. These are the leading
recommend:ti. ns of the Commissioners, but
there are tooey matters of detail to which we
need not specially refer.
This elahorste and eonstientionsly written re-
port, rope, seeting the npini,ais of tem of enli-
llellee in different pro fes4,no, men of various
stations in life, end of e.a.:ed political partisan-
ship, is remarkable for its almost complete uni-
formity. There is a difference of opinion on
only one point, to which we have referred, and
this is the more remarkable considering the in-
tricacy of the subject, the religious feeling ne-
cessarily evaked, and the importance of the in-
terests involved. This uniform'ty Is in its If an
argument for the soundness ..f the recomomild-
,itions offered. Tic, Cattunissiom ente;-...1 on
their duties on the net:oval aarmatelion that this
branch of the United Church should conduits
to be este') Heal and endowed, tind they did
not allow themselves to be turned aside by the
resolutions of the House of Commons which
were proposed with the idea of making political
capital endemic.' out ins party spirit. Taking
the report as a whole, we believe it meets the
just .demands of all sections of the community,
and we have yet to learn that the Legislature
should yield to the m‘just demands of is portion
of society. The Conservatives never denied
that there were some :theses connected with the
Protestant Churelt in Ireland. nor did they ever
express an unwillingness to reform them ; but
they reasonably urged that the House of Com-
mons should await this report before passiug
those resolutions which have thrown the king-
dom into such a turmoil. The result proves that
it would have been wise to do so. But the House
of Lords at all events is not committed to these
hasty resolutions, and it is earnestly to be hoped
that peace may yet be restored on the basis of
the Irish Clairol' Commissioners' recommenda-
tions. Where there is good paramount over
evil, entire destruction is not reform.