The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-28 00:00:00

1852.
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N° • 18,753'11 LONDON,
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WITH A MEMOIR BY SIR T. N. TALFOURD.
Now ready at all the Libraries, in 3 vols.,
ANNE TTE; A TALE.
By W. F. DEACON.
With a Memoir of the Author,
BY THE HON. SIR T. N. TALFOURD,
"Annette is a stirring tale, in which there is abundant cause for
palpitation of the heart among unpractised novel readers, and for a
sustained feeling of enjoyment in the most expert. It is one of the
most readable novels of the day, and has -enough in it of Me and
interest to keep it for ;mile years to come in nqiiest. The prefatory
memoir by Sir Thomas Taltourd would ho at all times inter,stlng,
nor the less so for containin4 two letters from Sir swatter Scott to
Mr. Deacon, full of gentle, far-thinking wisdom."—Examiner.
Colburn arid Co., Publishers, 13, Great Marlborough-street.

NEW WORK BY TIIE AUTHOR OF " VANITY FAIR,"
" PENDENNIS," &c.
On Friday will be published,
ESMON D: a Story of Quee❑ Anne's Reign.
By W. M. THACKERAY, Esq.
In 3 volumes crown Bvo., price 1/. 1 ls. 6d.
London : Smith, Elder, and Co., 65, Cornhill.

NEW WORK BT SIR ARCIIIBALI) ALISON, BART.
On 15th November will be published, price 163.,
VOLUME I.
"[STORY OF EUROPE, from the Fall of
Napoleon in 1815 to tho Accession of Louis Napoleon iu
1552.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
TIMES.—AII who su&red in their childhood the
misfortune of what is called an inquiring mind will
remember the shock to their faith and the dislocation
of their ideas when they first spelt their way through
the fables of old lEsop. " Once on a time," they read
to their bewilderment, " the lion, the ass, and the fox
made an agreement to hunt in company, and divide
the booty." What a power of "agreements must
have been required to get over the natural instincts
and antipathies of the first two, not to speak of the
third partner, a genth man possibly of more accom-
modating taste I What terrible constraint the lion
must have put on his appetite whenever he found
himself within easy spring of his long-eared com-
panion ! Ilow the letter must have trembled when
he put his signature to the deed of partnership, and
whenever he became conscious of a soft, heavy tread
at long intervals behind him ! In the excitement of
the chase the king of the beasts must have sometimes
expressed his pleasure or his eagerness in his usual
mode of utterance. How it must have thrilled
through the soul of the poor jackass I Then, as to
the division of the prey. Imagine the patient de-
vourer of thistles standing over the bleeding carcase
of a cow. Was it possible that he should see in it
anything but a picture of his own speedy doom?
Maturer reason, however, informs us that the partner-
ship, impossible and absurd as it may seem, is not
less so than many that ()emir private and political
affairs. Invest a modern fact with old phraseology,
and you will soon see that a thing may be incredible,
but nevertheless true. Read—" Once on a time. Dr.
Mac Hale, Mr. John Bright, and Mr. G. H. Moore
agreed to hunt the Established Church together, and
to make an equal division of the spoil." Is that a
hit less absurd than the old myth about the lion, the
ass, and the fox ? " The Lion of Judah " can
have no other intention than to eat up both his
companions at the first opportunity. Mr. Bright
cannot for a moment be at ease in such company.
He must always be conscious of an odd sensation
at the haunches, a sort of cramp in the legs, and a
hard gripe on the shoulders, as if his partner could no
larger deny himself the ready repast. Surely Mr.
Bright must know that he is only a meal in reserve—
a running larder by the side of his ever hungry col-
league. Then, how can they possibly manage the
division of the spoil ? Dr. Medial° has a special
appetite for establishments, and every natural provi-
sion for seizing, lacerating, sucking, and absorbing
them. Cuvier or Buckland would pronounce him at
once an Establishment-eater, if they saw no more
than the tip of his tail. He is decidedly carnivorous.
Mr. Bright's religious system is graminivorous in the
extreme, though a morbid eccentricity has seduced
him into a sanguinary partnership. But when the
prey is caught, if it ever is, Dr. ItlacHale must in-
evitably have it all to himself, for Mr. Bright cannot
touch it. His tastes and his faculties are equally un-
suited to it. He can only stand by, make some
hideous blunder, and follow his prey down the throat
of his fellow-sportsman. While the sport is going on,
the three partners are all making their usual demon-
strations. Dr. Mac Hale roars, a good genuine roar,
and a very terrible one, quite enough to paralyze the
Establishment altogether, if it were not, like Mr.
Gordon Cumming, a little used to roaring by this
time. But there is no mistake or reserve about the
roar. It is not an affected roar, or a politic roar, or
a musical and seductive roar, or the roar of a sucking
dove ; it comes from the heart, and goes right home
to the heart of the intended victim. Mr. Bright also
roars, and that at some length, as witness his
speech the other day at Belfast, and an immense
letter in our columns this morning. The animal
who was neither the lion nor the fox in the fable
to which we have referred did not roar in this
instance as he did on another occasion, when it proved
of little service. lEsop advisedly states, if we remem-
ber right, that he contented himself with braying, and
kicking up his heels—" cutting shines," as Mr. Le-
gree would express it. He operated in an uncouth,
but genuine, and therefore asinine manner, letting
out the secrets of his heart, and prematurely inspiring
the leading partner in the firm with a contempt of his
judgment and powers. Now, that is what Mr.
Bright is doing now to the very life. Carried away
by the chase, and enjoying a momentary triumph
over his herbivorous equals, he is rather hastily dis-
counting the prey. In the verdant innocence of his
mind, drunk with the pasture, as the poet describes
calves drunk with tnik, Mr. Bright comes out with a
green, smooth, grassy scheme for an equitable parti-
tion of the Establishment among all the parties con-
cerned. The conception is virtuous and symmetrical,
and suggests that the Goddess of Justice for the
future should not only be blindfolded, but adorned
with two long ears, not to mention a tail. There is
something soft, dreamy, and almost voluptuous in the
thought as it slowly distils through three columns of
our paper. Let Church benefices, he says, all lapse
to a commission. When Church property is thus
killed, and lies on the turf for distribution, let the
Presbyterians take a little more than their present
regium donum. Let the Church take about as much
—it cannot really want more; and let the Roman
Catholics, who now depend on the voluntary system,
take twenty acres of land for every parish, which, in
their case, will be so much gain. Let the rest go to
education. Then each sect will be free and in-
dependent of the State, and the lion, the fox,
and the ass will eat straw together till the
world's end; and so, with another plunge and a
snort, he delivers himself of his benevolent musings.
The whole letter smells of chloroform. It might
make one forget one's own existence, for certainly
Mr. Bright has wholly forgotten his own. He has
forgotten that he is himself as great an offence in the
eyes of the Irish Religious-Equality people as the
Establishment itself. He is quite as good meat for
lions, quite as disagreeable living, and agreeable dead.
His process is a hundredfold more girding and haras-
sing to true leonine feelings than the strong grasp
with which the Establishment now holds the plunder.
Any beast of prey will yield to a stronger beast, as to
a superior necessity, and soon forget his disappoint-
meat. The British Lion has Ireland in its gripe ;
and, though the " Lion of Judah" is by no means
pleased with the arrangement, he is not worried,
vexed, tantalized, much less compromised, by it. Mr.
Bright's plan has all the cruel ingenuity of the
keepers at the Zoological gardens, who alternately
present and withdraw the shank of beef from the
hungry animal. He wants the lion to see the church
property, to touch it, to taste it, to smear his chops
with it, and then he as good as takes it away. He
lays down principle after principle of the most ob-
noxious and intolerable character, and insists on the lion
swallowing them all, just to whet its appetite, and then
gives it literally only a quarter of a meal. The Roman
Catholics are first to admit the duty of a state to
endow the Presbyterians, because they are many, and
because it has endowed them ; then to admit the right
of the Established Church, on the ground of actual
possession, with a further acknowledgment of its nu-
merical claims; then to admit the duty and desirable-
ness of a system of mixed or secular education ' • and,
for all this, they are to be put off with a little paddock
of twenty acres in each parish, for the priest to graze
in and kick his heels about, for all the world like the
author of this brilliant conception. Really Mr.
Bright must have been pining for just such an otiuin
cum dignitate when he insulted the Religious-Equa-
lity-mongers with so equitable a scheme. Let him
be put into the pound before he gets into a worse
scrape. Good friend, when will you learn that the
community you have to deal with acknowledges no
establishments, no sects, no possessions, no rights, no
existence but its own P It enters into no compromise
but what the sword may impose, which, of course, can
be no compromise at all. It respects nothing, loves
nothing, knows nothing, but itself; unless it be re-
spect to avoid blows, love to seek a prey, and know-
ledge to follow it with success. But, of all things, it
hates your symmetrical, well-reasoned, neatly-ba-
lanced arrangements, stuck over with principles and
glued with reciprocal concession. It may be bullied
and conquered, but it will submit to no arbitration •
its policy is neck or nothing—ant Cersar ant nihil:
The only equality it will endure is with itself, as even
the smooth, complacent, and self-satisfied John
Bright must speedily discover.
POST.—The zeal and intelligence of our Paris
correspondent, to which on so many occasions we
have been indebted, enables us to-day to lay before
thheei being Alliedv virtually ua y
tileorrnysregearfdaevresi,Enthpoorutgahncoen.l
Fr
rionmoutthleinfe,,i,cnirdrymresptar
—there
this moment—two inferences Powersno to ict
Cabinet
anlri leeti n
inevitable.
ofhi
sthceo Belgiansanne tsc reeytTsi thaoae-tf
first is, that the Powers, who, in giving an existence
convinced that the continuance
wbirthao
madeo
tinutahnecepoefrntiahneesnt
to Belgium,
for which theythings, it,are
permanency
yte ofof
themselvesfta responsible,
tsfhiabevl
favour
rciesno
ft seri-
ouslydtheatction. The second is, that
in
tl,ese Pcoorwfieprrso'vniiewe d,
e
re-establishment of the
de-
monstration of the French
it recording it cs a
merely mention now by Empire.w 'This latter point we
matter I'D; reference hereafter
is urgent. In conformity with the recommendations
of eqnudeastitoionn
of the gueranteeing powers, the King of the I3el ianss
is to make it a sine qua non in the formation of agnew
Cabinet, that it shall present to the Chambers a bill
to ilose souse retraiut ts,pon the 4stentiotesncee elf

the Belgium press in its expression of opini•inwith re-
ference to foreign and friendly States. This been -
tiousness has been exhibited exclusively by whatis
(ailed the " Liberal" portion of the press ; a "Liberal"
Cabinet, therefore, will not be permitted by its party
to accept the proposed condition. A conservative
Cabinet but a Conservative Cabinet would seal
its own doom by doing so, inasmuch as the temper of
the Legislation has just been positively ascertained by
its election of the "Liberal" cundidate, M'Delfosse, to
the Presidency of the Chamber of Deputies. Here is a
crisis that deserves the name. In the guarantee of the
Allies is included not only the constitutional existence
o Belgium, but its neutrality; yet newrality is ob-
viously inconsistent with systematic attacks ou the
free action of a friendly State, and incitements to the
assassination of its chosen chief. The Allied Powers
interfere amicably in the performance of the duty im-
posed on them by their po,ition, and the King can do
nothing ; because, of the two parties into which the
political men of his country are diiided, the one will
not, and the other cannot, effect what is required of
them. Where, then, is a Cabinet to be found ? and
to whom are the just remonstrances of the French
nation to be addressed ? The " Liberal party" in
Belgium must answer this question to their country-
men, whose increased prosperity has hitherto arisen
out of the neutrality which was guaranteed to them
by the treaty that called them into existence as an
independent State. The intelligence from Turkey,
conveyed in the same letter from Paris, is important
in another sense. It affects the interests of British
subjects. That the Ottoman Porte refuses peremp-
torily to ratify the loan contr.cted by the Bank of
Constantinople is now beyon&,al doubt. The reim-
bursement of the deposit-money may ha satisfactory
enough to those who originally subscribed, but, to
such as paid eight or nine per cent. premium for what
they hold, the loss is severe and irremediable. The
question is not one on which our Government can
interpose ; the contract was voluntary on the part of
the subscribers,' and they can blame nobody but
themselves for their ignorance that a fanatical spirit
does still, as it always did, exist in Turkey. It may
be also, that in another quarter the influence, which
might accrue to France or England by a large ad-
vance of money, was distasteful. The eagerness,
therefore, of certain English capitalists may, by
diminishing the power of England with the Turkish
Government, ultimately endanger that lorg-esta-
blished commerce, the profits of which were more sure
than the benefits arising from a loan, if not quite so
rapid.

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

MANNING THE NAVY.

Rear-Admiral Sir Charles Napier, and Roar-
Admiral the Hon. M. F. F. Berko ley, C. Et.:m.p. (late
senior naval Lord of the Admiralty), have given evi-
dence this week before the committee at Whitehall on
manning the navy. Admiral Berkeley has paid vary
great attention to " manning the navy." In his last
ship, the Thunderer, 84, he proved the beneficial effect
of uniform good treatment of sailors. It is net generally
known that Admiral Berkeley, some years since, ad-
dressed a letter to the Earl of Auckland, exposing the
circumstances under which Sir James Graham most un-
advisedly and injuriously separated the Coast guard
service from the Admiralty department, and the gallant
officer has ever been the consistent advocate for a naval
board, to have under its immediate control and direction
all matters a ppertaining to the naval service. Rear-
Admiral Berkeley has shown what his friend Captain
(now Rear-Admiral) Mingaye, when in command of the
coast blockade, did towards manning the navy, and we
believe that he has some wound practical moans of grap-
pling with the monster question at the present moment.
The gallant admiral only wants the money, and he will
soon find the men.
The whole secret lies in a nut-shell, and the kernel is
"quid pro quo."

The heads of the naval department, the captains and.
PORTSMOUTH, WEDNESDLY.
the commanders in commission, dined with the Board of
Admiralty, at the George Hotel, last evening.
Soon after breakfast, this morning, the Admiralty (with
the exception of the Surveyor of the Navy, Sir Baldwin
W. Walker, who wont to the dockyard) proceeded over
to Gosport, to the Royal Clarence Victuallieg-yard, and
were received by Captain Superintendent Hope Johnston
and the master-attendant, Mr. Davies, and the Admiralty
flag was hoisted. A tour of the yard was made, the
victualling store provisions, the bakery, and mill were
visited. At about eleven o'clock, the inspection being
over, the Admiralty proceeded with Captain Superinten-
dent Hope Johnston to the R0y:...1 Hospital, at Haslar,
whore about two hours and a half were consumed in
visiting the wards, the insane establishment, &c. They
left llaslar at two p.m., and proceeded to the Marine
barracks at Forton, where they were received by Colonel
eery of that corps. The marines wore under arms, and
Commandant Menzies, K.H., and the whole of the offi-
the barracks inspected. At about four o'clock the Ad-
miralty re-crossed the harbour, and cursorily inspected
the Royal Marine Artillery barracks and hospital. Their
lordships and board will dine this evening with the port
admiral, Sir Thomas Briggs, K.C.8., where a party of
twenty-four are invited to meet them in the evening.
They will attend the ball in aid of the Seamen and Ma-
rines' Orphan School, at the King's Rooms, whets all the
elite and fashionables of this locality will attend.
Lieutenant Ingram, R.N., of the Neptune, has been in
attendance with the Admiralty barge, but his services
have not been required. The weather was more favour-
able to-day, but tne morning threatened, and his Grace
and party crossed by the floating bridge to Gosport in
coaches.

The wind began to rise &bout 10 a.m., and by one
p.m., it blew with excessive violence, accompanied by
heavy torrents of rain, which shifted to the south-west,
and gradually subsided, and by four p.m. it s% as a dead
calm. The ships in harbour and at Spithead struck their
lower yards and topmast and bent topgallant-mast ou
deck, and all rode out the gale with safety.
The board leave to-morrow for London.

WOOLWICH, OcT. 27.
The Imperious°, 50, screw steam-ship, having had the
whole of her boilers put in under the shears in the
outer basin, was taken into the inner basin to-day
to have her machinery put on board, and the Terri-
ble, steam-frigato, was taken under the shears in the
outer basin, to have her old boilers taken out and
now boilers substituted. Lieutenant David Miller,
first-lieutenant of this frigate when she was paid
off during the present month, served afloat upwards
of 12 years, and more than 11 years of that period
as first and gunnery-lieutenant. Lieutenant Miller ob-
tained his commission at the Royal Naval College, in
June, 1840, having previously obtained the first medal
at that college in 1833. Ho served as gunnery-lieutenant
in the Rodney, from July, 1840, to October, 1843; in
the Vestal from November, 1843, to July, 1847; the
latter half of the commission as first-lieutenant, and paid
off that vessel; in the Amphion, steam frigate, from
October, 1847, to October, 1848, and was then paid off;
in the Terrible, as first-lieutenant from November, 1849,
to October, 1852, until she was paid off.
There were about 60 workmen placed on the Royal
Albert, 120, yesterday, and the stern posts for the screw-
propellers will be put up in her present position. The
engines are said to be nominally of 400-horse power, but
guaranteed to work up to 1,000-horse power.

Commander Henry Gage Morris (1846), who was for-
merly commander and acting captain of the Cambrian,
36, in the East Indies, has been appointed to the com-
mand of the Hydra, 6, steam-sloop, at the Cape, vice
Belgrave, invalided, and superseding Lieut. Gordon, now
acting-commander.
Second-Master Henry M'Ausland, (1843), who has
served for many years as acting-master, and served as
such in the Roynard, 10, screw-sloop, in China, has
been promoted to the rank of master.
THE CHANNEL ►SQUADRON.—Prince Regent, 90,
Captain Hulton, with the flag of Rear Admiral Corry,
and the Indefatigable, 50, Captain Stuart, arrived in
Plymouth Sound on Tuesday afternoon, from Queens-
town. The Rodney, 92, Captain Graham, C. 13., arrived
subsequently. There are no orders yet for paying off
the Indefatigable ; but we trust that her crew will man
tho Imperieuse, 50-gun screw-ship.
Doe, 4, steam-transport, Lieut. Commander G. T. C.
Smith, takes out from Dovonport to the Cape orders for
the Sty; 6, steam-sloop, Commander Hall, to proceed to
Rangoon, to be under the orders of the commander. in-
chief there.

HamoGse,lighter, Wood master, arrived at Devonport
on Tuesday morning from Queenstown.
Linnet, 6, Commander Need, has been taken out of
No. 5 dock, Devonport, and the Kestrel, brigantine, has
been taken in the same tide to be broken up.
Sappho, 12, Commander the lion. A. Cochrane,
ordered to be paid off at Chatham, without any of her
bulkheads or other internal fittings being disturbed has
arrived at that port.
Ocean, 80, ordered to be taken to pieces, is to be fitted
at Chatham as a coal depot for Sheerness.
Tartarus, steam-vessel, Lieut. Commander, A. Risk,
making good defects at Chatham, will be out of the
hands of the dock) and tho end of this week, and be ready
for sea by the Ist of November.

THE BIRMINGHAM CORPORATION AND THE LATE
DUKE OF WELLINGTON.—At a meeting of the Town
Council of Birmingham, held on Tuesday,it was resolved
that it Was not desirable to take part in the funeral cere-
monies of the illustrious deceased, but that the inhabi-
tants be requested to close their shops on the day of the
interment. This was urged on the score of economy!
FRENCH THEATttlzs.—The Revue des Theatres gives
as follows the general receipts of the theatres, concerts,
arol other places of public amusement In Paris during
September:—Theatres receiving subventions, 220,110 fr.
49,-..; secondary theatres, 597.862 t!, 68e.; concerts, balls,
&e., 70,3411 r. 57c; sundry places of amusement, 17,5726.
of 240,090 fr. 27e. in the receipts of the theatres, and a
70e ; making a total of 905,88711..440., being an increase
decrease of 54,656 fr. 83c. in those of the concerts and
other places, as compared with the previous month.

"ADJUSTMENT" OF THE LUSH
CHURCH QUESTION.

Mr. John Bright's journey to Ireland has not, after
all, been barren of results. The hon. gentleman has
now fairly token the Irish Church question into his
keeping, and in his capacity of custodien has issued a
long, but clover manifesto, setting forth his views and
plans for the establishment of perfect "religious
equality" among the Queen's troublesome liege sub•
jects in Ireland. Toe document runs to an unrea-
sonable length bat, tilking into account the position
Mr. Bright holds, as one of the chiefs of a great and
influential section of his countrymen, it is, perhaps,
but right that they should be put in full possession of
his sentiments upon a subject which engrosses so
much of public attention at both sides of the Channel.
The " manifesto," which appears i❑ the Freeman of
yesterday morning, is therefore subjoined in its whole
integrity :
"My dear Dr. Gray,—l observe from the newspapers
that the friends of religious equality' in Ireland are
about to hold a conference in the city of Dublin, with a
view to consider the existing ecclesiastical arrangements
of your country. My engagements will not permit me
to be present at your deliberations, and, indeed, I am
not sure that your invitations extend further than to
Irishmen and Irish representatives; but I feel strongly
disposed to address you on the great question you are
about to discuss—a question affecting the policy and in-
terests of the United Kingdom, but of vital importance to
Ireland.

"Let me say, in the first place, that I am heartily glad
that any number of the Irish representatives should have
resolved to grapple with a question which, in my opinion,
must be settled on some just basis, if Ireland is ever to be
tranquil and oontent. Tho ease of the Catholic popula-
tion of Ireland, and, in truth, it is scarcely more their
case than that of every intelligent and just Protestant
in the three kingdoms, is so strong, so unanswerable,
and so generally admitted, that nothing is wanting to
insure its complete success bat the combination of a few
able and honest men to concentrate and direct the
opinion which exists. If such men are to be found
among you—resolute, persevering, and disinterested
—a great work is before them, and as certainly a
great result. They will meet with insult and calumny in
abundance; every engine of the' supremacy' party willbe
in motion against them; they will be denounced as con-
spirators' against the institutions of the country, when,
in fact, they combine only against a grievance which it
is hard to say whether it is more humiliating in Ireland
to endure, or disgraceful in England to inflict; but
against all this, having a right cause, and working it by
right means, they will certainly succeed.
"It would be to insult your understanding were I to
imagine that you demand anything more or less than a
perfect equality' before the law for the religious sects
which exist in Ireland—that is, for the members or ad-
herents of the Protestant Episcopalian, the Presbyterian,
and the Roman Catholic Churches. So entirely is it
felt, that you are in the right in making this demand,
that, with regard to it, your opponents dare not attempt
an argument with you; they prefer to say that you
claim something else—namely a supremacy as hateful
as their own, and then they find it easy to contest the
matter with you, writing and speaking, as they do,
chiefly to a Protestant audienv. On this point there
should be no possibility of mistake; and not only should
the demand for ' equality' be unequivocal, but it appears
to me mast desirable that some mode of attaining it
should bo distinctly pointed out. We may, perhaps,
imagine an equality' which would allow the Protestant
establishineet to remain as it is, or, at least, to con•
tinue to be a State Church, building up at its side a
Catholic establishment; and, to complete the scheme, a
Presbyterian establishment also, having a batch of
Catholic prelates and of Presbyterian divines in the
!louse of Lords; but, in my opinion, any scheme of
equality' of this description would be, and must neces-
sarily be, altogether impracticable. Lord John Russell,
I think in 1843, expressed an opinion that the Protes-
tant Church in Ireland should not be subverted, but
that the Roman Catholic Church, with its bishops and
clergy, should be placed by the State on a footing of
equality with that Church.' Ile adopted the term
' equality,' and said that any plan ho should propose
would be to follow out that principle of equality, with
all its consequences.' Lord Grey, in 1845, was, if pos-
sible, still more explicit, for he said, after expressing his
opinion that the Catholics have the first claim' on the
funds applied to ecclesiastical purposes in Ireland, you
must give the Catholic clergy an equality also in social
rank and position;' and he went even further than this,
and said, 'I carry my view on this subject so far as to
wish to see the prelates of the Roman Catholic Church
take their places in this house on the episcopal b -n: h.'
From this, it appears that Lord John Russell and Lord
Grey, seeing the enormous evil of the existing system.
were ready to justify almost any measure that promised
political and ecclesiastical equality to the Irish Clenches;
but they wished that equality to be obtained without the
subversion of the Protestant Established Church in Ire-
land. Of course, if all patties among the statesmen
and the public of the United Kingdom were ogre, d,
funds might be provided for the perpetual endowment
and subjection to State control of the Irish Catholic and
Presbyterian Churches, and some plan might be devised
to secure them a representation in the Rouse of Lords;
but, happily for sound principles in civil government,
and happily for religion itself, all parties are not agreed
to do this, but are rather agreed that it shall not be done.
The 'equality which Lard John Russell would follow
out with ail its consequences' is a dream, and Lord
Grey's bold idea of giving the Irish Catholics the first
claim to the funds,' and of placing their bishops in the
House of Lords, is not less impracticable. To have two
established churches in Ireland, the one Protestant and
the other Catholic; to have in the House of Lords Pro-
testant and Catholic bishops, elbowing each other on the
right reverend bench,' guarding the temporal and spiri-
tual interests of two churches which denounce each other
as idolatrous or heretical, would be an inconsistency so
glaring, that it would go far to overthrow all reverence
for governments and churches, if net for Christianity it-
self. The scheme is surely too absurd to be seriously
thought of, and if there be a statesman bold enough to
propose it, he will find no support in the opinion of the
English public, except from that small section with
whom religion goes for nothing, and churches and priests
are tolerated as machinery in the pay and service of the
Government.

" But there is an equality' which is attainable with
out inconsistency, which would meet with favour among
large classes in every part of Great Britain, and which,
I think, if fairly proposed, would be well rec: ived by
many of the mere enlightened and just Protestants in
Ireland. It is an equality' which must start from this
point, that henceforth there must be no church iu Ireland
in connexion with the State. The whole body of En-
glish Dissenters, the United Presbyterian Church of
Scotland, and the Catholic population of the United
Kingdom might be expected cordially to welcome such
a proposition ; and it is difficult to understand how the
Presbyterians of the north of Ireland, or the Free Church
of Scotland, or the adherents of the Wesleyau Con-
ference in England, could, with any consistency or de-
cency, oppose it; and I am confident that a large number
of persons connected with the established churches in
the three kingdoms, who aro enlightened enough to see
what is right, and just enough to wish it to be done,
would give their support to any Minister who had the
courage to make such a measure the great distinguishing
act of his administration. But, if this principle were
adopted—that is, the principle that henceforth there must
be no church in Ireland in connexion with the State,
there would still be a question as to the appropriation of
the largo funds now in the hands of the Irish Established
Church. There are two modes of dealing with these funds,
either of which may be defended, but one of them seems to
offer facilities which do not belong to the other. The
most simple plan would be to absorb the revenues of
the Established Church as the livings become vacant, and
to apply them in some channel not ecclesiastical, in
which the whole population of Ireland could participate.
The objections to this plan are, that it would be hard
upon the Protestant Episcopalians, after having pam-
pered them so long with a munificent support, to throw
them all at once on their own resources, and that to
withdraw the Regium Donum from the Presbyterians of
the north, when they have no other provision raid
i ° for
their religious wants, would be to create a ,just discon-
tent among them. There is some force in this, inasmuch
as upon one generation would be thrown the
.burden
of the creation and support of a religious organisation
which, in voluntary churches, is commonly the work of
successive generations of their adherents,
it and the argu-
ment may bo considered irresistible whenis offered to
a Government which does not repudiate, but rather che-
rishes, the principle of a State Church. But, whatever
may be the inconvenience of this plan, they are, in my
estimation, infinitely less than those which are insepa-
rable from a continuance of the present system.
" There is, however, another mode
of settlement,
which, though open to some objection, is probably
more likely to obtain a general concurrence of opinion in
its favour in Ireland, and to which, I think, a great
amount of consent might be oobtained ed in England and
Scotland. Your present ecclesiastical arrangenaenas are
briefly these :—The Protestant
.Episcopal Church has
500,0001 per annum intrusted to it, or a principal sum,
at 20 years' purchase, of 10,000,0001. sterling, The
Presbyterian Church or churches have 40.0001. per
annum, or, estimated at the same rate, a principal sum
each
r di s
pChurch,u
te
abo u t for
figures, I
sufficient et
i o e
ngt t o
e
i v
of 500,000/. The Roman Catholic Church has 26,0001.
per annum, or a principal sum 0f..520,000/. I will say
nothing about the exact proportions of population be-
say, what everybody knows to bo true, that the Irish
population is Catholic, end that the Protestants, whe-
ther of the Episcopalian or of the Presbyterian Church,
or of both united, are a small minority of the Irish
people. I will admit the temporary hardship of at once
loopnpgoi
withdrawing from the Protestant sects all the resources
rntgunittoy for
which the State has hitherto provided for them; but, al
the same time, no one can deny, and I cannot forget, the
hard.hip to which the Catholics have been subjected,
inasmuch as that they, the pooreet portion of the people,
and by many times the most numerous, have been shut
out from almost all participation in the public funds
applied to ecclesiastical purposes in Ireland. Is it not.
possible to make an arrangement by which the menaced
hardship to the Protestants may be avoided, and that so
Deng endured by the Catholics, in part, at least, re-

drczsed? And cau this ba done without departing from

the principle, that henceforth there mast be no Church
;ti Ireland in connexion with the Sate?" _

" Let au act be passed to establish a ' Church Pro-
perty Commismion' for Ireland, and let this commission
hold in rut,t, for certain purposes, all the tithes and other
property now enjoyed by the E tablished Church ; lit it,
in fae:., bccome possessed of the 10,000,000/. sterling,
the income from which now forms the revenues of that

church, as the hringi and benefices become vacant. It
would be desirable to c ff-ir facilities to the landed pro
priotors to purchase the tithes at an easy rate, in order
that lungs might be in hand to carry cnt the ottier
arrangements of the scheme. I have estimated the to:al
value at 10,000 0001.; it might not reach that sum if the
tithes were sold at a low rate ; but, whether it were
10.000,0001. or only 8,000,0001., would not affect the
practicability or the justice of this proposition. Let this
commission be empowered and direct, d to appropriate
certain portions of this fund as a free gift to each of the
three churches in Ireland—to the Prctostnnt Episcopa-
lian, the Prespyterian, and the Roman Catholic Church.
Whatever is thus given must be a free gift, and become
as much the private property of the respective sects or
churches as is the property of the Free Church in
Scotland, or that of the Wesleyan Methodists hi Eng-
land. It must no longer be a trust from the State,
liable to interference or recall by the State, or the
`equality' and independence of the Irish sects will not
be secured.

" There comes now the luestion of the amounts to be
thus given. From some inquiries I have made I have
arrived at the conclusion that if in each parish in Ireland
there was a house and a small piece of land, say from
10 to 20 acres, in the possession of the Catholic Church,
that would be all the provision that would be required
or wished for, as the general support of its ministers
would be derived, as at present, from the voluntary con-
tributions of their flocks. There are in round numbers
about 1,000 parishes in Ireland. In many of them there
is now a provisi.n up to the standard above stated in the
possession of the Catholic Church, but I will assume
that in all of them such provision would have to be made.
1,000/. for each parish, taking one parish with another,
would simply make up any deficiency, and this amount
throughout the parishes of Ireland would require the
sum of 1,000,0001. sterling to be appropriated from the
general fund; and this should be made over absolutely
and for ever to the Catholics of Ireland, in such hands

flk-1 in such manner as tho funds of theii. church (1

by voluntary effort are usually secured. Under an ar-
rangement of thit kind, of course, the special grant to
the College of Maynooth would be withdrawn.
" The Presbyterians under the operation of this act
would lose their annual grant of 40,0001. per annum; but
in place of it, assuming that they have an organization
and a system of government which would enable them to
hold and administer funds for the use of their church, a
portion of the general fund should be set apart for them,
equal to the production of a revenue of like amount with
that they now receive by grant from Parliament. This
should also be given to them absolutely and for ever, and
they should become henceforth a voluntary and inde-
pendent church.
" 'rho Protestant Episcopalians should be treated as
liberally as the Presbyterians, with whom, it is estimated
they are about on a par in point of numbers. Assuming
that they could and would form themselves into a free
episcopal church, the commission would be empowered to
grant them a sum equal to that granted to the Presbyte-
rian-, and which would be about the same in amount as
that granted to the Catholics. And further, so long as
they undertook to keep the churches in repair, they
might bo permitted to retain possession of them at a
nominal rent, for their own use only ; and that when or
where they had no congregation sufficient to maintain
the church, thee the buildings should be at the disposal
of the commission to let or sell. as might be thought
best. In the case of the Protestant Episcopalians, as with
the Presbyterians and the Catholics, whatever sum is
given to them must bo given absolutely and for over, that
thenceforth they may rely on their own resources and
become a voluntary and independent Church. Tho
State would thus have distributed about three millions
of the original fund, and would have relinquished all
claims upon it for ever ; and it would be the duty of the
Commission to take care that those grants were applied,
in the first instance, for the purposes and in tho manner
intended by the act. Tho remaining five or seven
millions, as tho case might be, might, and in my opinion
ought, to be reserved for purposes strictly Irish, and
directed to the educational and moral improvement of
the people, without respect to class or creed This fund
would extend and perfect the educational institutions of
the country; it would establish and endow free libraries
in all the chief towns of Ireland, and would dispense
blessings in many channels for too free and equal en-
joyment of the whole population.
Of course there will be objections started to this
scheme, as there will be to any scheme which attempts
to remedy an injustice which has Jested for centuries.
The • Church party' may, and probably will, de-
nounce it as a plan of spoliation most cruel and un •
holy; but no men who proposes to remedy Irish
ecclesiastical wrongs can expect to find favour with
the sect whose supremacy he is compelled to as-
sail. We must hope that State patronage has not
so entirely demoralized the members of the Pro-
testant Episcopalian sect, either in England or Ire-
land, as to leave none among them who are able to
see what is just on this question, and who are willing
that what is just should be done. I believe there are
many intelligent and earnest Churchmen and some emi-
nent politicians connected with the Established Church,
who would welcome almost any proposition which af-
forded a hope of a final settlement of this question.
From Scotland, and probably from certain quarters in
England, we may hear of the great crime of handing
over a millions sterling to the Roman Catholics of Ire-
land. It will, perhaps, be insisted upon that to add to
the means of a church whose teaching is held to be `er-
roneous' is a grievous national sin; and many will
honestly doubt the wisdom of a scheme which proposes
such an appropriation of a portion of a great public fund.
Now, there is not a man in the United Kingdom more
averse to religious endowments by the State than I am.
I object to the compulsory levying of a tax from any
man to teach any religion, and still more to teach a reli
giou in which ho does not believe; and I am of opinion
that, to take a church into the pay of the State, and to
place it under the control of the State, is to deaden and
corrupt the church, and to enlist its influence on the
side of all that is evil in the civil government.
But in the plan now suggested, the Irish sects or
churches would be loft entirely free, as is the Free
Church in Scotland, or the Wesleyan Methodist Church
in Eugland. The grants once made, each church would
possess absolutely its own funds, just as much as if they
were the accumulations of the voluntary contributions
and liberality of past generations of its members, and
thus would be avoided the damage to religion and to
civil government which is inseparable from what is called
the union of Church and State; whilst the sum granted
to each church, being equal to a provision of about
40,0001. per annum, would be too small to create any im-
portant corporate influence adverse to the public interest.
" As to the complaint that the sum of one million is
proposed to be given to the Irish Catholics, I will ask
tiny man with a head to comprehend and a heart to feel
to read the history of Ireland, not from the time of
Henry VIII., but from the accession of William 111., and
it he insists upon a settlement of this question by grants
to the Protestant sects, and by the refusal of any corres-
ponding grant to the Roman Catholics, I can only say
that his statesmanship is as wanting in wisdom as
his Protestantism lacks the spirit of Christianity.
If, for generations, a portion of the Protestants of Ire-
land, few in number but possessing much wealth, have
enjoyed the large ecclesiastical revenues of a whole
kingdom ; and if, during the same period, the Ronean
Catholics, the bulk of the population, but possessing
little wealth, have been thrown erstirely on their own
limited resources, and under circumstances of political
and social inferiority, can it be possible, when an at-
tempt shall be made to remedy some of the manifold in-
justice of past times, that any Englishman or any
Scotehman will be found to complain of the impartiality
of the Government, and, in his zeal for Protestantism,
to forget the simple obligations of justice 1 But it may
be objected that it is contrary to sound policy to make
grants of public money to any public body, or corpora-
tion, or sect, not submitting to State control—that, in
fact, a church receiving anything from the State should
be a State church. No one is more sensible of the
weight and soundness of this argument than I am ; but
observe the peculiarities of this case. I start from the
point that " henceforth there shall be no church in Ire..
land in connexion with the State." I have to free the
Protestant Episcopalian sect and the Presbyterians from
their State connexion, and to make the Irish sects volun-
tary churches for the future, I propose an appropriation
of about ono-third of existing ecclesiastical property n
Ireland, with a view to soften the apparent severity of
'
the change to the sects heretofore paid by the State, and
to make some amends to that majority of the Irish
population, the injustice of' whose
post treatment is
admitted by all the world. The Prot:tants
have done hitherto little for them
elves, because the
bounty of the State has paralysedCatholics their exertions, or
have done
made exertions unnecessary. The
much for themselves; but they
are in great poverty, and
has been felt, and
our existing legislationecclesiastics unjust. Would it
is now felt by them, to be
grievously the sum I have suggested,
not be worth the concession ofropriauoin
oblate tho grand restwhich ' t co-
ntemplatedlreland.asThemoansci-
rcumstanced by the chang
s
will be objections •
" I have amid that there to this
every scheme. The grievance is
but altogether novel in that unhappy country
cen-
turies old, and around it are entwined interests, preju-
dices,l
and impartial justice to her whole popula-
asenhdemofe,thsenddetvoiation from ordinaryrule which I venture
fanaticism, animosities, and convictions. It is a
evil, and whoever waits till the remedy is
tt
oh e tranquillity
tuhi lel i tly)
desperate
pleasant to everybody, may and will wait for over. The
o
eutestanced as they are now, with this exception, that all
future extension of their organization must be made at
their own cost ; and I would place the Protestant E is-
evalians in as good a position Presbyterians.
The the Presbyterians.
The Catholics only could have any ground of complaint,
owing to their numbers so far exceeding those of the
Protestant sects; but in the application of the remainder,
end much the largest portion of the funds, for educa-
tional jotnoe.scidti
simple,
full
view
propose
es
or other purposes, they would participate exactly
in proportion to their numbers; and I have a strong bo-