The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-01 00:00:00

INCOME TAX.

Sir F. KELLY asked the hon. member for Montrose
when he proposed proceeding with his motion for th•
appointment of a committee on the income tax ?
Mr. HUME said he had abandoned all attempts to
improve the income tax. (A laugh.) He was obliged to
accept the Government bill as it was, not seeing any
hope of amending it.

CUSTOMS RESOLUTIONS.
The orders of the day having been postponed pro
forma, on the motion of the CHANCELLOR of the
EXCHEQUER, the report upon the Customs Resolu-
tions was agreed to.
ECCLESIASTICAL REVENUES OF IRELAND.
Mr. G. H. MOORE rose to move for a select com-
mittee to inquire into the ecclesiastical revenues of Ire-
land, with the view of ascertaining how far they are made
applicable to the benefit of the Irish people. No ques-
tion had been forced so much upon the attention of Par-
liament as this, and he believed none but Englishmen
would allow themselves to be bored with Irish grievances
simply to gratify a feeling of obstinacy. It was very
popular with some people to represent the Irish Roman
Catholic population of Ireland as exceedingly loyal ; but
those who made such representations were grossly de-
ceived if they believed them. The fact was, the Roman
Catholic population of Ireland were discontented with
the present state of ecclesiastical affairs in Ireland ; and
if an American fleet were to attack the shores of Ire-

land, he believed its success would be hailed with joy
by the Irish people. Now, it was for the ex-
press purpose of removing this bad feeling that
lie now proposed this motion. Ireland, in a time of war,
had rendered this country good service, and the period
might arrive when the aid of her sons would again be
required by the Crown. It was, therefore, of the utmost
importance that the feeling of discontent that now
prevailed in Ireland on ecclesiastical matters should
be removed, if it could. possibly be done.
There was a wide difference between the situ-
ation of England and Ireland. In the former the
Church of the majority was closely iterwoven with
the State. It was distinctly represented in one branch
of the Legislature, while the Sovereign had sworn to
protect and cherish it. Not so in Ireland. There the
revenues of the Church were grossly misappropriated.
The majority were sacrificed for the sake of keeping up
the religious intolerance of the minority, and the con-
sequence was that there was no such thing known in
Ireland as ecclesiastical equality. Hence the discontent
to which he had referred in the opening of his address.
If the grievances of which the people of that country
complained were not redressed, the noble lord the loader
of that house was himself of opinion that the union could
not be maintained. The right hon. gentleman the leader
of the opposition was also of opinion that it was most
injudicious to ask for an identity of institutions for Eng-
land and Ireland, because the people of that country
disapproved of the union between the Church and State.
to be immediately and satisfactorily settled. Both of
He was also of opinion that the Churchr
greecideau con-
demnationetisitliaoutnhtheoourigthyt,
.ueen's Bench, had
PPel.A.nlreodtiaclaef
those high authorities, it a
Ireland was the
thesaid
Chiefthat Justicethis
oa nf
Established o l
Court Church u
ro
of h
greatest mischief in existence—that 111 t was so considered
now, and would be considered so byl prosperity ; and it
Lnoortasheohcakne
was only because their lordslaair
.thwere familiar with it
Chancellor 1 nature. The noble
tlhoradt, theyform
wereerly
r of England, was of the
same opinion, and one of the greatest political writers of
the day—Mr. Macaulay--said
that the Established
Church of Ireland was
and ought to a bad--a very bad institution,
be abolished. If all these highpolitical
and legal authorities did not justify the Irish li
demanding an inquiry into this question, the P:uophet alli
to be shut up in Bedlam, and the hon. member for forgNorth
Warwickshire appointed First Minister of the Crown.
Let them for a moment consider what were the facts of
this question. The Church revenues of Ireland were a
property, in themselves, set apart for a public purpose ;
they were held under a sacred trust for sacred purposes,
and it was the duty of the state to see that they were
not diverted from those purposes. He was not going to
say that because these funds were so appropriated in
be
Catholic times they ought now to restored, and
applied to such purposes
leaqt that they oug h es ; but he contended at the
not to be necessarily and
'
exclusively applied to Protestant purposes. In 1731,
the Catholic population were 1,500,000 ; in
were 6,500,000; while the 1834, they
members of the Established
Church amounted to 850,000. During that period, the
generous, gulled, bigotry of Protestantism contributed
upwards of a million of money to increase the resources
of this gorged establishment. And now it was pre-