The Sun.
London, England, 1825-04-16 00:00:00

[MORNING HERALD.]

The affairs of the Church of Ireland have been
for once adverted 10, and some serious abuses
pointed out, in the House of Commons, without
any difference of opinion. The union of parishes
for the purpose of enriching the incumbent, has
long been regarded as a crying injustice. There
were few abuses that brought more odium on the
Established Church— some of the heads of
which in Ireland had already taken means for
its discontinuance. Even among the Clergy
themselves it was a subject of secret or express-
ed discontent—for the favoured pluralists must
always be a minority. The Primate, it appears,
had already discarded altogether tie granting of
faculties to hold united livings with his immediate
authority. His conduct, however, instead of
being adopted as a rule, seems to be rather an
exception. From the manner in which the sub-
ject was treated by all thUse who alluded to it,
there can be no doubt the abuse will be
checked, The evil is• just as great and the
absurdity as glaring, as non-residence. It
matters little whether the incumbent be an ab-
sentee, or be charged with a local extent of
duties to which he is incompetent. • There is
another subject to which more attention should
be given—the maintaining of parish schools by
the Established Clergy. This is the more
necessary from the outcry and alarm excited
by the Bible Society Schools. In the for-
mer schools the Catholic poor would have less
fear of proselytism, and would send their chil-
dren more freely. After recent occurrences,
it is quite obvious the Kildare street Society
schools can do no good among them. They %sere
besides, getting into disrepute with the majority
of the Irish Prelates and Clergy. The wealth of
the Church will be unenvied and inviolable, while
it is fairly distributed, and the duties anneNed
to
it worthily performed. There is a curious speech
of the celebrated Lord Faulkland, spoken by him
in the House of Commons in 1641, respecting the
abuses and perils of the Church at the iitune,i,,io
nlubito
which Episcopacy at last fell a victim. s
ascribes
e.
man, who was attached to Episcopacy,
great wealth Id the
.dev"oil'a%
its approachiug ruin to its
leLguay
indolence of the Episcopal t
says he, " peperit divitias, J"
fr ern •" lie illustrates his meaning by a homely,

but ingenious- fable. "We shall," says he,'
" find them (the higher Clergy) to have been
like the hen in .lEsop, which laying every day
an egg on such a proportion of barley, her mis-
tress increasing her proportion, in hope she
would increase her eggs, she grew so fat upon
that addition that she never laid more—so
though at first their ,preaching was the cause.
of their preferment, they after made their
prefer/pent the occasion of their not preaching."
Ap active and vigilant performance of their duties
is, for this reason and others, incumbent on the
Irish beneficed Clergy.—Exercise in this way
will prevent their wealth from becoming an in-
dolent unseemly and fatal plethora. The have,
besides, two adversaries to combat. Every body
knows that there is a c►ass of zealous Protest-
° ants studiously, though somewhat covertly,
making converts from the Establishment. On the
other hand, the Roman Catholic Priests are
strenuously bestirring themselves. With such
competitors tse Established Clergy have evident
need to be on the alert, and to be aware of oc-
cupying individually more ground tha❑ each is
reasonably competent to defend.