The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-17 00:00:00

SUN,

but I felt persuaded that it would not be for the advan-
tage of religion that such a proposal should be made,
until after all the resources of the Church, which could
properly be rendered available for the purpose, had been
applied to it. I felt also persuaded that the appropria-
tion of those resources, with the willing consent of the
Church, to such objects as the-augmentation of poor
benefices, the establishment of new ecclesiastical dis-
tricts, and the general improvement of pastoral super-
intendence in very populous parishes, would not only
increase the local efficiency of the Establishment, but
would tend to confirm its hold on the respect and attach-
ment of the people.
It was for such purposes that, with the willing consent
of the Church, I proposed, in the year 1843, a Bill,
which passed into law, for making better provision for
the spiritual care of populous parishes in England and
'Wales. Under that law there have been constituted, and
agreed to be constituted, 218 ecclesiastical districts and
new parishes; and spiritual instruction and pastoral su-
perintendence will thus have been provided for a popu-
lation of above 764,000 souls. I oppose this fact to the
charge of indifference or hostility to the welfare of the
Church.

I certainly did not think it inconsistent with the true
interests of the Church, in cases wherein I deemed the
claim a just one, to protect the rights, and to consult
the feelings and wishes of those who dissent from its
doctrines.

With these impressions, I gave m 7 support to mea-
sures for quieting the titles to Diisenting places of wor-
ship, and for repealing many penal statutes in matters of
religion, obsolete so far as their practical operation is
concerned, but at variance with the mild spirit of modern
legislation, and giving gratuitous offence by implying
suspicion and distrust, without offering the slightest re-
medy against any apprehended danger.
With these impressions also, while cordially approving
of the proposal of her Majesty7s present Government tq..
extend the system of public instrr ction in this part of the.
United Kin_gdom, I exprosseg opinion that it ought
sufficiently-to bsufficiently-comprehensive to include the childrqt;
of Roman Catholic parents. • .
During the period to which I am referring, the state or
Ireland (that fruitful source of constantly recurring
puand-
painful discussion), was repeatedly forced upon the consi-
deration of Parliament. I shall, in this address, advert
opinions and afnredmptlheodsgeeswahree
only to the topics in connexion with Irish affairs which
have excited the chief interest in this part of the em-
npeirwe,
daenmdaninderdesbreycmt
stony constituencies
are candidates for their favour.

I will preface the observations I have to make on this
most important subject by a:quotation from the writings of
that eminent man whom posterity will regard as the
most eloquent of the orators and the most profpnd of
the philosophic statesmen of modern times. w
It is now fifty years since Mr. Burke, in a letter ad-
dressed to his_ son, placed upon record the following
opinions:—

ihnavci
controversies,
ovnelyrsie a s,
common leading
" Being myself," he says, " no more than a common
only layman
av commonlyerycommon
linformedlife,
and
citizen's interest in the Church or in the State, yet to
you I will say, in justice to my own sentiments, that not
one of those zealots for a Protestant interest wishes more
sincerely than I do, perhaps not half so sincerely, for
the support of the Established Church in both these
kingdoms. It is a great link towards holding fast the
connexion of religion with the State, and for keeping
these two islands, in their present critical independence
of constitution, in a close connexion of opinion and
affection. I wish it well, as the religion of the greater
number of the primary land proprietors of the kingdom,
with whom all establishments of Church and State, for
strong political reasons, ought in my opinion to be
firmly connected. I wish it well, because it is more closely
combined than any other of the Church systems, with
the Crown, which is the stay of the mixed con-
stitution, because it is, as things now stand, the sole
connecting political principle between the constitu-
tions of the two independent kingdoms. I have another
and infinitely a stronger reason for wishing it well; it is,
that in the present time I consider it as one of the main
pillars of the Christian religion itself. The body and
substance of every religion I regard much more than any
of the forms and dogmas of the particular sects. Its
fall would leave a great void, which nothing else, of
which I can form any distinct idea, might fill. I respect
the Catholic hierarchy, and the Presbyterian republic.
But I know that the hope or the fear of establishing
either of them is, in these kingdoms, equally chimerical,
even if preferred one or the other of them to the Esta-
blishment, which I certainly do not.
"These are some of my reasons for wishing the sup-
port of the Church of Ireland, as by law established.
These reasons are founded as well on the absolute as on
the relative situation of that kingdom."
To the reasons thus adduced by Mr. Burke for the
support of the Church in Ireland, must be now added
the weight and authority of that compactoguaranteeing
its maintenance, to which, at the time of the Legislative
Union, the Parliaments of the two kingdoms were con-
senting parties. _

In a subsequent part of the same letter 111,. Burke
proceeds to observe:--
" Ireland has an establishei Government, and a reli-
gion legally established, which are to be preserved. It
has a people who are to be preserved too, and to be led
by reason, principle, sentiment, and interest to acquiesce
in that Government. Ireland is a country under peculiar
circumstances. The people of Ireland are a very mixed
people, and the quantities of the several ingredients in
the mixture are very much disproportioned to each other.
Are we to govern this mixed body as if it were composed
of the most simple elements, comprehending the whole
in one system of benevolent legislation ; or are we not
rather to provide for the several parts according to the
vurious and diversified necessities of the heterogeneous
nature of the mass? Would not common reason and
common honesty dictate to us the nolicy of regulating
the people in the several descriptions, of which they are
society, under a common protecting composed, according to the natural ranks and classes of
an orderly civil so
So-
vereign, and under a form of constitution favourable at
once to authority and to freedom, such as the British
Constitution boasts to be, and such as it is, to those who
now enjoy it?
" You have an ecclesiastical establishment, which,
though the religion of the Prince, and of most of the first
class of landed proprietors, is not the religion of the
major part of the inhabitants, and
which, consequently,
does not answer to thenany one purpose of a religious
establishment. This is a state of things which no man
in his senses can call perfectly happy ; but it is the
state of Ireland."

It was with reference to that state of Ireland, and with
ct °at
ed sdvuebroughterhte considerationsldo
w ,ur e,
auf sre
hreneeoonnbc
precedentnae
eartah na yftotrohlll o.eGrrdapramaesrretntaohres
of the
tes towithu
King-
dom, but are specially whichewit'elwidehhici consti-
tuteet Mhn grl
con-
dition and structure of society in Ireland.
. Some of those measures encountered vehement opposi-
tion; the more formidable, because it was offered much
less applicable to the peculiar
less from party or purely political considerations, than
bound to avow, that I look b
from sincere conscientious scrupack with cordial les. But, Gentlemen, I
am
satis-
faction to the part which I took in support of those mea-
sures, and to the spirit in which they were conceived. It
was a spirit of justice and kindness towards our Roman
Catholic fellow-subjects in Ireland—a
spirit which will,
I trust, animate our future legislation with reference to
that country. It is strongly recommended to us by many
powerful considerations, by painful recollection of our
h
relations with Ireland in earlier periods of our history—
by sympathy with her present sufferings—by the
urgent necesssty, not more for her welfare than ouof r ower
n,
to improve the condition, moral and physical,
to your -
people.
I will not be deterred, by the risk of provoking new,
or reviving dormant hostility, from reci!lling
re-
collection the general character and object of the measures to which I have adverted.
In the first place, we altered the law in respect to Cha-
ritablemanag
eDonationssuch
hd
donationsßequests and bequests, of whom in Ireland. We enabled
the Crown to appoint Commissioners for the better
one-half in number must necessarily be persons profes-
sing the Roman Catholic faith. For the exclusive con-
sideration of the Roman Catholic Commissioners were
reserved all questions relating to bequests which con-
cerned the usages or discipline of the Church of Rome.
We gave full power to all persons and bodies corporate,
by deed or by will, to give estates or property of any
description, in trust, for the building or upholding of
Roman Catholic places of worship, or for the mainte-
nance of any person in holy orders of the Church of
Rome having pastoral superintendence of a con-
gregation.
We enabled her Majesty to endow new colleges for the
advancement of learning in Ireland. We gave every
facility to the students in those colleges for receiving
, excepting with
religious instruction according to the creed.. which they
might profess, and for attendance. on divine worship at
; and we pro-
hibitedthe church or chapel which should be approved by their
parents and guardians. We at the same time provided
that there should be no obligation to attend any theo-
logical
approbationlecture
andinsgtrauacrt;na s
°gout ha qua.
lification for the admission of students, or for the tenure
of an office, or the enjoyment of any privilege or advan-
tage in connexion with the new colleges.
111., and by the advice of Mr. Pitt, at. a period of greatg
increasedegrant
was
originally
ignrazt
mfoard teh e..in Collegeth e re
iogfn 0 f
national peril, " when, to guard this empire and Ire-
land in particular, from the enterprises of a
.dangerous
and malignant power, and to protect
King
civilised society
from the inroads of anarchy, the King found it neces-
sary to avail himself of every rational. aid, ;foreign and
domestic, and to call upon the skill, courage, expo.and
rience of all his subjects, wheresoever dispersed,"
It was at such a crisis, and under such circumstances.
that am Irish Parliament, exclusively Protestant
character, established the College of Maynooth, in its
re-
ceived from the Throne congratulations .. on havinglnd_ laid
a wise foundation for educating at home the Roman Ca-
tholic clergy."
Fifty years had elapsed in 1845 since those
ongr
tulatioi were offered. For fifty of years a grant c tt-
mpublic
money had been annually continued for the avowed
pose of aiding the education of Roman Catholic pup.
youth in
Roman Oatholio doctrines, and fitting them for holy or-
ders in the Church of Rome. We considered that there
was, at any rate, no new violation
of religious
in making that grant less inadequate to the principle
purpose for