The Sun.
London, England, 1833-07-20 00:00:00

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it fall? In his opinion it tiotglit to be upon tfre;ll%' v.iar::;* .
he way of deduction from the tent. Well, theja, ke.yf'olol- ..
ive up the vestry cess. He would suppose trift in tr.i'lle'':
ixed upon the church, and then he would consi*lnl6li'f.'.- V
vould he the effect. There was a great difference 1kt4010.-
-he statement as to its amount, which was brought forward
by the Noble Earl in his open'ng speech the other evenine,
ind the statement made by the Rt:'ht Rev. Prelate who
•poke yesterday evening. Which of those statements was
lie truest he could not tell, lor he had not had time to ex -
mine ; but he was willing to take it upon the statement
if the Noble Earl—that he presumed was the most fa-
vouratile, and therefore he could not err. The Noble Eat I
-aid that the charge of the vestry cess was 60,0001. a year,
and that the means to meet it with, when they fell into
hand, were about 130,000/.—(Here Earl Grey made an
observation to the Most Rev. Prelate, but which was in -
tudible in the gallery.) The argument, then, which he
vas about to offer was not so strong, certainly, becaue
,vhat he was about to say was that the vestry cess would
take up more than one-third of the substituted fund ; but
even by the Noble Earl's statement it would be nearly
one-third of the fund when it came into operation.--
(Hear, hear,) But their Lordships should consider how
long it would be before this fund was realiz,d, and before
the tax would take effect--(Hear, hear.) The money
to be derived from the sales of perpetuities would come
in very slowly, and then there would be some very
heavy incumbrances to be paid off before anything else
could be effected. What funds then would there be wi,iel,
fir a number of years would be applicable to the buil ling
of churches and of glebe-houses, and for the augmentation
of cheap livings? It must be put off for an intlefinit.-
number of years.—(Hear, hear.) But in the nature of
things it must be a coercive and arbitrary tax. The only
way in which local matters could be economically managed
was by local assessments. It was only those persons -elio
had an interest to maintain a rigid economy who would,
keep down unnecessary expen•es. What was the reasor
that the vestry cess was levied upon the occupier and no'
;he owner of the land? Because lie was himself inte-
rested in the amount of the assessment, and tilt relit: e
exercised a vigilance and watchfulness over the expendi-
ture and the necessity for it. But, according to the plats
proposed, a Board sitting in Dublin was to manage the ' •
affairs of every distant church in the kingdom, howeves•
small. It was to have an annual account placed before it
of the repairs necessary to be made, and of the sums in-
quired, but of the correctness and necessity of which it
was impossible the Board could form any judgment what-
ever ; nor could they maintain any superin•endence of ti e
expenditure, except through the agency of others, who
might not always be trustworthy perhaps, and who in all
probability would add to the expenditure of the church,
which already too much exceeded its means. Then, whet
these deficiencies occurred, how were they to be made up?
Why, by additional taxation on the clergy ; for, when
these charges were once laid upon them, who could ven-
ture to say that any portion of them would ever aeairo
'be transferred upon the laity? On the clergy they muse
remain for ever—(Hear, hear)—impoverished as they al-
ready were by the reduction of tithes, by the imposition of
this tax, and of whom he might say nothing was wanting
to effect their ruin but the pones rate.—(Hear.) All the
land of the see disposed of, there would be no reserve on
which those extra charges might fall. Without going
further into this matter, but protesting against the injus-
tice either of transferring the tax from the land on to the
clergy or on the see lands, he would suppose that this
measure was carried ; what then was to be its effect ? The
effect was to be conciliation. He, for one, felt that no-
thing was more desirable than conciliation, and espe-
cially in Ireland, where so much dissension prevailed. So
far from attacking his Majesty's Ministers upon that
account, he gave them the greatest credit for endeavour-
ing to attain so great an object. If the Roman Catholics
and Protestants of Ireland could be brought to unite as
common friends, it would be a truism to say that Ireland
would then be completely happy. That was all
that Ireland wanted; but he was afraid that this
attempted conciliation would fail.—(Hear.) He would
state his reason for entertaining that fear. It was a con-
ciliation to be alt iined not only by concession, for that
might be right—it might be prudent and wise for one
party to concede and nothing more—but it was a sacri-
fice of the property and the feelings of one party which
would be construed into a triumph by the other. He ap-
prehended that a conciliation of that kind could never pro-
duce peace. It would raise in the minds of one party a
feeling of exultation, and excite a corresponding feeling of
irritation in the minds of the other; and, if their Lordships
would reflect to whom this sacrifice was to be made, and at
whose expense, they would see still further reason to de-
spond of its producing the effects which its proposers con-
templated, for it was to be made to the oppressor and the
agitator at the expense of the oppressed and the peaceable.
To those who bad read the evidence before the Committee
of their Lordships' House, and still more to those who at-
tended that Committee, this would seem to be an inversion
of justice, that you should assign rewards to the offenders,
and punishment to the innocent Sufferers. He felt that
after the panegyric passed by the Right Rev. Prelate on
the clergy of Ireland last evening, and after the testimony
borne by the Most Rev. Prelate who had lately addressed
their Lordships to their exemplary conduct, he hardly did
them justice when he spoke of them as a body distin-
guished for their piety, moderation, and charity. But he
felt that that justice was due to them. Their virtues had
shone forth to perfection in the midst of the se-
verest persecution. They had been reviled and insulted ;
they had been despoiled of their property, they had been
hunted from their homes, exposed to the fury of the
rabble, and the attacks of the assassin ; and all this they
had borne with patience ; but what would be their feeling
of disappointment when, looking up to the Legisla-
lature of this country for compensation and justice, they
were met with severe penalties?—(Hear, hear.) But
tvhile this was the conduct of the Protestant clergy on
the one part, what in all probability would be the course
uf the Roman Catholics on the other? For his part he saw
but little reason to expect any very great moderation to be
exhibited by them. It was hardly to be expected that any
body of men acting together with the greatest consistency
for the attainment of a particular point would not be en-
couraged by partial success to pursue their object to the
utmost.—(Hear, hear.) Therefore, with regard to what
the church would gain in her external condition, be could
not expect that her stability would be established by the
sacrifice she had made, or that she would gain in security
what she lost in wealth and influence. But, then, what
would be her internal condition supposing this Bill passed?
All those improvements which they had heard dwelt upon
with so much ability and with so much propriety by the
Noble Earl, if they could be carried into execution, all the
expectations of those improvements, he apprehended,
would be entirely frustrated. All the funds which ought
to be appropriated for those purposes would, as he had be-
fore said, be consumed by supplying the vestry cess for
a period of many years; so that for the attainment of
all those objects it was a great chance whether the
church of Ireland would ever derive any efficient fund.
If he objected to this Bill on the one band because it
was wrong, he objected to it on the other because he
conceived it to be impracticable. But, although the
objects of this Bill might be unattainable, he was not
the less dissatisfied with its principles. There wis a
provision originally contained in the Bill against which
many harsh epithets had been. applied. He would
not use any such terms, but he would say that it was
a most unjust provision. It went to sanction the prin-
ciple of alienating the property of the Church, and ap-
plying it to the purposes ot the State. That clause had
been withdrawn, but the principle of it still remained.
The imposing of the vestry cess upon the clergy appeared
to him to be no less than transferring the obligation of the
payment of a tax from one class of persons to another,
which struck him to be at variance with the recognised
principles of the rights of property. He thought no less
could be affirmed of the compulsory sale of the see lands.
In the provisions for the sale of those lands the real pro-
prietor was the only person who did not seem to be con-
sulted. The consent of many persons was rendered
necessary, but the option of the tenant was to be dominant,
who were also to have a bonus of four per cent., and
another bonus was also to operate largely for the benefit
of those classes who had the least claim to indulgence,
and that was in reference to the model:ainasnbteatv:vdbiicth
was
pur-
chasethe money was to be estimated ; the amount not being
calculated according to the actual value of the land, but
according to the amount of the foregoing year's rent. The
Bishops of Ireland had been in the habit of taking the
representations of their tenants, and acted generally with
more liberality than the clergy of this country, who em-
ployed surveyors to ascertain the real value of the property.
There was another point, too, which he thought deserved
inquiry. It was very desirable to look into the tenure of
the possessors of these see lands. At all events it. vvas.
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t er to explain hit own views than to offer any instil*.