The Sun.
London, England, 1834-10-01 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

" It will be in vain," says a contemporary (Times,
29th Sept.), in an article on the effusions of the
Cavan and Canterbury Conservative meetings, " to
make a fierce stand in defence of the disproportioned
revenues of the Irish Church, and to confound riches
with religion." This is precisely the fear and appre-
hension of Dr. Croft and his brother Conservatives.
The Parliament, in legislating for the Irish Church,
had the " infidelity"—(the term applied by the vene-
rable Archdeacon to the conduct of Ministers, who,
under pretence of benefitting the Church, interfered with
its revenues)—to " regulate" a more equitable pay-
ment of first-fruits and tenths, to the augmenta-
tion of the incomes of the poorer clergy, and other
ecclesiastical purposes ; all livings above 3001. per
annum, even during the lives of the present incum-
bents, being charged with payments from five to fifteen
per cent. It is clear that the regulation so fitly framed
to the Irish Church will, in the next Session, not only
be " attempted," as Dr. Croft fears, but be assuredly
applied to the English Church ; and the f. ire ct s will,
we should apprehend, satisfy other parties " than
some few infidels, tithe-payers, and landlords ;"
we mean the real labourers in the vineyard—
the poor curates and incumbents of what are
called " livings," but which might be more pro-
perly called " starvings." Of the 10,000 livings
in England and Wales, 1,600 are in the Gift of the
twenty-six Bishops, 600 in the presentation of
the two Universities, and about 1,000 in the
gift of the several Cathedrals and other clerical insti-
tutions. It will scarcely be credited that, in tip 19th
century, many hundreds of these are still under 80,
70, and even 401. a year ; that even the small increase
which has taken place in many has been from Parlia-
mentary grants, and from Queen Anne's fund. Before
the one million and a half was voted—to the shame of
a Christian church, so richly endowed, and with
funds, if properly distributed, sufficient for the
docent provision of all its clergy—one hundred thou-
sand pounds were annually taken from the pockets of
the people, by the vote of an unreformed Parliament,
for the augmentation of those very livings, which, by
every law of equity, as well as by every law of the
land, had it not been evaded, should have been
increased from the richly-endowed prefennents of the
hierarchy and wealthy ecclesiastics. Perhaps we
cannot better prove the beneficial effects of the
anticipated interference in regulating the distribution
of the revenues of the Church by the " infidel" mem-
bers of a reformed Parliament, than by a statement of
the results, as far as they regard some of the Canter-
bury Conservative clergy, who met to celebrate the
King's declaration to the Bishops ; and perhaps the
Honourable Member for East Kent will lay them be-
fore his Majesty. The preferments held by Doctors
Croft, Russell, Spry, Dawson, and Manners Sutt, n,
consist of one archdeacoury, one subdeanery, five
canons' stalls, and twelve rectories—Marylebone,
Bishopsgate, Margate, Wilmington, Chislehurst,
Orpington, Allhallows, Cliffe at Hone, Saltwood,
Great Chart, Tunstal, Hanbury *—will be found,
by the lowest calculation, communibus annis, to
average eleven thousand seven hundred pounds ;
the payment from which to Queen Anne's fund
for the augmentation of poor benefices of the real
tenths—without any first fruits—would be eleven
hundred and seventy pounds per annum. But by the
present law, as it is evaded under the valuation of the
.fiber Regis, made nearly three centuries since, the
whole of these preferments are valued at 2311.175. 4d.;
consequently twenty-three pounds per annum is paid
to this augmentation fund, loco 1,1701. Forty bale-
fices (so called) might from. these five dignitaries
alone—if they paid the legal enactment—be improved
by an augmentation of 301. a year in tenths 'alone,
without first fruits ; a sum of no small consideration
to a oor parson, " passing rich with forty pounds a
year.' The Bishop of London, in his charge to the
clergy, says that the " true peace and real prosperity
of the country depend not upon the multiplicity
of minute legislative provisions, nor upon any
economic regulations, however ingeniously devis-
ed, and however useful as subsidiary aids, but
upon its Christianity, and its Christianity mainly
depends upon the labours of Parochial Clergy ;" but
if the labourer be " worthy of his hire," and Mr.

Plumptre bears testimony as to the merits and efficiency
of the Canterbury Clergy, they doubtless, in despite of
the reasonings of Bishop Blomfield, will consider the
economic regulations, under the Tenths and First
Fruits Acts, if not " ingeniously" evaded, very useful
as " subsidiary aids." The primitive Christians, we
read, had all things in common, and made distribution
to every man according as he had need, and patiently
endured the spoiling of their goods. How different is
the view of the Canterbury dignitaries of Church and
State ! The "short commons" is considered suffi-
cient for the working Clergy, while the regulation or
interference with their goods, or loaves and fishes, by
the Legislature, with them is "spollation."—Morning
Chronicle.

* Lord Brougham's Bill, which, though delayed, will, no
doubt, with some alterations, soon pass the Legislature, very
properly enacted, that if these major canons were to hold liv-
ings with their stalls, instead of the richest, they should be the
poorest, in the gift of the Chapter.
When the House of Lords crushed in the shell Mr.
O'Connell's project of Church spoliation, called the
Irish Tithe Bill, the Whig papers seemed to be pos-
sessed with most profound grief for the interests of the
Irish Church Establishment, which they declared to be
utterly ruined by the zash rejection of Mr. O'Connell's
boon, which left the Irish Clergy without any means
of obtaining any tithe for the future. This nonsense
was uttered day after day, although every reasonable
man was convinced that any " boon" proffered by Mr.
O'Connell to the Protestant Clergy of Ireland must
resemble a gift from Ulysses to the Trojans, intended
only for the ruin of those on whom it was bestowed.
We showed, at that time, that if the Irish Clergy were
to receive their tithe through the medium of the land-
lords, a better bargain had been made for them already
by Mr. Stanley's Bill than by that, which, at the dic-
tation of the repeal-agitator, the Melbourne Cabinet
adopted. We need not remind our readers that the
Bill which the House of Lords threw out provided that
40 per cent. was to be given to the Irish landlords
out of the tithe, of which they were only to pay sixty
per cent., or three-fifths of the Clergy, to whom twenty
per cent. out of the forty was to be made up for one
year out of the Consolidated Fund—the deficiency in,
the Consolidated Fund, to be made good out of the
Irish Perpetuity Fund, which was intended to relieve
the Irish Roman Catholics from the payment of the
church-cess ; but as there was no provision made for
supplying the deficiency in the Perpetuity Fund, it is
quite certain that before the first year was-out, there
would have been such a demonstration made by the
Roman Catholic agitators against taking the twenty per
cent. out of the Perpetuity Fund, as would have induced
our rulers, on the principle of yielding every thing to
agitation, to abstain from renewing it for another year;
consequently they could not think of any longer allow-
ing twenty per cent. for tithe to be taken out of Con-
solidated Fund, as that would have excited very general
discontent when it .was found that the deficiency was
not to be made good from any other source ; and thus
the forty per cent., or the two-fifths of the tithe given by
Mr. O'Connell's Bill to the Irish landlords, the clergy
would altogether lose. Now, by Mr. Stanley's 13ill,
the compact made between the clergy and the landlord
allows the latter the more fair and reasonable compen-
sation of 15 per cent. for taking upon himself the
responsibility of paying the tithe, and the trouble of
as rent, from his tenant. We are glad collecting it,
to find from our Irish correspondence, corroborated
by the statements of the Dublin Evening Mail, that a
considerable number of the most wealthy and influ-
ential of the Irish landowners have already entered into
this arrangement with the clergy, and that the example
is likely to be very generally followed, so that the Pro-
testant clergy of Ireland are not put to the dreadful
alternative of submitting to Mr. O'Connell's plan of
Church robbery—the fruit of a base compromise be-
tween the agitator and the Whig Ministers ; or of
being driven to utter destitution. They will have to
pay a premium of 15 per cent. as an insurance on
their tithe, and will not be called upon to give UP
nearly one half to secure the remainder.—/Iforning
Herald.

We /have read with disgust and indignation a cor-
respondence between that champion of the Irish

Church, the Rev. Marcus Beresford, Vicar of Drung,
and the Rev. Thomas Lyons, who had the misfortune
to be his curate. It appears that in accordance with
the canon regarding catechising (the 59th English
and 11th Irish), a catechetical lecture was established
in the church of Drung. Mr. Beresford gave notice
that this catechising should be no longer in the church,
but should be transferred to the school-houses of -Ra-
kenny and of Parsonage, to be held on two week-clays,
which he specified. The curate, Mr. Lyons, think-
ing that this was contrary to the canon, felt that he
could not act upon the orders of Mr. Beresford con-
sistently with obedience to the rules of the church,
and the obligations of his ordination vow. The vicar
forthwith gave him notice that his services were dis-
pensed with ; but here we must give the letter of the
reverend gentleman, announcing his resolution and
finally settling accounts in the spirit_ of peace and cha-
rity, for by his own words only can justice be done to
him. The satire of a Fielding would have fallen short
of such a composition.;—

" Dec. 31, 1833

" Dear Sir—l regret that lam necessitated to adopt the
only course that is left open to me, which is to notice to you
that I have no further need of your services as curate of Drum,.
This day, which concludes the year, must end the connexion
between us. I trust we shall part as we met, in peace and
charity. My last payment to you paP. your salary up to the
first of this month. Since that I owe you for one month,
which, being a long month, of 31 days, amounts, as near as
I can calculate, to 6/. Bs. My steward returns you as a debtor•
to the amount of 71. 10s., for conacre ground, which leaves
some trifling balance in my favour. As I have no desire to
inconvenience you in any respect, the parsOnagc-house is at
your service till it may suit you to move. As it would be best
to name a specific time, I would say till the Ist of March next.
" Another point I would beg to remind you of, which is
that as you are not a licensed curate (never having prayed the
bishop to grant you a licence for my parish), this notice is
perfectly valid and sufficient.
" Yours truly,
" M. G. BERESFORD.

I" To the Rev. Thomas A. Lyons."..
This is not the conduct of one gentleman to another
—it is not the conduct of a gentleman to a stable-boy ;
but it is the conduct of a wealthy vicar to a poor
curate. The only course left open, says Mr. Beres-
ford, was to give notice of dismissal—why, what had
the curate done to bring matters to such an extremity?
He objected that an order of his vicar contravened a
canon of the church. Was there no way of disposing
of the conscientious scruple but instant dismissal ? If
a menial servant hesitated to obey a command, alleging
that it was against the law of the land, would not a
master either correct the misconception, or retract
his own hasty order, and give the man credit for his
observance of the paramount duties ? If Mr. Lyons
was wrong, was there no way of setting him right ?
Or has the church of Ireland had so much to do with
• the army in tithe collecting that its superior ministers
have contracted military notions, and, carrying martial
law into the discipline of the church, have made dis-
obedience of orders an unpardonable offence ? Thus
Mr. Lyons was cashiered by drum-head justice as it
were. But a corporal in the severest service could not
be so reduced—could not have his badges torn from
him by so rude and absolute a will. " I have no
further need of your services as curate of Drung. This
day, which concludes the year, must end the connexion
between us." Conceive the feelings of a gentleman on
reading this abrupt notice, so full of the master—not
the master of meekness and charity, but the domineer-
ing master of the coarsest and lowest world, who draws
his pride from the power of oppressing ;—conceive, on
the other side, the feelings of the man who penned
those peremptory and harsh words on so slight an oc-
casion ! The very day concluding the year would
have counselled milder resolves to a benignant spirit.
In enclitic, a year we close a portion of our great ac-
count, and that thought would turn most minds from an
act of severity, and dispose them to one of grace and
mercy. The Rev. Vicar was, however, content to
close the year with a rigorous exercise of his power,
and to open the new year of the unfortunate gentleman
in his power with a prospect of deprivation. But he
goes on—" I trust we shall part as we met, in peace
and charity." Between what words does this trust
stand ? " This day, which concludes the year, must
end the connexion between us. I trust we shall part
as we met, in peace and charity. My last payment to
you paid your salary up to the Ist of this month ;"
and then he proceeds with the most tradesmanlike
exactness, and scrupulous justice to his estate, to bring
in the poor curate his debtor to the amount of twenty-
two shillings. He sets forth his charity in thus
settling accounts, and his peace by the resolution with
which he ends his year. He grinds a man under his
heel, and hopes that they may part as they met, in
peace and charity. Every sentence is a volume of
littleness. The statement of the curate's month's wages
by the vicar whose preferment is rated at 1,8001. a year,
is one of those strokes which the boldest satirist would
scarcely have hazarded in a work of fiction—" I owe
you for one month, which being a long month of thirty-
one days, amounts, as near as I can calculate, to six
pounds eight shillings !" The rich vicar is puzzled
to calculate anything so small as his curate's claim I
It is a sort of hair-splitting which can only be done in
approximation. We think it not improbable that he
gave his curate the benefit of some halfpence in the
account rather than perplex himself with a calculation
in fractions. And he could venture to be so generous
with the demand in reserve for the next sentence of
71.105. for conacre ground, " leaving some trifling
" balance" in favour of the rich vicar. Thus we see
that a conacre of potatoes is worth 225. more than a
curate's month's labours, or that 10 conacres of potatoes
are about equal to a curate's-peaaMliftv.-.BAt, then,
how liberal is the permission to the poor curateant-
main in the parsonage house till it might suit him to
move, only coupled with a condition that, whether it
might suit him to move or not, he must quit at the
end of two months. This is the most Irish method of
leaving a matter to convenience that we ever remember
to have seen or heard of. Stay as long as suits your
convenience, but you must turn out on the Ist of
March. The finishing stroke of this pastoral epistle
is the avowal of the advantage taken of the curate's
neglect to procure a license. The vicar in effect says,
remember that you are unprotected, and that I am
safely taking advantage of that circumstance. With
reference to this omission, Mr. Lyons in a letter of
complaint to the Primate of Ireland says—
" To have sought out a licence under the circumstances to
guard me against any improper advantage that might be taken
of the want of a protection so merely formal, seemed to me,
at the time, as involving a want of courtesy towards one
whose station and obligation to the Church for every thing
which he possesses, appeared a sufficient guarantee of the im-
possibility of his taking an unworthy advantage of a brother
clergyman. Of this impression other circumstances were
confirmatory. I was ordained a priest by the Bishop of Kil-
more. He received me at his house. He visited me at the
rectory house of Killyshandra, then my residence, and like-
wise here, since my arrival. He appointed me Lent preacher
the only two Lent seasons I have passed in the diocess. I
was summoned to the diocesan visitations, and thus recognised
as a clergyman of the diocess. Added to all these extrinsic
circumstances was the consciousness of a desire to discharge
my duty fully, and of an ability to discharge it well.
" Having accordingly done my duty as a strict church of
England clergyman, zealously, boldly, and efficiently to the
people committed to my spiritual charge for the past year, I
cannot find any terms to characterize conduct so anomalous as
that used towards me. To call in unclerical, t, un.entleman-

like, unmanly, would still leave much not expressed. Were
this the act of a good man and zealous churchman, if so ab-
surd a supposition may be admitted for a moment, towards a
clergyman loose in his principles, irregular in his behaviour,
and inefficient in his office, it would be unhesitatingly cha-
racterized as not only contemptuous of episcopal rule, but as
one tyrannously oppressive ; alike alien to the spirit and prin-
ciples of our ecclesiastical polity, and of the age in which it
has been perpetrated ; exceeding even the licence permitted
by the law in dismissing our menial servants. For I must beg
leave to remark to your Grace, that not two hours' notice was
given to me of the suspension of my spiritual functions in this
parish, and of the deprivation of those means of subsistence
which the church has allocated for stipendiary clergymen.
" As characteristic of the spirit of this transaction, I may be
permitted to mention the fact, that since Sunday, December 8,
there has not been any catechetical lecture in the church of
Drung, although this violation of the law has been within epis-
copal cognizance since December 31.
" I therefore appeal to your Grace, as my metropolitan,
trusting to your Grace's known character as a churchman, that
the consequences of an act so shamelessly oppressive shall not
be permitted to fall upon an unoffending clergyman, whose
worst crime is a fearless determination to act according to the
obligations of his ordination vow.
" I have the honour to be, my Lord, your Grace's very obe-
dient servant, " THOMAS A. LYONS."
" To his Grace the Lord Archbishop of Armagh."
Mr. Lyons' appeals to the Bishop of the diocess
were of no avail. The vicar is the son of the Bishop
—what more need be said. The poor curate's first
complaint was answered by the Bishop's dry expres-