The Sun.
London, England, 1834-08-04 00:00:00

BARONS.

Rolle
Carrington
Wodehouse
Farnham
Loftus
Alvanley
St. Helen's
Arden
Sheffield
Ardrossan
Hopetown
Ross of Hawkhead
Churchill
Colchester
Oriel
Delamere
Downes
Wigan
Lyndhurst
Feversham
Heytesbury
Stuart de Rothsay
Carbery

Manors.
Durham
Salisbury
Bath and Wells
Lichfield
Lincoln
Chester
St. Asaph
Bangor
Bristol
Cardiff
Llandaff

LIST

OF THE MINORITY
PEERS PRESENT.
EARLS.
Charlemont
Gosford
Leitrim
Mulgrave
Rldnor c.
Sefton
VISCOUNTS.
Duncannon
Melbourne
Torrington
LORDS.
Auckland
Brougham
Ducie
Elphinstone
PAIRED OFF.

LORDS.
Foley
Godohpin
Holland
Howard of Effmghan
Ho wden
Lynedoch
Mostyn
Poltimore
Segrave
Stafford
Stourton

BISHOPS.
Chichester
Derry

FOR. . I AGAINST.
Earl Grey I Earl of Mansfield
Earl of Meath Marquis of Westmeath
Duke of Sutherland 1 Viscount St. Vincent.'
Present ...
Proxies 47-85

IRISH TITHE BILL.

(From the Observer.)
The amendment proposed by Mr. O'Connell in the House
of Commons, and carried by a majority of 82 to 13, hes
effected a great alteration in the details of this measure. It
is, however, so entirely in accordance with the principle of
the Bill, and carries into effect at once those salutary provisions
which might not have come into full operation for three years,
that we cannot but rejoice at its success.
We admit that the immediate transference of the payment
from the occupying tenant to the landlord is a strong measure.
The Bill provided that this should take place at the end of
three years, and that in the meanwhile a bonus, varying from
20 to 40 per cent., according to the difficulty of collecting the
tithe, should be offered as an inducement to the landlord to
come forward voluntarily and take the liability upon himself.
The amendment proposes that the relief of the occuping tenant
should be immediate,—that the burden should be imposed on
the landlords without delay, and that in return the highest
bonus of 40 per cent. should be given to all.
There are some who denounce this proposition merely be-
cause O'Connell is its author; there are others who protest
against it as a sacrifice to the landlords of the property of the
Church : there are, fortunately, more, who, regarding the
Bill as fraught with essential benefit to Ireland, and well know-
ing that if it be rejected there is an end to a provision for the
Irish Clergy, are not disposed to object to an amendment so
fully in unison with the spirit of the Bill on paltry personal
considerations.

If we would form a just estimate of the danger of rejecting
or even of delaying this important measure, we must look at
the result of the legislative enactments on this subject during
the last ten years ; their temporary and partial success • their
ultimate failure, and the constantly increasing evil which they
were intended to remove.

In 1823, the difficulty of collecting tithes had become so
great, that the Government brought forward the measure which
enabled a Special Vestry, consisting of the twenty-five highest
contributors to the county rate in each parish, in conjunction
with the incumbent, to select two Commissioners, by whom a
composition should be established for the whole parish, and
should continue in force 21 years. This was valuable as far
as it went. It was defective in not providing for the gradual
transfer of the payment from the tenant to the landlord ; in
not rendering the composition permanent instead of temporary;
and still more in not making the establishment of such com-
position compulsory instead of optional.
For many of these defects the Government of that time was
not to blame : their desire was to render the composition per-
manent and compulsory ; but they were resisted by that
wisdom which afterwards shone so conspicuously in its opposi-
tion to the Reform Bill. The compulsory clause was de-
scribed as " cutting up by the roots all the sacred principles
on which property, civil and clerical, was founded ;" and even
the composition was objected to, as putting an end to the pay-
ment of tithes, which " mixed up the clergyman so harmoni-
ously with the Constitution."
The opposition was successful—the compulsory clause
was withdrawn, and the consequences became soon appa-
rent: wherever the Act was adopted, irritation subsided,
and comparative tranquillity was introduced ; where it was
not, resistance continued : the spirit of discontent gradually
extended itself, and spreading into parishes where the compo-
sition had previously been readily paid, it at length broke out
in open violence and outrage, and the collection of tithes,
duringhe
n the years 1831, 1832, and 1833, was entirely suspended.
T came the Act of 1832, which had no other fault except
that of being ten years too late ; it enacted that compositions
should be permanent, which were no longer paid ; it forced
parishes to enter into composition when successful resistance
had taught them to anticipate extinction ; it declared that
from November, 1833, tenants at will, and by the year, should
be exempted from the payment of tithe, and the liability should
devolve on the landlord ; it enacted that all land let on lease
after the passing of the Act, should be let tithe-free, and it
offered a deduction of 15 per cent. to those landlords who
should voluntarily take the payment of the composition on
themselves.
Such were the chief provisions of this Act ; had they formed
part of that introduced in 1823, their value would now have
been felt and acknowledged ; but in 1834 they were compara-
tively useless.
The collection of tithe became, from day to day, more diffi-
cult ; the efforts of the Government in aid of the clergy
proved ineffectual ; and such was the destitution to which they
were reduced in many parts of Ireland, that Government was
obliged to apply to Parliament to sanction the advance of a
million to relieve their immediate and pressing necessities.
This was the state of things at the commencement of the pre-
sent session, when the Bill now before the House was intro-
duced ; it abolished all compositions for tithes, and substituted
in their room a land-tax of equal amount, to be levied by the
Crown from the occupying tenantry, or from persons who,
under the previous Acts, had become liable for the payment
of the composition.
From the money thus levied, a deduction of 15 per cent.
was to be made to defray the expense of collection, and the
remainder paid over to the Ecclesiastical Commission for the
benefit of the Clergy. At the end of five years the Bill pro-
posed that in lieu of the land tax, payable by the tenantry, a
rent charge of an amount less by 20 per cent. should be im-
posed on the landlords ; but it also proved that this bonus
should be increased if a landlord came voluntarily forward and
took upon himself the payment 'within two years : the rate of
increase being regulated indirectly, according to the difficulty
of collection, but not exceeding 40 per cent. The amount
deducted from the clergy being limited to 20 per cent. the
difference was to be made good from the Consolidated Fund,
in the first instance, and to be afterwards repaid out of the
surplus arising from the conversion of the leases of Bishops'
lands into perpetuities, agreeably to the provisions of the Irish
Church Temporalities Act of last session.
Such are the principal provisions of the different enact-
ments on this important subject during the last ten years.
The progress of the evil has been rapid and alarming ; the
legislative remedies hitherto most tardy, timid, and inefficient.
At first, temporary and voluntary composition was the utmost
that could be obtained ; permanent and compulsory followed,
but too late ; then came the offer 6f a bonus to the landlords,
to prevail upon them to take the burden on their own
shoulders ; but the bonus was inadequate to the risk and the
danger. The present Bill followed, imposing the payment—
under the conditions, and with the inducement we have men-
tioned—on the .landlord. The amendment brings into im-
mediate operation, at a somewhat greater pecuniary sacrifice,
hut with this great advantage, that the Government are
spared the odious task of becoming tithe-proctor for the
whole of Ireland, and of continuing to be known to a pauper
peasantry as their inexorable tax-gatherer. How difficult, as
well as odious such a task must have been, may be ima-
gined, when we quote as an instance, not uncommon
in the south of Ireland, that in one parish, con-
taining 2,000 tithe-payers, 1,200 payed less than 1/. each.
We admit that it had become the duty of Government to un-
dertake this collection, though blood must have been shed in

its enforcement. The law must be vindicated, even
before it can be amended. We give them full credit for not
shrinking from this duty—imposed upon them by misrule not
their own—but we rejoice that the House of Commons has
removed the necessity. From this time tithe will be merged
in rent. The benefit to Ireland will be immediate and great,
and the sickening scenes of violence and outrage—so far as
they originate in the exaction of tithes, will be at an end. We
dare not indulge the hope that perfect tranquillity will be the
necessary consequence. So long as embarrassed landlords
grind to the dust an impoverished tenantry---so long as they
continue unchecked by poor laws, and utterly reckless of
future consequences, to encourage excessive competition for
land—so long must the degraded peasant,‘ destitute of every
comfort, be ready for midnight outrage ; and so long it is idle
to dream of perfect peace. But this measure is a step in
advance; and we hail it as conducive to that prosperity which
we yet hope to see Ireland enjoying.

THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S PROTEST,

The following protest against the third reading of the Dis.
turbances (Ireland) Bill, has been entered on the Lords
Journals :

DISSENTIENT,
First—Because the three clauses of the Act of the 3d Will.
IV., c. 4., which it was the object of the motion to insert in
the Bill, were calculated to prevent the evil existing in Ire-
land, which Parliament had upon former occasions declared to
to be " dangerous to the public tranquillity"—" inconsistent
with the public peace and safety, and with the exercise of
regular Government."
Secondly—Because the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland has de-
clared that in his opinion the "agitation" (which it is the
object of these clauses to prevent) " of the combined projects
.for the abolition of tithes, and the destruction of the Union
with Great Britain had, in every instance, excited andinflamed
the disturbances existing in Ireland ;" which his Excellency
has described as being " of a discontented, disorderly, and tur-
bulent character ;" such as "secret combination, concealed
organization, suppression of all evidence of crime, and the am-
bition of usurping the Government, or ruling society by the
authority of the common people, and of superseding the law
by the decrees of illegal associations." That this system of
agitation had for "its inevitable consequence combinations
leading to violence and outrage ;" that they were " insepa-
rably cause and effect."

Thirdly—Because his Majesty's servants have expressed, in
strong terms, their concurrence in these opinions, of the Lord
Lieutenant, and their sense of the necessity for adopting mea-
sures to meet the system of agitation; They have stated that
it is impossible "that a perpetual system of agitation can be
pursued without stirring up among the people a general spirit
of resistance to the constituted authorities, which breaks out
in excesses such as have been described." " That it is not
safe to leave the Government unfurnished with the means to
prevent an association, calling itself the Central Association
of Dublin, assuming a political character, carrying on its pro-
ceedings with all the forms of Parliament, directing other
associations throughout all parts of Ireland, and desiring a
general organization, for the express and avowed purpose of
carrying into effect measures which must be subversive of the
security of the country, and destructive of all peace, order,
and law." " That it is not consistent with justice to put
down the liberties of the people in the country, but not in the
city." " That Parliament should press hard with the weight
of the loins upon the peasant, but not lay the weight of the
little finger on those who, by their conduct, nourish and in-
crease excitement, and generally local agitation."—" If the
effect, disturbance, and outrage, must be put down, the excit-
ing cause must be attended to likewise." "Itis an infraction
of popular rights when power is given to prevent or put an
end to public meetings ; but, it is not a greater infraction of
the constitutional rights of the people, a more decided inva-
sion of the indisputable rights of the King's subjects, than is
to be found in the sunset part of the Bill." "It is necessary
to apply a legislative enactment to the exciting cause, as well
as to the mischief which that excitement produces."
Fourthly—Because the principle of the British Constitution,
and the object of all our laws, from Magna Charta down to a
recent period, have been to give protection to life and property,
as well as to secure the liberty of the subject ; • which last has
hitherto been considered as the means to attain and secure the
first-mentioned objects.
Fifthly—Because the protection of the subject .hy the So-
vereign, and the allegiance of the subject to the Sovereign are
reciprocal duties. It appears, therefore, to be the duty of the
two Houses of Parliament, convinced by the evidence laid be-
fore them of the state of disturbance, outrage, plunder, and
murder existing in Ireland, of the insecurity of life and pro-
perty, of the misery and sufferings of the industrious peasantry
and other classes, and of the discontinuance of all habits and
pursuits of industry wherever these outrages prevail, to pass
laws to enable his 11Iajesty, and those exercising his authority,
effectually to prevent them if possible ; and to punish those
guilty of exciting them.
Sixthly—Because it appears from the papers laid upon the
table of the House by his Majesty's Ministers, that the Act of
the 3d William IV., cap. 4, wherever it had been carried into
execution, had been effectual in preventing agitation, and in a
great degree disturbance and outrage, and in bringing to trial
those guilty of such offences. That witnesses had come forward
to give their testimony of injuries done to themselves or others.
That magistrates and juries had performed their duties, and
that the districts of the country in which the Act had been
enforced were beginning to feel the effects of returning tran-
quillity, security, and happiness.
Seventhly—Because it is obvious that the Bill now under
consideration, cannot prevent agitation in associations in large
towns. Yet it is to these associations that the Lord Lieute-
nant attributes the system of violence and outrage, as effect to
cause, and he states that he cannot separate the one from the
other, in the unbroken chain of indissoluble connection by any
effort of his understanding.
(Signed) WELLINGNON.
The following Peers afterwards added their names to the
said protest :
Rosslyn, Wharncliffe, Melrose, Forester, Redesdale,
Ernest (Cumberland), Vane (Londonderry), Beau-
fort, Falmouth, Mount Cashell, Colville of Cubross,
Penshurst, Bexley, Wynford, Brook and Warwick,
Wicklow, Gascoyne, Salisbury, Belmore, Wilton,
Sandwich, Prudhoe, Glengall.