The Sun.
London, England, 1835-03-31 00:00:00

Irish, and some relaxation of the penal code was ab-
solutely inevitable, every concession was the result of ne-
cessity, not of kindness. From this motive proceeded the
granting of the Elective Franchise, and Catholic Eman-
cipation. The justice of these claims was denied by the
very men who yielded them, and whd declared expressly
that they did so to avoid a civil war. He then went
on to shew that no concession granted in such a spirit
could be expected to conciliate the—Catholics—that
something must be done to spew them that their wel-
fare was a subject of consideration with the Legisla-
ture—and that nothing could tend more to accomplish
this end than, in redressing an intolerable grievance, to
confer at the same time a positiv-e" and substantial
benefit. He then passed on to the subject of esta-
blishments, quoting from PALEY the following striking
passages in support of his opinions :
" The authority of a Church Establishment is founded in
its utility ; and whenever, upon this principle, we deliberate
concerning the form, propriety, or comparative excellency of
different establishments, the single view under which we ought
to consider any of them is, that of a scheme of instruction,'
the single end we ought to propose by them is, the preserva-
tion and communication of religious knowledge.'
" Every other idea, and every other end, that have been
mixed with this, as the making of the Church an engine, or
even an ally, of the State ' • converting it into the means of
strengthening- or diffusing influence ; or regarding it as a sup-
port of regal in opposition to popular forms of government ;
have served only to debase the institution, and to introduce
into it numerous abuses and corruptions."
He agreed also with a Right Reverend Prelate, who
stated in one of his charges last year, that " the
avowed object for which the Church is established is
the spiritual instruction of all classes of the people."
In applying the doctrine of the celebrated Arch-
deacon, and—to compare small things with great—of
the present Bishop of LONDON to the state of the Irish
Church, the Noble Lord went into a comparative
statement of the Catholic and Protestant population,
from which it appeared that the Catholics are to
the members of the (so called) Irish Church
as fifteen to one generally, while in many individual
instances the proportion is infinitely greater, as our
readers may perceive by the following table, to which
the Noble Lord referred in illustrution of his argument :
Established Roman

Parishes. Value. - Church. Catholic.
Taghmon £446, Glebe £5O 133 2,920
Ballycormick 95 10 501
Ballynilty B2 21 390
Dunleer 153 G. 6 159 1,460
Drumcar 53 120 1,528

Monach-bone lO7 9 737
Moyleary 173 G. 30 13 1,148
Cuppog l2O 1 530
Rathdrummin .
Carrickbogget 57 -- 332
Port 142 G. 5 5 800
Ullard - 50
2,213

Graig
0550ry.....
Balsoon

440
62
69

63 4,779
4 107
7 313

After some very forcible reasoning on the justice and
necessity of adapting the Church Establishment of
Ireland to the wants of its members, the Noble Lord
stated his motion, for which we must refer our readers
to the debates, and enlarged upon the propriety of sa-
tisfying the country as to the opinion of his MA-
JESTY'S Ministers on this all-important question, before
the House could consistently enter upon the discus-
sion of the Irish Tithe Bill.

Sir EDWARD KNATCHBULL followed on the oppo-
site side, and made a very lame speech, almost the
whole of which was a vain attempt at the argumentnm
ad homineana futile endeavour to convict the mover
and his friends of inconsistency on this question.
Mr. WARD was the next speaker, and delivered a
very powerful address in favour of the motion, of
which we are sorry to say we have not, room even for
a short abstract. The Hon. Member for St. Albans
was followed by the late First Lord of the Admiralty,
who may be said to have made some amends for his great
lack of argument by much animation, and occasional
eloquence. It would not be difficult to show, from the
authority of the Right Hon. Baronet, that the Church
Establishment, both in England and Ireland, ought im-
mediately to be suppressed ; but we shall content our-
selves with asking him whether, if Church property be
held -on the same terms as private property, the Govern-
ment are justifiable in treating it, as they have done, in
the Tithe Bill ; and whether it is less a violation of its
sacredness to annihilate the fourth part of it than to
devote a useless surplus to useful purposes ?
The only other Member that addressed the House
was Lord HowicK, and we cannot help congratu-
lating the country on the prospect which the Noble
Lord has held out to it—and that not on this occasion
alone—of seeing perpetuated in the son, the manly
character and comprehensive mind of his noble father.