The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-19 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 19, 1859.

WEST CONNAUGRT CHFRCII ENDOW-
111ENT SOCIETY.

The first meeting of the originators and supporters
of this society was held on Thursday at Kingstown,
Dublin. The chair was taken by Lord Viscount
Gough.
The Rev. W. C. PLUNKETT, one of the honorary
secretaries of the society, moved the first resolution :
" That whereas in the district of West Connaught
35 congregations had, during a period of little more
than 20 years, been added to the United Church of
England and Ireland, this meeting recognises in so
great a work the hand of the Almighty God, and
to Him it desires to offer up its heartfelt praise."
At the annual general meeting of the society in
April he expected to be accompanied with au ab-
stract of a report of the proceedings of the society.
On the present occasion he had no such report, as
the society was only in its infancy ; it had no work
to record, though for a long time past the objects of
it had lain very near to the heart of the Bishop of
Tuam. By his personal efforts he had enlisted the
sympathy and liberality of many kind friends, yet
it was only within the last few months the society
had been formed, and now, for the first time as a
society, it came before the public to demand a ver-
dict. In introducing this society to their notice, he
felt strong in the merits of his cause. It was not a
schismatical society; it was wholly catholic—not
Roman Catholic—in its tendencies, for its tendency
was to bind together in a union of strength and love
societies already existing—to form, as it were, the
great and beautiful cupola or dome, surmounting
and connecting together in one harmonious whole
the many pillars on which it rests. Many of
them, no doubt, were acquainted with the district
of Western Connaught, where the operations of
their society were to be carried on. Many of them,
no doubt, had visited those grand old mountains
stretching alono, beside the shores of the Atlantic,
as if they shill% from and despised the every-day
commonplace situations of inland plains. His ob-
ject, however, was not to dwell on the natural
beauties of this country, but to describe its spiritual
aspect. In the year 1837 its aspect was one of
spiritual desolation. In that year one would wan-
der throughout the length and breadth of that dis-
trict, 100 miles long and 20 or 30 miles bfbad,
and only find seven churches where God was wor-
shipped in spirit and in truth. This was its state
of spiritual destitution, and Christians in England
and Ireland—lrishmen who loved their country and
Englishmen who loved Ireland—saw this state of
spiritual desolation, and prayed to God, and
laboured and gave, and God prospered the work
of their hands. In that gross darkness the beacon
of truth was lifted up in Achill. The Irish
Society—the brave old veteran Irish Society—
worked throughout that country. It sowed its
seed in a kindly soil, a soil which it had softened
by the magic of that tongue—the tongue of those
to whom it spoke. The Island and Coast Society
sent forth their labourers into districts never before
visited by a missionary. The Church Missionary
Society came forward and raised the banner of
truth. From post to post a gallant band of workers
gathered round, boldly fighting for the truth as it
is in Christ Jesus. Success attended the labours
of these and other societies, and the labours of the
parochial clergymen—for they should never forget
that they had been missionaries, and so was every
pastor who remembered his ordination vow ; they
kindly and cordially welcomed these societies and
assisted them. And God prospered the work of
all, and the desert blossomed as the rose. (Ap-
plause.) The rev, gentleman here read the follow-
ing letter from the Bishop of -Winchester to the
Bishop of Tuam :
" My dear Lord,—l am on the eve of returning
to England, but I cannot leave Ireland without
sending you a word of the heartiest congratulation
on the vast work which I have wen in your diocese
since I called on you at Salt-hill. If envy was per-
mitted I could feel the passion very strongly. It is
a glorious thing to be connected, as you have been,
with such mighty operations. I know not which to
admire most—the devotedness, ability, and patience
of the agents, or the faithfulness and constancy of
those on whom they have acted. Your missionaries
are men whom any bishop would thankfully see
planted in every parish of his diocese, if he could
get them. And it is wonderful to me how you can
have been enabled to procure the services of so many
cotnbining the rarely united -qualifications of men-
tal acuteness, discretion, and self-devotion.

" It will be a gratification to you to know that I
have—seen the churches crowded, meetings thronged
to overflowing, and late corners, who could find no
room, swarming like bees all round the buildings;
and schools which I have never seen equalled for
knowledge of Scripture and readiness of application
in any part of England. It has been a wonderful
sight to me to observe the lads coming in from sav-
ing their oats at a sudden summons, sitting clown
in their shirt-sleeves with a Bible in their hands,
and hiring to passages as familiarly as if they had
nothing to do in life but study them.
" The testimony borne throughout all the parts I
have visited, to the effect of the missionaries work
upon those who are not converts, has been uniformly
the same. Many are inquirers. The influence of the
priests has been remarkably diminished, and all ad-
mit the irreproachable conduct and the patient en-
durance and forbearance of both missionaries and
converts.—l am, my dear lord, faithfully'yours,
" Dublin, Sept. 29, 1859." " C. WINTON.

But even while they recorded this success there was
still a want. He saw that this monument of God's
glory was nearly complete ; but the column still
wanted the capital. These churches were yet for the
most part unendowed. They were built to meet an
emergency, and without the usual precaution of an
endowment, and the consequence is that there
are at present in the district of Western Connaught
25 congregations, under the care of 16 clergymen,
who are unprovided with any permanent provision
from the Church, and dependent merely upon the
fluctuating funds of charitable societies for their
support. They would at once see the critical and
anomalous position in which those churches were
placed. They could understand how precarious the
only funds which they received must be. The Church
Endowment Society had for its object the collection
of funds, the investment of them in Government
Stock, and the allocation of them to the different
districts.
The Rev. H. VERSCHOYLE seconded the motion,
which was then put and carried unanimously.
The Archdeacon of MEAT" moved the next reso-
lution :—" That whereas 25 of the new-formed con-
gregations of Western Connaught arc destitute of
any permanent provision for their future pastoral
care, and whereas the Church emoluments of the
district aro wholly inadequate to meet the demand,
this meeting hails with satisfaction the institution
of a society which proposes, by means of legal en-
dowments, to provide for so great and urgent a
necessity." The question of the inadequacy of
chnrch endowments was a point on which he wished
to say something. The question arose, and he was
sure an objection would be made by many to the
undertaking, because of the supposed income of
the Irish Church. He remembered when the first
attack was made on the income of the Irish Church,
about thirty-seven years ago, in Parliament. It
was stated by Lord Newport to be £3,000,000
a-year. Since then many estimates had been made,
but public returns showed that it was not more
than £500,000 a-year, if so :much. There was a
great deal of ignorance abroad as to the real in-
come of the Church ; in fact, there was a popu-
lar notion that if the income of the Irish Church
were more evenly distributed it would supply
all necessities. Six years ago, in answer to a very
able man, he published an average. There were at
present 1,530 beneficed clergymen in Ireland ; 656
curates were paid out of the funds of the Church
on an average of £75 per annum, making £49,200,
leaving for 1,530 incumbents the sum of £370,000,
making on an average £2lO 4s. each. That, he
thought, was enough to show that the future wants
of the Irish Church, with the new congregations
now rising up in all directions, could not be made
up by a further subdivision of the funds of the
Church. If they went to the dioceses of Tuam and
Killala they would find there the case was very
strong. He took the figures which he was about
to quote from a very authentic source, from the
public returns obtained by the Ecclesiastical
Revenue Commissioners, ordered by the House of
Commons to be printed in the year 1836. They had
all heard of the famous " appropriation clause "
that commissioners were appointed to ascertain
any possible surplus Church income in Ireland, to
be appropriated to secular purposes. He adopted
their figures, only taking off from tithe composi-
tion the 25 per cent. reduction created by the Tithe
Rent-charge Act of 1838, and estimating poor rate,
since irnposqd :—Killala— Rent-charge, £3,478 ;
glebes, £437—total, £3,915. Deduction, admitted
iblelicthreattuornnsa,
Five curates, then, ny69otyerpoinocromraet)e,s at 10 per cent.
£375 ; making a sum of £2,528;
nd
opuub
which left for 13 incumbents £194 each. There
£321--£1,012.
were now 14 incumbents and nine necessary curates,
at £675, leaving for incumbents £l3O each. These
incomes could not by any subdivision supply
cessary endowments for new congregations. Take,
for instance, the parish of Kilcommon, which is 40

• miles long by 20 wide, and contains 140,000 ; the
annual income is £120; there are four congre-
gations, and four clergymen to minister to
them. In the diocese of Tuam the tithe-
rent-charge was £12,348 ; glebe lands, £723;
the deduction admitted by the commission
was £2,341 ; the salaries of 21 curates then
paid were £1,503 ; poor rate estimated at £lO per
cent., which is double that on any property, £921 ;
that reduces the sum to £8,296. The number of
incumbents in 1836 was 33, the average income of
them being £250 a-year. They hardly understood
the circumstances of a great many of the parishes
in the west of Ireland. It was not known how
much of the clerical incomes had pass(4l into lay
hands. In the diocese of Tuam they had 33 incum-
tents ; they had amongst them 91 parishes, the
whole extent of which was 78 miles long by 63
wide ; it contained nearly 100,000 acres, and a
population of nearly half a million of people.
He thought, in speaking of such a state of
things, they should not merely consider the
Protestant population ; but, seeing all that
had lately taken place in the West, they should
estimate a minister's responsibility by the
population amongst whom ho worked. (Hear,
hear.) When the commissioners made their report
there were 33 incumbents in the diocese of Tuam,
at an average income of £250 a year ; there were
now 42 incumbents, and yet they heard of 25
churches wholly unprovided for as yet. The ave-
rage income of the incumbents now only amounts
to about £l9O a-year. How had these 42 incum-
bents risen up in place of the 33, 25 years ago ? It
was not by additional endowment, but by subdivi-
sion. He had a paper to show this. Take the
Union of Ballinakill. It consisted of ten separate

parishes. The distance from one extremity to the
other was about as far as from Dublin to Kilkenny,
and about ten times a more difficult journey ; it
was about 50 miles in length and 30 in breadth,
and in that parish there was one church in 1836
and two clergymen. The whole of the income was
about £2OO, as all the tithes were paid to laymen.
That parish was now subdivided into five separate
benefices at less than £5O each. Would that do ?
These four benefices, at £5O each, had now 18 con-
gregations and 13 clergymen. There was a
slight augmentation by the Ecclesiastical Commis-
sioners. This made the income in the parish of
Killanin £6O 10s. In it there were five congrega-
tions, and three clergymen required for present
duty. That parish was 12 or 15 miles long, perhaps
more. In the parish of Moyrus the income was £9O.
There were two congregations, an 1 two clergymen
required for present duty. In the parish of Omey
the income was £67. There were seven con,e•rega-
tions, and five clergymen required for present duty.
In the parish of Ballinakill the income was £54.
There were four congregations, and two clergymen
were required for present duty. In the island of
Arran the income was £5O. There were two con-
gregations, and one clergyman was required for
present duty, making altogether in that union of
Ballinakill, which in 1836 had its one church and
two clergymen, 18 congregations, and 13 clergy-
men doing duty. (Hear.) They had no permanent
endowment beyond the£2oo a year originally belong-
ing to it except the small sum added by the Eccle-
siastical Commissioners. If they held that £l9O
a-year was not too large an average for the bene-
ficed clergymen of the diocese of Tuam, it was a
clear case that what was now required could only I
be made by additional endowments. There was one
fact which struck him in considering the diocese
of Tuam and comparing it with its state in 1836,
when the returns were made. There were then 33
incumbents and 21 curates. Now there were 42 in-
cumbents and 20 curates—one curate less in the
diocese now than:there was then, although many of
the curates now employed were missionary curates
in the strictest sense of the word. The explana-
tion was plain ; for in 1836, of the 33 incumbents
of the diocese only 22 were resident—the re-
mainder were non-resident. In former times
that was always the ease, but the present
Lord Primate set his face against non-resident
curates, and made it a point never to sanction
the apppointment of one man to two places. It
appeared from the figures which he had quoted
that endowment was necessary for these new con-
gregations, and he thought it would be a shame
and disgrace to the Church of Ireland, and enough
to make them doubt whether the Lord was amongst
them or not, if there was not a hearty liberality
raised up amongst them to provide for the c_ongra-_
gations which the Lord so wonderfully raised up
in the midst of Connaught.
The Rev. H. S. BROOKE seconded the resolution,
which was passed unanimously.
Mr. BENJAMIN LEE GUINNESS moved the next
resolution :—" That, whereas the present Bishop of
Tuam is willing that the patronage of the churches
proposed for endowment should be invested in
trustees chosen by the society, this meeting calls
upon the Christian public promptly to avail itself
of the opportunity thus afforded it of securing to
these churches the blessngs of a permanent and
faithful ministry."
Mr. T. LErnor, Q.C., seconded the motion, which
was carried.

The Rev. J. ALCoCK, secretary of the Irish So-
ciety, moved the next resolution :—" That the very
existence of the West Connaught Endowment So-
ciety is in itself a powerful independent testimony
to the Excess of the various societies now labour-
ing so zealously and faithfully in Western Con-
naught. Ancl'whereas its object is to give solidity
and permanence to that success, this meeting calls
on the friends of this cause, as well as the Christian
public generally, to give that society their cordial
welcome and aid." He bore testimony to the want
which existed for such a society, and observed that
it had the hearty goodwill of the Irish Society,
which had helped in laying
the foundation for the
churches which they now wanted to endow.
The Rev. Mr. EAD E, secretary of the Irish Church
Missions Society, seconded the resolution. He ob-
served that he believed it was contemplated to
endow the first church in Moyrus, a remote spot in
Connemara. Some few years ago the people there
were all in ignorance, and knew but little of reli-
gion. A missionary was sent among them, whom
they at first persecuted, but now they were most
kind towards him, and he had established a con-
gregation there. Surely it would be a pity if this
congregation was allowed to be broken up for want
of the church being endowed. The sympathy of
the Irish Church Missions Society, was with the
efforts of the committee of the West Connaught
Church Endowment Society.
The resolution was put and carried unanimously.
The Archdeacon of Meath was then moved to the
chair, and a vote of thanks passed to the former
chairman.
The meeting then separated.

waters, which have for some years been derived
from above Teddington Lock, exhibit compara-
tively a small amount of matter in solution, in
consequence of the dryness of the season. The
waters supplied by the other companies contain a
somewhat greater amount of impurity. For the
sake of comparison the water of Loch Katrine,
which must for the future represent the type of a
pure supply for towns, is added, together with the
composition of an unhealthy metropolitan shallow
well :

Total imptuity Organic im
per gallon. purity.
grs. or deg. grs. or deg.
Distilled Water

Loch Katrine water, new supply
to Glasgow
Well, Grosvenor-cottaxcs, Pimlico 8'2.10 8.0

, . .
THAMES COMPANIES.
Chelsea
Southwark
Lambeth , l6'oo 116
Grand Junction
West Middlesex 15•00 l'Si
OTHER COMPANIES.
London
Fast . 1712 I'l6

New River
Kent

171'2
23'81

The table is read thus—Loch Katrine water contains in the
gallon 2.14 degree" or grains of foreign matter in solution, of
which 13 degrees or grains are of vegetable or animal origin.

At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was 29.492 in.
The readings fell from 29.79 in. on Sunday to 29.32
in. on Tuesday, being respectively the highest and
the lowest in the week. The mean temperature of
the air in the week was 55.3 deg., which was 4.4
deg. above the average of the same week in 43
years (as determined by Mr. Glaisher). The mean
daily temperature continued above the average
throughout the week. The thermometer in the
shade fell to its lowest point 45.7 deg. on Wednes-
day, and rose to its highest 66 deg. on Friday. The
entire range of temperature in the week was there-
fore 20.3 deg. The mean daily range was 12.3 deg.
The range on Tuesday was only 6.5 deg. The dif-
ference between the mean dew-point temperature
and air temperature was 1.9 deg. The atmosphere
was humid ; on three days the humidity was 95 or
96, approaching complete saturation. The mean
temperature of the water of the Thames was 61
deg., nearly equal to the mean of the highest tem-
perature of the air. The wind blew usually from
the east and east-north-east. Rain fell to the
amount of 0.88 in., nearly all of it on Monday and
two following days. A very brilliant aurora was
seen on the night of Wednesday, and there was
great magnetic disturbance.