The Sun.
London, England, 1835-04-08 00:00:00

the relief which this resolution is intended to afford to

them will depend on the lives of the clergy in the south
of Ireland, do you think that it will be calculated to
render the peasantry more satisfied, or to soothe their disap-
pointment? ( Hear, hear.) Sir, we know that amongst
those who are supposed to be laden with superfluous wealth
there are many enduring the deepest distress, and if there be
a surplus (which will be found to be the contrary), no claim
to that surplus could in truth or in justice come into competi-
tion with the claims of resident Ministers, who were deprived
of their tithes, and left without the means of subsistence.—
( Loud cheers.) Ido not concur in the resolution. lam free
from all responsibility attached to it, but if it should pass, I
move that the first claims to be allowed under it, if there
should be any division, shall be the claims of those who have
suffered in their vested interests by the non-payment of their
tithes, and who suffered in patient acquiescence.—( Cheers.)
If these men come to you with such claims, can you resist them?
If they come to you and say, " We have families—we were al-
ways resident in the place set apart for the performance of our
duties—we performed these duties"—if such an appeal be made,
I ask of all those who call for a change not to keep a shilling
from those men of that which is their own property, and which
they consented to forego because they shrunk from having
recourse to the means by which alone they could enforce its
payment.—( Cheers.) Will you divert from these men any
portion of that which is their proved right and their admit-
ted vested interest ? I shall read to the House, and it is only
one out of many such—a letter which I have received from
a Clergyman of the south of Ireland, and I bring forward
this individual case, because I think it well calculated to show
the extent of the suffering which has been endured by many
worthy, respectable, and exemplary individuals. The letter,
which is written with great simplicity, is on that account only
the more affecting. The Right Hon. Baronet then proceeded
to read the letter, in which the writer begged to suggest the
propriety of creating a fund for the purpose of rendering as-
sistance to the widows and orphans of clergymen, and he urged
as a reason that he and others were unable, in consequence of
the contemplated reduction of their incomes, to adopt the usual
mode of provision by effecting insurances on their lives. He
goes on to state that he effected a composition with his pa-
rishioners in 1832, at a sacrifice of 1501. per annum, thereby re-
ducing the value of his living from 5801. to 4301. By the pro-
posed Bill—and yet, continued the Right Hon. Baronet, he
calls us friends, and says he is satisfied with the measure—by
the proposed Bill his income would be further reduced from
430/. to 322/. 10s. Here (continued the Right Hon. Baronet)
is a man who, notwithstanding the reduction which has already
taken place in his income, and notwithstanding the further
reduction which is contemplated, does not breathe a murmur
of (liFeontent after his forty years of labour, but on the contrary
he expresses his conviction that Government has for its object
the welfare of the Church, and who says that, were the wi-
dows and orphans of the Clergy provided for, they would con-
sider all else as trivial. The letter was accompaned by a
prize poem, written by one of his sons, which proved how
excellently his education was attended to. Is not this man,
with ten children, with an income already reduced, and a
further reduction contemplated by us, and yet contriving, out
of his slender income, so excellent an education—is not he,
and are not such as he, most worthy objects of that appropria-
tion contemplated by the resolution? Is it these men—such
men as this, whose minds and hearts are attempered by piety,
and watered by a love for erudition—men in whom the love for
the cultivation of all the social relations is so vivid, and so
pregnant with charitable good, and wholesome results—the
veteran inculcators of religion and of morals —the frugal dis-
pensers of an humble fortune for the promotion of noble ends
—the kind and faithful husbands and parents—the friends of
learning, and the promoters of the kindly feeling of social life
—I say, Sir, is it such men the Noble Lord and his party are
to immolate, for the purpose of forcing their factious and dan-
gerous resolution on the country ?—( Cheers.) But, Sir, of
the consequence of their own desperate course it seems the
Hon. Gentlemen opposite reek not, provided they can achieve
a victory. Such, at least, will be the opinion entertained by
the great majority of the reflecting people of the empire. It
is not the resolution which will have the effect of appropria-
ting a surplus of the revenues of the Church to the education
of the Irish people ; but it is the principle we discuss. Sir,
it is on that ground I discuss this question. It is this princi-
ple which, if sanctioned, will carry " swift destruction" to
the Irish Church Establishment, and will bear other fatal con-
sequences in its train that we are to look to. It is this prin-