The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-19 00:00:00

" Let me say, however (the speaker explained), I do m*
blame the commissioners. I really believe they have
done the best they could. When a man undertakes an
impossible task, you must not look too strictly to the
performance of it, or judge him too severely. If a man
says I will jump over the Thames' (or rather I
should say the Mersey), and happens unfortunately to
alight in the middle, the result is unfortunate, although
the man may be a very good jumper. These commis-
sioners I believe to be perfectly upright, honourable,
intelligent men, and I have not a word of blame to cast
upon them for the manner in which they performed their
functions. My object is to shew you the hopelessness of
the functions themselves, and to confirm you in the
adoption of that other plain, simple, and practical alterna-
tive which we have recommended to your notice." The
next proposal they had was to suppress all benefices which
did not minister to the wants of forty Protestants. But
why forty ? He could not suggest ; except they took the
Thirty-nine Articles and one over ; or the Jewish order,
forty stripes save one. But, at any rate, this proposal
would lead to the suppression of some 200 benefices. That
was to say, 200 places out of some 1,400 or 1,500
were to be deprived of their resident clergy.
Besides this, some chapters would be suppressed,
sn 1 the sexton would, in some cases, be consolidated with
the gravedigger. How much, he asked, would all
this save? " I have often," declared the right hon. gentle-
man, " been surprised at things I have found in docu-
ments, but I never was so much surprised before at a
thing that I did not find in a document. Why, if this
commission was appointed for anything in the way of re-
moval of abuses, what they ought especially tqAave done
was to have shewn how much could be gathered together by
the removal of those abuses, and under what rules and to
what useful purposes it could be applied. Gentlemen, it
is a very hard case. I can get no assistance from the com-
mission ; but after looking roughly over the thing, and
really having very few means of accurate compu-
tation, it seems to me, as well as I can reckon, that
by the bishops they would save something between
£22,000 and £25,000 a year ; that by the parishes they
might save from £40,000 to £50,000 a year ; that by the
chapters they would save £lO,OOO a year ; and I
cannot tell exactly, but I think they might save £3,000
or £4,000 a year by the gravediggers. (Laughter.)
Now, putting all these things together, this removal of
abuses would produce a fund of £BO,OOO a year. That is a
very considerable fund ; what is to be done with it? Well,
gentlemen, the Inquiry Commissioners have simply said
that the body which exists in Ireland—a permanent body
and one which is called the Ecelesiastical Commissioners—
ought to have large discretion to apply it to the increase
of the incomes of the clergy in places where there are
low incomes with considerable congregations." This
led to the consideration of the question of tithes.
What should be done with those of the suppressed
benefices ? "It is proposed," said Mr. Gladstone,
" that where there is a parish—say, in Mayo or Galway—
with 5,000 or 10,000 Roman Catholics and a mere handful
of Protestants, that the tithes of that parish shall be carried
away out of the parish altogether. Where will they go ?
They will be carried into the suburbs of Dublin and Belfast,
where wealthy members of the Establishment abound.
They will be exported from one portion of the country
and imported into another portion of the country. While
retaining all the odium of being applied to the Church of
the minority, it will lose the graces, recommendations, and
consolations which hang about it from the kindly relations
between these Protestant clergymen and the Roman
Catholic population. They may hear nothing more of it ;
and, in my opinion, I am speaking truly, you hear some-
times that we are charged with confiscation, but in my
opinion that is confiscation. Those funds, gentlemen, are
local funds. The tithe of a parish was never given except
for the purpose of maintaining religion in the parish ; and
to take the tithe out of a parish of Galway or Clare for the
purpose of meeting the wants of Protestant populations in
Dublin and Belfast—l do not care who hears it—is, in
my opinion, whatever the intention may be, dangerously
like to an act of public plunder." Passing from the report
of the commission, the right hon. gentleman repeated at
length the arguments against the Establishment, and
enlarged upon the abuses of the present state of things,
contending that from every principle of right and
justice the Church should be disestablished.