The Sun.
London, England, 1845-10-07 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1845.

The Charge delivered by the Lord Archbishop of
ARMAGH to his clergy at a visitation held by him on
the 2d instant, at the cathedral of his diocese, is too
remarkable a document to be passed over, like an
every-day discourse of this nature, replete with
egotism and bad taste when delivered by the Bishop
of LONDON—with petulance and Puseyism if pro-
flounced by the Bishop of t XETER. It must be al-
lowed that the Primate of Ireland is a very different
personage, and of a differently constituted intellect froM
-ither of these his Right Reverend Brothers. In the
" Charge" before us his Grace maintains all that dignity
slid self-possession which are identified with his public
deportment on every occasion. The " Charge" itself is, as a
whole, distinguished by a tone of argumentative fairness
and perfect equanimity, modified only by the earnest-
ness with which it upholds the mission and the merits of
the Protestant Established Church. Of course, it would
be too much to expect from a Protestant Archbishop
any excess of candour or liberality in dealing with ques
tions of Roman Catholic encroachments, or the doctrines
maintained by the Roman Catholic Church. The latter
are universally indicated by the application of such hard
words as " ignorance " and " superstition;" the former,
as proposing for their ultimate, and indeed, avowed ob-
ject, the total abolition of the whole Protestant Esta-
blishment. Unhappily the Archbishop, it cannot be
denied, had the precedent for language and in-
sinuations far more intemperate already furnished to
his hands by the unmeasured vituperation and illiberal
constructions so commonly indulged in, of late, by the
hierarchy and parochial clergy of the Romish Church in
Ireland, and even by the Catholic laity of that
country, against the Church, the clergy, the
laity, and all the institutions of England. This
is one of the curses of every controversy in
which religious is mixed up with political excitement.
For our own parts, we have long looked on, with equal
disgust for the utter want of Christian charity developed
on both sides, and little hope of seeing them eve r imi-
tate the excellent example of timely compromise
afforded in that dramatic scene, where our satiric
dramatist makes one gentleman—who has well lined his
own pockets—exclaim to anether, who has been success-
fully attempting, at his expense, to replenish Vs—ex-
claim, "Brother, brother! we are both in the wrong." But
the Archbishop of ARMAGH is a fair controversialist,
with some small allowances for the prepossessions
natural to his cloth and station. His Grace's most
grievous offence, on the present occasion, is a sin of
omission rather than commission. He complain-, and
with reason, of the extraordinary amount of misunder-
standing which still prevails in this country as well as
in Ireland on the " enormous revenues" and " lavish
endowments" of the Irish Established Church. It has
often occurred to us as matter fur surprise, that after the
pains which Lord ALTIIORP took in his speech of 1833,
on the "Irish Church Temporalities Act," to disabuse
the public mind as to its exaggerated notion on these
two matters, the old mistakes should be still so exten-
sively cherished. The Archbishop, on the subject of
tithes, endeavours to prove that prior to the intervention
of Parliament, in the reign of WILLIAM IV., that which
was called tithe was not the tenth, but barely the thirtieth
as collected, of the produce of the land ; and that since
its commutation, by recent Ac's of Parliament, into a
rent-charge, it is in reality but a fortieth part of that
produce which i 3 fined to the Established Church. His
Grace pursues these exaggerations through the various
items of episcopal fines ; the patronage and income of
cathedrals and chapters ; the condition of dignitaries
and prebends ; and the evils attributed to the unions of
parhhes. This latter evil, ho said, must to a great
measure be attributed to other quarters. A vete of that
worthless body, the old Irish Parliament, in 1735, abo-
lishing, (or the obvious and selfish purposes of those who
passed it, the tithe of agistment, rendered it necessary to