Star.
London, England, 1828-05-02 00:00:00

HUSH CHURCH.

Lord KING, in presenting a Petition from the Ro-
Maw Catholics of Ireland against the Select Vestry Bill,
Laid that he had had the Petition in his possession some
time, but had not presented it, inasmuch as he was de..
sirous of bringing it to the notice of the House when
there was a Right Rev. P,etate of Ireland on the bench.
The Petition contained a great many statements, to some
of which he would trouble their Lordships to listen. it
stated that in Ireland there were only about 700.000
Protestants. These Protestants had 1,300 Rectors over
them; which was in the proportion of one Rector to
538 soots. Now, there were 22 13,shopi over the whole
Protestant population. The proportion of Bishops to
Rectors was one of the former to fitly-nine of the latter.
The Church property was about one million a year, or
neatly one-eighth Of the landed income of the kingdom.
One of the Bishops, the Petitioners stated, possessed the
large income of 16,000/. per annum, another 9,0001. a
third mow. Some of the Rectors enjoyed a pro-
perty of 6,0001. a year. The Petitioners stated that one
Bishop died worth 400,0001. They thought, that if a
Bishop had an income equal to the Chief Justice, it
would be so ample sum. A saving of 180,0001. a year
would be easily made in the Church Establishment, it
was stated, and give to each Vicar 8601. a year. In
England, the average which vicars received was 2501 ;
the Bishops averaged 12,0001. per annum. The Noble
Lord then proceeded to state other items of which the
,Petitioners complained, among which were one of
16,0001. torthe erection of the New Chinch, called Si.
George's, In the city of Dublin; and another of the

Lord KING said, that the sum of money mentioned
in the Petition as hating been paid the clerk was not
much. There was an item of 284 for repairs done to
the house. There were no chatges of money hawing
been squandered in erecting a Church at Castle Comer.
The Bhhop of OSSOKY thought that a complaint
of that sort had been nameJ by the N;;ble L .rd. In one
parish in his diocese three schools had heeer established ;
hut these had been erected at the expense of a Noble
Marquis whom he then saw in his place.
The Petition was then read and laid on the table.

The Earl of DARNLEY presented aPetition---Irom Lieutenant
General Robert Brows" against certain Grand Jary Pretentmessts
1 Ireland.
4. If* Noat* East presented also a Petition from W. Parker,
praying that some measure might be adopted for the relief if the
people of Ireland.

STATE OF IRELAND.
The notice of motion that stood adjourned for this day waa
then read.

The Earl of DARNLEIcrose. The Noble Estil said,
he was aware how little he could hope to engage the
attention of their Lordships upon this important subject,
and nothing but an imperious sense of duty could have
induced him to undertake it. To being the details of
'so extensive and complicated a subject adequately before
their Lordships, required, he was aware, much greater
powers than he possessed. The system of Poor Laws
eitablished in this country was, he knew, frequently
productive of evil, and he had no intention to propose
the introduction of that obnosious system into Ire-
land. The Noble Earl who had manifested upon this
ground so much hostility to the appointment of a
Committee, might, therefore, Dismiss his apprehen-
sions. He was so far from being inclined to introduce
the abuses of the Poor Laws into Ireland, that he was
not even anxious to apply to that country the Act of
E'izabeth, as it was originally administered. He was
adverse to any system of permanent assessment for the
relief of able bodieJ labourers; hut there ss as a clause
in the Act of Elizabeth which might be adopted in
Ireland with advaatage—he meant that which provided
for the maintenance of the lame, the impotent, the aged,
and the sick. If tie should be able to prove that many
persons of these dectiptions were in a state of utter-
destitution, and that humanity was frequently sacri-
ficed for want of some provision for tie poor, he
should have made a case out for the serious conside-
ration of the House. He would be told that this
subject had been already investigated, and he was aware
that in any general investigation into the state of Ire-
land it could not have escaped notice; but he was at
the same time aware that it had only obtained an inci-
dental nonce, and that no inquiry had been entered
upon with a view to any practical result. It was un-
fashionable to talk of the relief of the poor, for even in
humanity there was a fashion, and any accidental cala-
mity engaged the attention of the public rather than the
permanent sufferings of a whole nation. The distress
of Zeeland deserved the attention of philanthropists
much more than the state of the slaves in the West
Indies. The Iris', labourer was worse fed and worse
clothed than the West India slave. He had, it was
true, liberty—the liberty of propagating a race to be
the inheritors of his wretchedness, and the liberty of
locomotion. The professors of that unintelligible science
cal Lid economy, would, if they could, deprive
him of the former, and the policy of England must
coon deprive him of the latter, for if he retained it,
E gland would be overrun, and its labouring popu-
lation he reduced to the level of Irish misery. Steam
navigation had the effect of a bridge between the two
countries, and the Irish people were pouring into Eng-
land with a frightful rapidity. The Noble Earl here
adverted to the evidence of Dr. Doyle and others, to
prose the habitual distress of the Irish people. He
confessed that in this state of things he had not any
distant remedy to propose, but he did not doubt that
Government had the power at least of mitigating these
evils. He thought the system of emigration more likely
to operate favourably to this country than to Ireland.
He knew that some parishes in England hail already
obtained relief from the evils of pauperism by the means
of emigration. But with respect to Ireland, the evil
was of too extensive a nature to he controuled by
the plan of the Emigration Committee, which li-
mited the expense to 1,400,0001. annually, to be con-
tinued for only three years—ninety four thousand
persons to be sent out each year. This was not enough.
The vacuum would be filled up as fast as it was created.
It had been proved to demonstration in a recent pam-
phlet, that by a law of nature the rate of increase of
population was inversely as the number of persons
actually existing on a given quantity of land ; as, for
instance, in Ulster, where the population was 251 to the
square mile, the rate of increase was 11 per cent. since
1821. In Leinster, where the population was 216 to
the square mile, the increase was at the rate of 16 per
cent. In Munster, where the population was 201 to
the square mile, the rate of increase was 20 per cent.;
and in Connaught, where there were only 162 persons
to the square mile, the increase of population was at
the rate of 28 per cent. From this it would appear
certain. that in the same proportion as emigration took
place, the rate of increase would become g few er. l'he
only effectual remedy, he believed, was the infusion of
capital into the country. This was the inducement
with many persons to vote in favour of the Union.
But the hopes then entertainel had been disappoint-
ed. And why had they been disappointed ?
cause Mr. Pitt was never able to carry the measure fully
into effect as he intended. It was stated by a Noble
Lord, who bore an important part in the transaction, that
one part of the plan was, to carry the great question of
Catholic Emancipation, to remove all religious disahi.
lilies, and thus to do away with the causes of discord,
jealousy. and tumult, which rendered it, io long as they
were suffered to exist, impossible that any great- eat
talists should think of settling in Ireland. It had been
said that the rich only were interested in that question.
But the statement was unfounded. One general senti-
ment with respect to it pervaded the ss hole country.—
He should despair of any important improvement in o e
situation of the peni.le of Ireland until that que•tir a
was set at rest, and all the irritation itsoccasioned F•.