The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-03-24 00:00:00

MARCH 2P, 1835.

-fightful to disgorge the plunder and pay for the follies of
the malcontents. But pay he must, for the present, and
during the term of all existing leases.
But the question arises—will the people gain any
thing by the transfer of the burthen ? We answer, No.
°n the contrary we feel assured that the commutation
will lead to more than an equal increase in the rent price
of land. It will not do so immediately, for that would be
a dangerous experiment; but that it will produce it
eventually we have no doubt whatever. For every shil-
ling that the peasant or farmer saves, in the shape of di-
rect tithes levied upon himself, he will, ere lung, be corn-
Pelled to pay two in the shape of rent to his landlord.
Ile will not only have to pay the tithes as heretofore, but
he will have to pay for the payment of them, just as a
man has to pay a banker, at a distance, for paying that
Which he cannot conveniently pay himself. The nomi-
nal relief is in fact an additional burthen. It is an al-
ternative imposed upon the government by stern neces-
sity It is the price which demoralization and crime pay
for the liberty of Netting law, and reason, and cominon
'ense at defiance. Tithes in Ireland are abolished ; but;
t° t►sea homely saying, thlise who have urged theirabo-
lition have leapt out oI the frying-pan into the fire—and
there we leave them.
If Sir ROBERT PEEL continue to pursue his present-
Course, lie will earn for himself everlasting renown, and
confer upon his Sovereign and his country incalculable'
and inestimable benefits. But, as regards Ireland, the
tuaster-u ork:has vet to be done. It is within his power.
'Now's the day, and note's the hour," as BURNS sang of
Bannockburn, amid the raging -elements of a moorland
storm. The "crowning cottquest" is the devising a well
adapted system of poor laws for Ireland. The right ho-
nourable baronet may carry his, dissenters' bill, his tithe
I'M, his church reform bill, and other valuable measures
called fur by the peculiar exigencies of the times ; but if
l'a stop short, without addressing all his intellect and his
Power to a scheme for the relief and stipport of the poor
of Ireland, he will throw away,the finest geM within.his
grasP, and make sport with , the chance of Undying re-
ttwit• We .are not of those who can be suspected' of
flattering Sir ROBERT PEEL,•RigI the right honourable
baronet knows it. We cannot, however, shut qur eyes
to the splendid prosPect which Opens before him; and,
Without fear or auction—with no wish but that which.
i 3 identified with the honotir and happiness Of our coun-
trY—we tell him in all sincerity, and we hope with be-
coming submission;• that he hai the power of doing that.
Which British statesmen have unfortunately neglected,
and which alone can unite Ireland in enduring bonds of
knion with Great Britain. We of course allude' .to a
cnnapulsory tai for the maintenance of the aged, the in-
6rtb, and the helpless poor of Ireland.
We shall not divide logical or philological straws with
the prime minister asto the meaning of the words "aged,
infirm, and helpless poor." These sort of verbal criti-
cisins are beneath the`notice'of a man of high talent 'and
unbending patriotism. The meaning is sufficiently de-
fined and pulpable enough to those who concur in the po-
licy, or beneficence of the objeet.• •We do not wish to en-
courage idleness or build asylums fur. the vicious or
the depraved. We desire nothing more than to execute
the designs of christianity, as regards Ireland,* and which
have hitherto been overlooked; It has • been made a
charge, even by many well. disposed and religious people
in England, that the . protestant church of Ireland has.
tilade no
progress in the work of conversion—that she
lids hardly kept her position—that she has not penetrated
the gloom of popish Oe.nightedness—that she has not
Wrestled with the powers of darkness and overthrown the
idols of Rome.

We admit it. We plead guilty, argumentatively, to
the indictment, and we can only do it under reservation,
because, being-neither orangemen, nor Irish proteStants,
liar Irishmen, we can only speak of that country histori-
cally,- and as dispassionate, observers. In that capacity.
we cannot but admit that the protestant church of Ireland
his made no progress. But we are bound likewise to
cuncede that-the Irish church. has not had fair play. The
Protestants of Ireland have been left to fight their own
hr,altics—to fight on
_the defensive against the church of
without-the aid of those temporal auxiliaries which
f al.-a:contributed so largely. to the outrooting of popery
l'ince the days of ELIZABETH.; The Irish proteitaiits
l'evef received aid from the secular institutions of the
state, Their weapons have, been purely spiritual.. The
Minister of religion had no means of coming into contact
the poorer population of his parish or district. if he
the opportunity of informing himself of their wants,
be had no power or funds out of which he migit have mi-
nistered to
,their necessities. He had churchwardens
without resources, between whom and the poor there
Were no natural alliaities, the one having nothing to give
and the other having nothing to receive. Charity being,
according to the.catholic faith, the first virtue, protestant-
i3lll was looked upon as a religion bereft of the graces of
thristianity—as a system founded upon spoliation which
had none of the redeeming qualities of generosity—
which captivated the rich but hod no allurements fur the
14°0r—which was a philosophy nicely suited for the
WCalthy and the independent, but which acknowledged
40 influence derived from the needy, the helpless, or the
Miserable.

It is with deep regret we confess that such has been
Protestantism in Ireland—made so and kept so by the
Protestants of England. When the reforMation had
41ade even a slight progress in England, it was found
tlecessary to make a provision for the poor. The act of
412.4.RETH gave us the poor laws. The infirm, the aged,
the houseless, the wretched, formerly relieved by the mo-
nastic institutions of pope.ry, were made freeholders by
jolieritauce and by residence upon the resources of the
country. The mendicant who knelt at the gate of a
Priory fur a loaf of bread was entitled to demand it from
the protestant overseer. It was an act of imperious ne-
"sBity. What had been alms before, ministering to re-
demption in the donor, became a freehold right to the
Pauper. What heliad begged for in the'lime of HENRY
V. 11. and HENRY VIM lie claimed as his due in the
tign of aszABETIL The very poorest of our popula-
ti°4---always the last to recognise a change,'far less a re-
vt,lution of a religious nature—saw .at once the advan•
.rages of protestantism in England. They turned pa the
tide of means and hospitality and charity turned. They
Were totally incapable of understanding• or appreciating
Principles. The poor man's creed is of narrow compass.
wafer god is to him a fact or a fiction—a: truth or a
lie--exactly as its assumption or rejection bears upon his
wrnforts, his necessities; or his happiness. Our foie-
fathers, whose wisdom is derided by certain blockheads,
Perfectly UnderstOod this. The ministers of EuzatiF;ra
Were better statesmen and :more accomplished
Pliers than %vete the tory ministers, of GiEoaoE IV-.
tOries acting upon whig principles. They • provided..fin
the poor—they brought voluntary alms into discredii—.
and they completed the protestant reformation.,.,
The same thing happened in Scotland. Sir Rour.irr
PEEL is only doing for Ireland what was done in Scot-
land some centuries ago. .He is snaking the provision
fur the clergyman dependent upon the income of the
landowner, or, in other words, lmismaking the proprietor
rand liable to the religious tax which had previously
1:?•'en imposed upon the tenant. This has for a long
Period been the Scotch practice, and it has. worked ad-
Wirably well. Bat it was also intimately connected with
!' State provision for the poor. In Scotland, every pan-
Per of three years' residence has a claim upon his parish,
4nd the justices of the peace can compel the overseers of
the poor to give him an allowance equal in his wants, or
4(ltnit him to the common- fire of the workhouses,, called"
in that country " hospitals." This claim also had its
rise in the destruction of the monasteries, and the netes,:
'!ities identified with the expediency of the reformation.
_Both in England and Scotland the change produced a
4steut of national and indispensable, but at the same
tittle of politic, beneficence.
In Ireland, no such auxiliaries in the cause of peace
and conversion Were provided. Protestantism there was
confined to the pulpit—or to chance. It was lofty in its
@bartteter—noble. in its bearing—pure in its principles;
hot •it exhibited no securities of an attractive and popu-
lar nature, calculatad to inspire confidence, or give to
the poor and illiterate peasant an earnest of disinterested
benevolence. He, therefore, as was natural, continued
to Adhere to his priest and his beloved idolatry: He