The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-07-14 00:00:00

LORD MORPETH'S IRISH TITHE BILL

The following is an abstract of this measure:-
Ist. All the compositions under Goulburn's act, and the bill
introduced by Lord Stanley, should at once cease and deter-
mine.

2. With the arrears of 1831-32-33, it did not propose to med-
dle. The parties had the power of taking the money if they
chose. With the suits now pending nothing was to be done.
With regard to the arrears of 1831, in many parts of Ireland,
but particularly in the north, several landlords had undertaken
to pay the clergy the amount of th,,ir compositions, subject to a
bonus of 15 per cent., and about £102,000 had been thus under-
taken. It was proposed to keep the landlords to their liability.
It was also proposed to empower the privy council to recover
the arrears of 1831, subject to the deduction or 25 per cent.,
from the landlords who had a real estate in the land. In addi-
tion to these two amounts, it was proposed to dpply the residue
of the £1,000,000; and it further contemplated asking leave of
a committee of the house to introduce a clause to remit all sums
due from the protestant clergy of Ireland under the million act.
3d. It proposed to convert the existing tithe composition into
a rent-charge upon the first estate of inheritance. This rent-
.charge would be equal to seven-tenths of the amount of compo-
sition ; in other words, £7O out of £lOO. This would be sub-
jected to a charge of 6d. in the pound for the cost of collection,
which would reduce the actual amount of the rent-charge to
£6B ss.
4th. The clerical proprietor of tithes would receive £73 ss.
per cent., which would be /but a temporary charge. The dif-
ference of 5 per cent. to be placed in the perpetuity purchase
fund. '
sth. It meant to indemnify the country incumbents to the
amount of £75, to be paid from the perpetuity indemnity fund.
6th. After the amount of the rent-charge was fixed, it was to
be liable to no future variation except ou the couiposition now
made, and except by the price of corn at certain stated periods
It was also intended to provide that Lord Tenterden's act
should be extended to Ireland, as it was included in the bill o
last year.
7th. In parishes where there was neither church nor church-
men, the cure of souls should be committed to the neighbouring
minister with a stipend of £3 per annum.
Bth. In ally parish where there is no member of the church
of England, or in which there is less than 50, the presentation
to the living should be suspended; and then the ecclesiastical
commissioners, subject to the consent and approbation of the
lord-lieutenant and privy council, were empowered either to
assign that parish to the care of the neighbouring minister or
appoint a separate curate.
9th. They can in all cases provide a new church and appoint
a resident and separate curate, who should in such case have a
salary of not more than £75 a year.
10th. Where there is a separate curate, the use of the glebe-
house and so much of the glebe land was to be allowed to him.
In every parish where the cure of souls was committed to the
neighbouring minister, and that his own church was so situate
as not to afford accommodation to the spiritual wants or the
perfect worship of the members of the established church in the
auxiliary parish—in these auxiliary parishes, and also in those
parishes where a separate curate is appointed, means should be
taken to erect or establish a place of worship. In all such cases
they shall be built for a sum not exceeding £lOO, or hired yearly
at a cost not exceeding £l5 a year.
11th. 'Wherever provision was made to establish a place of
public worship, the archbishop of the province or the bishop of
the diocese would be associated with the commissioners pro /lac
vice. in such cases the commissioners would be authorized to
dissolve a, parish from the union to which -it might have be-
longed, but always with the consent and approbation of the
lord-lieutenant and council. They could assign it to a neigh-
bouring minister. In any other parishes not within those pro-
visions, after deducting 30 per cent. train the tithe commutation
the ecclesiastical commissioners were required, when the benefice
exceeded £3OO, to report the circumstance to the lord-lieutenant,
and they would be enabled to make such deductions as the
extent of the congregation and the duties to be performed re_
quired.
12th. The total number of parishes affected by the operation
of the bill would be 860, from which a revenue of £58,076 per
annum would arise; the surplus arising from which was to be
appropriated to the purposes of general education.