The returns to the House ...
The Times, 1824-09-30T00:00:00

The rcturns to the hlouse of Commons of the quantity of land belonging to the Clhurch of Ireland, is a document ot fearful importance, andl one which cannot fail, we slhould tlhink, to draw, at an early perio(d of ncxt session, the most serious notice of Parliarnent. As cor(lial and steady mem- bers of the Established Church, it is impossible that we shoul(d feel otherwise than anxious to see thc venerable per- sons at the hea(d of it possessing all those worldly means which mray be condlucive at once to the maintenance of their dignity, and to an enlarged indulgence of bencficent and charitable dispositions. The Irish Bishops-even more than those of England-ought, first, to be selected with a nice regard to the temper and character of the candidate they ouglht, iext, to be raised to a considerable degree of affluence, because that element of splendour and power carries with it an authority alvays most felt where ci- vilization is most imperfect, and, moreover, becomes indispensable as one (though far, we acknowledge, from the only) instrument for protecting the very frame of the Protestant (Uhurch in Ireland from heing swept away by the intriguing, turbulent, and overbear- ing spitit of the Popish hierarchy, whichl is inow alive throughout the kingdom, an(d which tnanifestly emnploys thc discontent cngendered among the lay portion of the Catlholic borly by a tantalizing poliey of thie Governiment towards it, as a tool wherewitlh to work otit the ends of priestly amnbition. WVe repeat it, that affluenc must be one of the supports of a church which has for its assailant the Popish hierarclty of the sister kinglonm-pushing its way to Ltenporal aggrandizement over a rude people, by tangible atl substantial weapons. But a liberal provision for a refbrmede establishlnent is very diff.rcnt fromn that inordinate surrender of public property to the tncinbcrs of it, which constituted one of the mnost crying abuses of Popery iu forner times among oursclvcs -nore recently among the French-and at this inoient in the Spanish dominiionis. It was this frightful absorption of wealth by the Cihurch of England, whichl mainly served to provoke andl confirm the Refornation-which in France composed a principal item in the causes of the revolution- amid wlhichi will yet inifallibly prodtuce a seconid Spa- nish revolttiont. Yet we doubt, whlther in England luring the sixteenth centtury-in France at the middle of the eightcenth-or now, while we write, in Spain itself, cotid( so vast a proportion of the surface of the Cotln. try be claimed by the inagnates of the Catholic C(hurch for their inheritanec, as is retturned to Parlianment by the Irish Bishops in the papers te which we have re- ferred. 'T'hree or font instances of this mnay serve as sam- ples of this enormous peculiarity. Ilihe Primate, Lor(d J. BEnLsroimO , Archbishop of Ar- nmagl, has above sixty-three thousanld acres, of which inore than 50,000 are arablc. flis Grace is a mnan in mid(dle life, and of a licalthy cottstitution. Stipimose hiin to rttn his life against the leases let by his predecessor, le woul(d have tde power ot' rtiining perliaps a lhundred families, a;dt obtainitmg for himself a rack renit ef niot less thati 70,0001. or 80,0001. per annutm. The See of Dublitn has upwartls of 20,00) acres. MtMch of this being near the miietropolis, must be colnsicderecd as of cx- traordliumary value. But ei'ery thing is eclipsed_ by Derry: there we have 94.,000 Irish acres appropriated to mny Lord the Bishop-little shor-t of l5O,000 English acres ! and( should his Lordlship, at the beginning of his inicumbenicy, have thought fit to run Iiis life against the tenanits, hte would now,at the expiration of' 20 years, possess, we verily believe, a larger rent roll tiani any subject in the world. lhy, such an estate conmpared to the largest lay property, would be the tun of Heidelberg to a lady'; thiible: and yet it was this very sce which begged as.;islanee towards repairinig its own catlhetlral ! but which, by the lhorror into which it threw Mr. DAWSON on1 the occasion, has produced, we suspcct, this salutary exposure of' an evil which nzzust be removed.