Letters have been address...
The Times, 1824-03-30T00:00:00

Letters have been ial(li-essedl to uS, for the apparent pur- pose of placing the Irish clergy and their tithes under a more favourable point of view than they had been consi- dlered in by a pamphlet on the tithe question, to wvhiclh we ha(l referred our rea(ders a day or twvo ago. It was then affirmed, that the peasants and small farmers are wvilling to deliver up their tithe in kind, but that the clergy are un- willing so to receive it; whence the natural inference would be, that the money price charged by the incumbent for his tithe exceeded the actual value ef the article. An intel- ligent correspondent admits the fact that the diLpo5ition of the parties has been correctly described, but accounts for it on difPerent grounds. He states, that the parishioners con- tinue to set out their tithe, all or many of them, on the same day ;-that this combination is assisted anii aogravat- ed by another, she object of wich is to debar the clergy- iran from the necessary mea vdrawing home his tithe, the labourers and even farmeF;ghout the whole neigh- bourhood refuising to worl for l?n, or to hire out their carts or horsat at any price that can be offered. To all these statements the answer is, that an act of Parliament was passed many. years since for punishing, as guilty of an un- lawful combination, any parishioners above the numyjber of two (if we iememberrightlv) whoshould servenotice onthe clergyman to draw his tithe on the same day. It is true- and it is a truth sufficiently deplorable-that the devices by which the law may be elule(i are such as no clergyman scarcely can defeat; but if he should succeed, by the loan of horses, &c., from the neighbouring gentry, in getting home the titheable commodities to his farm-yard, a new datiger then awaits him, inasmuch as the opportunity sel- dom fails to be seized by some iticen diary to burn the grain, and with it, possibly, the dwellifhg of the clergymiian, in re- venge for the strictness with uhich he has enforced his rigk ts. Now, can any reasona>e being allege that such are te relatioug which dught to QXtSt betvveen A Christian M;, mister and his ptrish ? Ought they to be at perpetual war with eaclh othier ? and ought the subsistence ordained by law for the Charch to make itself felt by the peopie of Ireland as a contribution levied on them by a public enemy, whom they are thus from day to day goaded on to detest, and, when occasion offers, to exterminame? Without venturing into details, or pretending to undervalue the difficuldes of such a subject, we shall merely hint at a sug- gestion of our correspondent (which tallies, we believe,with theprinciple of one of the measures brought last session into Parliawent), for buying up land as a distinct support for the established clergy, and as an effectual means of se- parating them from sordil altercations, and from every hostile contact -with the people. Poaoe to Ireland would be riches; no budiget ever invented by the most sagac ous financier would prove half so productive to the Treasury, as five short years of obliterated anger, of forgotten fac- tion, and of property secured. This we cannot have without a Glovernment strong enough to despise every party in that wretched island; for it is only such a Government that will be respected or trusted by them all. Can a dis- tracted people be tranquillized by a local Ministry, whose sole recommendation to Irish officewas the ple(dgetl disunion of its members amongst themselves ? If the LoiR) LIEU- TEXANT, the SECRETARY, the CHANCELLOR of Irelaiid, and the ATTORNEY-GENERkL, were each persuadetl that his own system for the government of Ireland was that by which alone she could be saved, ought not those of the above individuals who find themselves unable to carry their principles into execution, rather to resign at once, than to incur the reproach of utter insincerity in their pro- fessions, or of base cupidity in sacrificing both fame and country for the wages of a usele-s and' degradcd office ? The day for half-measures has long passed away: we must have men who can look at the wants of Ircland through some other mediumn than their own selfishness Aiur- ders and other outr;ges have multiplied of late in many Irish districts. *e believe that in its minor depart- ments, so far as the country magistrates and assistant^-br- risters are concerned, the adlministration of justice has iin- proved; but in some recent instances there is reason to fear that juries have exhibited a bias the most unfortunate and priju_ioial to the public peace. If an Oranige juryy sets n had example, can a Catholic be mu,h blamed when he follows it? Baron M'CLELLAND, in speakirg of a late Ribandman procession, distinctlv charged the Orangemen with having been the first offendlers, an;d censured the ima- gistracy for not having put down both. The courtesies whic-h have passe(I betwveen Scrgieani LE- FROY (sitting as Judge) anti Aessrs. GOOLn and O'CON- NxrLL, will throw light upon the amenity of somie of the parties.