The new Bill for amending...
The Times, 1824-04-05T00:00:00

The new Bill for amending the Irish Tithe Composition Act is to be read a second time this day in the House of Cornmons. We were, from the outset, well incliRed to the measure as said to have been originally framed by the Irish authorities; nor did the alterations, by which it was after- wards distigured in this country, extinguish our hopes of its effecting much ultimate goodl. That some great effort of legislation was called for, with a view to adjust, so far as might be possible, the relative claims of the Established Church of Ireland, and of those millions of an adverse comnmunion who were compelled to form its chief sUpport, but were excluded from all share of its advantages, had long been equally obvious and discouraging to every un- biassed statesman. Those arguments by which tthe political necessity of an established religion may be defended, and, we think, demonstrated, in other countries, lose a full moiety of their inherent force when applierl to the existence of aProtestant Church,in anisland whose Popish inhabitants are to the Protestant in the proportion of 13 to ]. It mnay, indeed, be taken for granted, that an established charch which does not produce an attachment to its tenets among the people who support it by the fruits of their in- dustrn, and, still more, which does not tend to compose and tranquillize, ratber than to aggravate, the general dis- orders of the State, must have something radically vicious in its relationis to the mass of the comlmunity. Ve find, in Ireland, that the bulk of the )opulation arc affected to- wards the Establishment by two causes of disgust. Its principle revolts the higher class of' Catholics-its practice grinds downi and tormenits thepoorer.Itgains no increase to its own nrembers.Emigrationhassensiby thinned them-prase- lytism, instead of closing the gaps made by those who emi- grate, sets, we fear, in the opposite direction, and reduces y,et further the forces of the Protestant faith. To affirm, therefore, that in its practical infiusnce upon society the Church of Ireland lhas worked well towards the ends for which it was instituted, would bh to make a perfectly un- tenable declaration. Some arrangernent respecting tithe was unavoidable: but, unhappily, it offered a nearly dlesperate chance of success. The mischief was an- cient, inveterate, and growing: the prejudIces of the chureh were almost equal to those of its enemies. Any attempt, therefore, at reconciliation, or at curing these opposite evils, by a single course, wouli be a me. morable undertaking, whatever might be its immediate consequences. One great characteristic of the scheme since executed, was to restore the tithe on grass lands, which have been mostly held by the rich, and which had by them been exempted. Another was, the establishment of an average, according to which the clergyman could not lay claim, un- der the Composition Act, to a larger amount of tithe than he had before received. Now, it is plain that the joint effect of these two provisions would be to divide between the rich and poor a burden which had hitherto been borne exclusively by the latter-to reduce the tithe on tillage in the exact proportion to which the tithe of agistment ex- tended-to take off, therefore, from thepeasant a serious part of his grievance, and to meet the very pinch of his conmplaint. This diminution of the poor man's tithe has been of such extent in some counties of Ireland, as to make the differ- ence between 12s. an.l 1ld. per acre! The opposition to the bill has proceeded from the gentry: the clergy have em- braced it *vith eagerness; and the poor have not been behind them. The success of tho measure in one year has been, we must state, more signal than we had looked for, Lord LIVERPOOL having reported it at upwards of 270 parishes; or more than one tenth of the benefices through- out the kingdom. One amendment now proposedl by Mr. GouLsURN is, to take away some of those extra, votes from the large proprietors, by which they managed, in ma y instanices, to defeat the adoption of the bill; and of wvhich We cannot agree with Lord LANSDOWN in con- silering it unfair to deprive them. How men so in- terested as the lar,,e landholders in the general peace anl comifort of society could be induced by the temp- tation of a few pounds in the vear to reject a measure, the necessary consequence of wlich would be to stop all petty and harassing iitigation-to interpose a complete bar- tier between the tithe-proctor and the poor-to give a breathing time for prosecution and passion to subside in, rnd by securing property to enhance an hundred fold its value, we leave it. for Irish landlords to explain. We shall observe with patience, and not without confidence, the pro- gress of this original experiment on Irish mischiefs; and we trust that the anticipations of Losd LivsItrooL may not be eventually overturned.