
 <r'H 
 
 
 THE 
 
 CHURCH OF ROME IN IRELAND 
 
 IN ITS RELATION 
 
 TO 
 
 THE STATE. 
 
 i:- 
 
 ■ft 
 
 ■ - 
 
 iw' 
 
 
 «■ 
 
 
 ',?* 
 
 - ■..5 
 
 V'--* 
 
 '"1 
 
 ''•;i=" . ' 
 
 
 **«* 
 
 " 1| 
 
 >»--. 
 
 '• -/"'-.'■J 
 
 -4: 
 
 ^V« 
 
 -?*. ^ 
 
 t^' 
 
 •■«*>: 
 
 "■^'■■5E<?-' 
 
 ^- <5 
 
 
 iS A =>' ^ T ^ 
 
 

 f 
 
 \ 
 
THE 
 
 CHURCH OF ROME IN IRELAND 
 
 IN ITS RELATION 
 
 TO 
 
 THE STATE; 
 
 WITH 
 
 REMARKS ON THE QUESTION OF THE ENDOWMENT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGY. 
 
 Br WILLIAM SHEE, 
 
 SERJEANT- AT- LAW. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JAMES RIDGWAY, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1849. 
 
 \: 
 
'^ 
 
 I ovno V : 
 
 HAYNKR AND HOIXJKS, PHINTKHS, 
 
 loy. Fetter l,ane, Fleet Street. 
 
THE 
 
 CHURCH OF ROME IN IRELAND 
 
 IN ITS RELATION 
 
 TO 
 
 THE STATE. 
 
 The object of these pages is to bring under the notice of 
 unprejudiced men and of honest though prejudiced men, of all 
 creeds and parties, the relation which exists between the Roman 
 Catholic Church of Ireland and the State. An impression has 
 become generally prevalent, that the time has arrived for making 
 an attempt to improve that relation. The minds, not of states- 
 men only, but of candidates and constituencies, of all indeed 
 who take an interest in the public weal are in anxious expecta- 
 tion of a proposal from the government to that end. My own 
 opinion has long been, that a frank and cordial recognition of 
 the religious establishments and institutions of the Irish people — 
 such an adoption of them by the Legislature of the United 
 Kingdom as conscientious Catholics might accept, and con- 
 scientious Protestants support — would tend more to the suppres- 
 sion of social discord — to harmony between all classes of the 
 Queen's subjects — to the strength and security of the empire 
 than any other measure which could be devised. I believe 
 that an honest endeavour to attain so happy a consummation 
 would not be disappointed. It were a matter of deep regret, 
 that it should be retarded, by a vain struggle to obtain accept- 
 ance for distasteful, illtimed, impossible projects, and it is in the 
 earnest hope ot contributing to the good which may be intended 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 and of averting the evil to be feared, that I submit these 
 observations to the public. 
 
 Nothing can be more unjust or more obstructive to a due 
 consideration of the means by which existing evils may be 
 removed than to visit on the present generation, the sins of its 
 forefathers. The Roman Catholics were justly suspected in 
 times gone by of adhering to an exiled dynasty, and of an 
 intention to disturb the settlement of property established by 
 the English arms in Ireland. — Admitted. 
 
 The penal code, says Burke, was a machine of wise and 
 elaborate contrivance, and as well calculated for the oppression, 
 impoverishment, and degradation of a people, and the debase- 
 ment in them of human nature itself as ever proceeded from the 
 perverted ingenuity of man. — Admitted. But beyond deploring 
 historical truths by the assertion of which political and religious 
 feelings are too often embittered, what have we now to do with 
 them ? Our object should be to efface the memory of past 
 oppression from the minds of those whose ancestors were the 
 instruments, and of those whose ancestors were the victims of 
 it ; to mitigate as far as possible that conflict of interests which 
 had its origin in ancient injustice; by removing all present 
 causes of dissension, to make friendship possible between the 
 descendants of the vanquished and of the conquerors — and to 
 render all alike emulous to promote the happiness and pros- 
 perity of the great empire — to which, except when quarrelling 
 among themselves, they all glory to belong. 
 
 Let us, therefore, under the influence of a conciliatory and 
 charitable spirit, before we proceed to consider the existing 
 impediments to a more friendly relation between the Roman 
 Catholic Church of Ireland and the State, recall to our 
 remembrance the measures which in our own time, have been 
 passed, to better the condition of Catholics. Not long ago a 
 wish was expressed by (a) a distinguished Prelate of the 
 Irish Roman Catholic Church, one who has never shrunk 
 
 (a) Dr. Cantwell, Bishop of Meath. 
 
from an active and patriotic part in the constitutional 
 struggles of his countrymen — that some person competent 
 to the task, would undertake a new edition of Mr. Scully's 
 most able work on the Penal Laws, first published in 1812. 
 Scarce twenty years have passed since the time when 
 every page of that remarkable production bore evidence to 
 grievances affecting the civil and religious interests of the Irish 
 people, still avowed, unredressed, nay justified by their rulers. 
 Well do I remember, the wounded spirit, the sense of grief 
 and humiliation with which I first rose from its perusal. 
 
 When Mr. Scully wrote — Catholics were excluded from both 
 Houses of Parliament — from all offices of trust, honour, and 
 emolument in corporate cities — in the army and navy — or con- 
 nected with the administration of the laws. 
 
 They were oppressed by tithes and church-rates — by taxes 
 levied on them in every parish for purposes which they con- 
 demned, by vestries from which they were by law excluded. 
 
 The example set by the law in respect to offices, the approach 
 to which it had guarded by barriers which, no Catholic could 
 pass, was mimicked in every path to which human industry 
 can be directed, by almost all whose position in society placed 
 favour, promotion, employment, at their disposal. 
 
 His church and its pastors were ignored by the law and 
 constitution of his country, or known only for penalty and 
 restraint ; the bequests of the munificent of his communion for 
 pious and charitable objects, when not confiscated by direct 
 enactment, were perverted by qy pres construction, to purposes 
 the very opposite of those intended by their donors, and 
 even in his Sovereign's Courts of Justice, he felt — and had 
 reason to feel — that against a Protestant, however good his 
 cause, he had small hope of success (a). 
 
 Let us now advert to the statutes by which this miserable 
 
 (a) Scully's Penal Laws, Introduction, p. x. See also a Letter to the 
 Lord Bishop of Cashel, by the Rev. Baptist W. Noel, M.A., 1845. 
 Nisbet, Berners-street. 
 
 b2 
 
4 
 
 position has been changed. The reader, who knows the 
 practical operation and the motives which dictated the enact- 
 ment of some of them, may smile at their appearance in an 
 enumeration of Catholic successes. I don't conceal from 
 myself, the influence which the suggestions of expediency more 
 perhaps than the sense of justice, may have had in their enact- 
 ment; I am not insensible to their short comings, but they are 
 all, the results of legal constitutional remonstrance against injus- 
 tices, committed in the name and maintained for ages, under a 
 mistaken view of her own interest, by the power of England — 
 they are all recognitions by the English Legislature, of 
 the impolicy of adhering to a system, by which Irishmen 
 were treated as aliens in their native land — every one 
 of them, makes some heart-breaking chapter of Mr. Scully's 
 book, obsolete as the code administered by the Brehons of 
 old — and contains ground of hope, that a fair, sincere, honest 
 endeavour to establish such relations between the Church of 
 Rome in Ireland and the Civil Government of the Empire — 
 as may consist with the honour, character and conscience of 
 both, would, as it ought, to succeed. They are — 
 
 The Easement of Burials Act (a) ; the Tithe Composition 
 Acts (6); the Roman Catholic Relief Act (c) ; the Irish Church 
 Temporalities Acts {d) ; the Abolition of Tithes and Substitution 
 of Rent Charges Act(e); the Irish Municipal Corporation Reform 
 Act (/) ; the Repeal of Penalties on Catholic Clergymen cele- 
 brating Marriages between Protestant and Catholics Act {g) ; 
 the Act for the Relief of the destitute Poor in Ireland {h) ; the 
 Act for the Amendment of the Maynooth College Acts {i). 
 
 (a) 5 Geo. 4, c, 25. See post. 
 
 (b) 4 Geo. 4, c. 99—5 Geo. 4, c. 63—7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 60. 
 
 (c) 10 Geo. 4, c. 7. 
 
 (d) 3 & 4 Wm. 4, c. 37—6 & 7 Wm. 4, c. 99—3 & 4 Vict. c. 91. 
 
 (e) 1 & 2 Vict. c. 99. 
 (/)3 & 4 Vict. c. 108. 
 (ir) 3 & 4 Wm. 4, c. 102. 
 
 (h) 1 & 2 Vict. c. Gfi, ss. 48, 49. 
 (0 8 & 9 Vict. c. 25. 
 
5 
 
 Many of these statutes disappointed the benevolent intentions 
 of their authors, by the tincture of bitterness, which those who 
 had battened on religious discord, contrived to infuse into the 
 cup of concession. The Easement of Burials Act; the Muni- 
 cipal Corporations — Reform Act ; the Irish Church Tempo- 
 ralities Act ; the Bequests' Act ; even the great Act of Catholic 
 Emancipation, so bold, so free, so unqualified in its general out- 
 line, so honourable to the great men, who, adopting the cause 
 long advocated by their political rivals, made noble sacrifices 
 for its success, is not exempt from the trace of such littleness. 
 
 It surely had been more creditable to the Parliament of 
 1828, and more comfortable for the Parliament now about 
 to assemble, if when other Catholics were restored to their 
 civil privileges, the religious orders of the Roman Catholic 
 Church had not been anathematized and proscribed. The Irish 
 Church Temporalities Act again — the authors of which would 
 be entitled to all praise, if its object had been, not the Church 
 of a class, but the Church of a nation, is disfigured by the 
 same meanness. It had been better, as I think, for the credit 
 of the Establishment, to have diminished the incomes than 
 the number of the Irish bishopricks, but having resolved, 
 in defiance of the 5th Article of the Act of Union, upon 
 provisions for converting into money — the mensal lands, 
 demesnes and palaces of the supernumeraries, is it possible to 
 conceive any thing more paltry than the arrangement by 
 which the sale of them to the highest bidder was restrained, 
 lest the bidding should chance to be for the purposes of the 
 Roman Catholic Church ? (a) 
 
 By these Acts of Parliament, the Roman Catholic laity of 
 Ireland were admitted to many invaluable civil privileges, 
 and relieved from the extreme vexation of many irritating and 
 oppressive burthens, but the relation of their Church to the 
 State was in no respect altered. Not a word of their bishops 
 and clergy — their religious and charitable institutions — their 
 temples for the worship of God — their seminaries for the 
 (a) 3 & 4 Wm. 4, c. 37, s. 39, and 6 & 7 Wm. 4, c. 99, s. 16. 
 
6 
 
 education of the priests who were to minister in them, or the 
 maintenance of those priests in a station which excluded them 
 from all remunerative employment, to be found in the Act of 
 Union, or in any other statute passed by the Imperial Parlia- 
 ment, before the last administration of Sir Robert Peel. 
 
 In the year 1844, by an act (a) which repealed one of 
 the most oppressive of the merciless laws enacted by the 
 Irish Parliament against the faith of their countrymen, but 
 contained new, and uncalled for, restrictions on the pious 
 munificence of the Irish people, a churlish half civil notice was 
 taken of the fact, that men whose order, and apostolic succes- 
 sion, had always been recognised throughout the Christian 
 world, and at least as eagerly at Lambeth as at Rome were, not 
 indeed of the dioceses in which they exercised their functions and 
 possessed the affectionate venei*ation of a vast majority of the 
 people, yet still in some sense or other. Bishops and Arch- 
 bishops. Were it not pitiable, it would be amusing, to observe the 
 ingenious contrivances — the shuffle of words, by which since that 
 statute it has been contrived to evade — a frank admission of the 
 plain truth, that the Most Reverend Dr. Crolly, and the Most 
 Reverend Dr. Murray are as much the Roman Catholic Arch- 
 bishops of Armagh and of Dublin as St. Ambrose was Roman 
 Catholic Archbishop of Milan, or St. Athanasius of Alexandria. 
 The words " Roman Catholic " prefixed to their ecclesiastical 
 designation had surely sufficed to distinguish the titles by 
 which they were commonly known, and under which they 
 exercised their jurisdiction — from the titles guaranteed by law 
 to the prelates of the United Church of England and Ireland. 
 The shifts to which the Sovereign and her servants have been 
 driven in their official intercourse with these gentlemen, to 
 observe the courtesies of life, and the respect due to illus- 
 trious station, without absolutely violating the law, are of a 
 nature to excite compassion. " His Grace the Lord Archbishop 
 
 (a) The Act for the more effectual application of Charitable Donations 
 and Bequests in Ireland, 7 & 8 Vict. c. 97. 
 
7 
 
 William Crolly " is the elaborate title under which the Roman 
 Catholic Primate under the Queen's letters patent, takes his 
 seat at the Board of Charitable Donations and Bequests. 
 Lord Grey in his despatches to the colonial governors, reads 
 the act as meaning on this point what it ought to have 
 meant, and is suitably chastened for his misprision. Lord 
 Clarendon more versed in the amenities of verbal arrangement, 
 addresses his correspondence {a) to " Archbishop Murray, of 
 Dublin," atones for the informality prescribed by statute, by a 
 prodigal employment of the lawful expletives " My Lord," 
 and " Your Grace," and sometimes even ventures as far as 
 *' Your Grace's Diocese." The poor Irish priest, to whom 
 every thing that passes between his ecclesiastical superior, 
 and the ministers of his Sovereign, is matter of the deepest 
 interest, spells each line of the state document — notes the 
 caution with which scant courtesy to his order is extended — and 
 feels in his inmost soul, that the Church to the laborious 
 service of which his life has been vowed, is still " uncherished 
 as a good, still only tolerated as an inevitable evil !" 
 
 The act of the next year (6) was of a very different stamp, and 
 worthy of the statesmanlike capacity of the minister who pro- 
 posed it to Parliament. A sum of £7000, had in redemption 
 of a reluctant pledge given in a moment of alarm by the Irish 
 Parliament, been annually and with much opportunity of 
 religious heats and recriminations, paid to the Trustees of 
 Maynooth College for the education of young men intend- 
 ing to take orders in the Church of Rome. Utterly in- 
 adequate to the exigency to which it was applied, the regular 
 appearance of this miserable pittance in the estimates, was 
 felt by almost all thinking men, to be a recognition by the 
 Legislature, of its great duty of providing the means of educa- 
 
 (a) Letter of Lord Clarendon to Dr. Murray, enclosing extracts from 
 the amended Statutes of the Queen's Colleges in Ireland, 19th March, 
 1848. 
 
 (b) 8 & 9 Vict. c. 5. 
 
'".-J^S5?^-i"-- 
 
 8 
 tion foi those, whom Providetice had destined to be the spiritual 
 guides of the Irish People. Sir Robert Peel, resolved once 
 for all, to avow that obligation — to put an end to the mean 
 bickerings, the coarse insults which deprived the annual grant 
 of all its grace, and half its usefulness — and to increase its 
 amount to an extent, which must, with God's blessing, in good 
 time, secure to the Irish Catholic allar, a succession of Bishops, 
 priests and deacons, worthy as divines and scholars to stand 
 comparison with the clergy of any Church of Christendom, 
 Catholic or Protestant, in its palmiest days. Those who 
 piously believed that increased knowledge was alone required 
 to dispel the darkness and error of Popish superstition, were no 
 doubt comforted by the certain hope of seeing their theory 
 verified — men who, like Sir Robert Inglis, had more oppor- 
 tunities of observing the compatability of obstinacy, and 
 learning, entertained doubts whether the Aquinases and 
 Bellarmines of whom Maynooth was thenceforth to become 
 the Alma Mater, would be more likely to abandon their faith 
 than those whose imperfect education rendered them less 
 competent to defend it. But the statesman, by whose order 
 the act was drawn, set their fears and their scruples at naught. 
 He was legislating for the Church of a Catholic people, a 
 Church which he felt to be possessed of incalculable influence 
 for good or for evil, and which it was no longer safe to exclude 
 from the conservative policy of the Empire. . By that brave 
 bidding for Catholic confidence, he effaced the last remnant of 
 the still lingering memory of his early parliamentary career. For 
 a time at least, there was more joy over the one who had 
 repented, than over the ninety-nine who had always been just, 
 and whose sacrifices for conscience sake to the cause of their 
 Catholic fellow subjects had been the brightest feature of their 
 political lives. Nor in this, nor in the great reparation made 
 by him twenty years before, was he false to the principles 
 which have governed his public conduct. His defence, if 
 defence he can ever need, will be found ages after the memory 
 
9 
 
 of his detractors shall have perished, in the principles laid 
 down more than fifty years ago for the guidance of British 
 statesmen, by the first and ablest expounder of conservative 
 principles, Edmund Burke. 
 
 " My humble and decided opinion is, that the three religions, 
 prevalent more or less in various parts of these islands, ought, 
 all, in subordination to the legal establishments, to be counten- 
 anced, protected, and cherished ; and that, in Ireland particu- 
 larly, the Roman Catholic religion should be upheld in high 
 respect and veneration, and should be, in its place, provided 
 with all the means, of making it a blessing to the people who 
 profess it." (a) 
 
 The eflTect of this practical indication of the bent of an 
 eminent statesman, has been to direct public attention to the 
 n)eans of surmounting, what he had before avowed to be the 
 great difficulty of government, by improving the relation of the 
 Roman Catholic Church of Ireland to the State. And the only 
 project which has yet been put forward for the attainment of 
 that object is the measure which now meets us at every turn, in 
 a shape more or less defined, — The Endowment of the Roman 
 Catholic clergy. 
 
 Imagine a proposal conceived in the most liberal and 
 friendly terms, free from all compromise of religious prin- 
 ciple on either side, of a competent and secure provision 
 for the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland, exempt from the 
 ceaseless fret of Parliamentary debate, and arranged upon a 
 plan which shall not, in the least degree, interfere with the 
 doctrine, discipline, canonical constitution, and episcopal juris- 
 diction of their Church. All these qualities I assume, because 
 I know that a project deficient in any of them must, be lost 
 upon the rock of conscientious objection. 
 
 Could it be honourably accepted ? 
 
 Let us consider who the parties to the compact must be, that 
 we may judge what befits them both, in the relation which they 
 
 (a) Letter to William Smith, Esq. 
 
10 
 
 hold to each other, and to the interests committed to their charge. 
 The State — the government of an empire over which a Pro- 
 testant sovereign reigns, the chief advisers of whom, as well as 
 the Legislature through which they rule, must in the main be 
 Protestants, that is, opposed to the interests of the Catholic 
 faith, — of an empire, nevertheless, which opens to the industry, 
 the learning, the valour, the ambition, of the Irish Catholic nation 
 — the noblest opportunities of distinction that ever stimulated 
 the energies of mankind, — a government, to which the bishops 
 and clergy of Ireland owe and inculcate submission in all things 
 lawful, in obedience to the divine precept, of rendering to Caesar 
 the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are of 
 God. The Roman Catholic Church of Ireland — not such as it is 
 frequently presented to us, in the heat and excitement of party 
 and religious discussion, but in the character which its origin, 
 history, and constitution, the space it fills in the eye of Christen- 
 dom, the power it exercises, the perils it has survived, have 
 impressed upon it. Were it possible to forget the lustre which 
 antiquity throws around that Church — the spectacle of a Reli- 
 gious Society, the priests of which have, for more than three 
 centuries, been dependent for their daily bread, and for all the 
 means of exercising their sacred functions, on the bounty of the 
 poorest people of the earth, still fulfilling the main purposes 
 of its establishment, and confronting, in dignified independence, 
 the proud and hostile government, by which it has been dis- 
 owned — can't be contemplated without feelings of respect and 
 admiration. Four archbishops and twenty-three bishops, re- 
 presenting an unbroken hierarchy of fourteen centuries, in 
 communion with the successor of the Apostle at Rome, and 
 with more than a thousand prelates, testifying to the same 
 faith, in all parts of the known world, may be excused for not 
 grasping too readily, at arrangements for their personal comfort, 
 without due regard to their honour, dignity, and duty. The 
 Catholic Churches of Germany and of France, of Spain, Italy, 
 and the Melherlands — of Asia, Africa, and the Americas, will 
 
n 
 
 not, it may be hoped, be put to shame by any unworthy con- 
 cessions of their Irish sister ; nor will she, in all probability, 
 deserve to be thrown oflp, in the face of the nations, for her 
 greed of gold, her corruption, or her servility, by the poor but 
 faithful people whom she serves. 
 
 That we may not, however, be misled by general considera- 
 tions, from the practical question which we shall soon be 
 called upon to decide, it may be well to realize to our mind's 
 eye the position of a Roman Catholic bishop and his clergy, and 
 the state of society in which they live and have their being. 
 
 I select a diocese, the comparatively fortunate position of 
 which, enables me to depict, without fear of oiFence or exaggera- 
 tion, a condition of things in all Irish dioceses, which, not for 
 the sake of this Church or that, but for the sake of religion itself 
 Christian men of every creed must deplore, a diocese, which a 
 venerable prelate, who had for twenty years presided over it 
 with consummate wisdom, has just left for his Reward (a), in 
 the affairs of which I am no intruder — with the condition of 
 which, by frequent residence during the last ten years, I have 
 had opportunities of becoming personally acquainted. 
 
 The see of Ossory, if we may rely on the authority of 
 Usher and of Ware, was founded in the fifth century by St. 
 Kyran, at Seir Kyran, a small village of the Queen's County, 
 still known by his name. Thence it was removed to 
 Aghavoe, and finally, in the t%velfth century, to Kilkenny, 
 where the Cathedral of St. Canice, a spacious gothic temple, 
 two hundred and twenty-six feet long, one hundred and 
 twenty-nine broad, divided into nave, aisles, transept, choir 
 and chancel, admirably adapted to the accommodation of 
 a populous city, and to the suitable display of the pomp and 
 splendour of the Catholic worship, was erected. This Church, 
 with the assistance of the Churches of the Franciscan and 
 Dominican Abbeys, and the great Abbey of St. John, sufficed 
 
 (a) Dr. Kiiisella. 
 
12 
 
 probably until the Reformation, to the citizens of Kilkenny, 
 for the purposes of their public worship. In matters of religious 
 belief and practice they were then all of one mind ; of the same 
 mind as the vast majority of them are now (a). 
 
 The auguries which attended the introduction of the new 
 learning into Ossory, were not auspicious. Bale, the virulent 
 and acrimonious impugner of Popery, was the first Bishop of 
 the Reformed Faith. The constancy of Cromer, an Englishman, 
 and Primate of Armagh, in his opposition to the spiritual pre- 
 tensions of Henry, and the excommunication" pronounced by 
 his successor, Dowdal, against all who should presume to use 
 ** the translation of the Church service into the mother tongue" 
 which the proclamation of Edward enjoined, had given heart 
 and confidence to the adherents of Rome. Dowdal's scornful 
 expression, that by the help of the English liturgy, any illiterate 
 fellow might read mass — his deposition, and the elevation of 
 Hugh Goodacre to the primatial dignity, were still fresh in the 
 mouths of the people, when Bale's appointment was announced. 
 He chose the occasion of his consecration by Archbishop Browne, 
 one of the five Bishops who had conformed, to outrage the 
 religious feelings of the faithful. As no law had yet been passed 
 to authorize the order prescribed by the Ritual of the Reformed 
 Church, and the people were hostile to its use, Goodacre, who 
 was also to be consecrated, had agreed with Browne, that the 
 Roman Rubric should be observed. But Bale, in the midst of 
 the ceremony, refused to abide by the arrangement. On sight 
 of the wafer which had been prepared for the communion, he 
 hurried up the steps of the altar, rebuked the condescension of 
 the new Primate, complained of fraud and imposition, and 
 insisted that the service should be suspended until common 
 bread was procured. Browne and his attendant prelates were 
 
 (a) The population of Kilkenny, according to McCulIoch, consists of 
 21,000 Catholics — 2741 Protestants of all denominations, but principally 
 of the Established Church. 
 
13 
 
 awed into submission (a). The people fled in liorror from the 
 Church, nor were his clergy ever reconciled to their Diocesan. 
 During the short period of his stay in Ireland, he lived in a 
 perpetual state of alarm and conflict. On his first attempt 
 to preach in his Cathedral he was contradicted by the dean 
 and the prebendaries. He returned to his castle amid the 
 yells and execrations of an incensed multitude. Five of his 
 domestics were slain before his face, and his life only saved by 
 the vigorous exertions of the civil magistrates (6). 
 
 Elizabeth, at her accession, resolved to have the law on her 
 side. In the second year of her reign, it was enacted by the 
 Parliament of Ireland (c) — that all the acts of her sister Mary, 
 by which the civil establishment of the Roman Catholic 
 religion had been restored, should be repealed — that all officers 
 or ministers, ecclesiastical or lay, should, on pain of forfeiture 
 and total incapacity, take the oath of supremacy, and that every 
 person who should maintain the spiritual supremacy of the 
 Bishop of Rome, should forfeit all estates, real and personal, 
 for the first offence, incur a praemunire for the second, and be 
 guilty of high treason for the third. 
 
 " And that all and singular ministers in any Cathedral or paroch 
 
 (a) Bale himself, in his " Vocacyon of John Bale to the See of 
 Ossorie," gives a curious account of this scene. He says that Browne, 
 whom he calls an Epicure, a glutton, a loiterer, and a beast, purposely 
 delayed his consecration, that he might pocket, as his metropolitan, the half- 
 year's revenue of his lyvinge. According to him, Lockwood, of Christ- 
 church, " that blockhead," and " asse-headed dean," proposed the observance 
 of the Roman Ritual, and Goodacre and Browne consented through fear of 
 a tumult. On Bale's insisting that a white manchett should be sent for, and 
 threatening to report their contumacy, Browne conformed with a bad 
 grace — and in an " unsaverly way," as if he did not like that mode of 
 partaking the " Lord's Supper." 
 
 (Z») These outrages, says Leland, are pathetically related, but we are 
 not informed what imprudences provoked them, or what was the intem- 
 perate conduct which his adversaries retorted with such shocking 
 barbarity. Book 2, p. 200. 
 
 (c) A transcript of the English statute of the same date. 
 
14 
 
 Churcli within the reahn of Ireland, shall, from and after the 
 Feast of St. John the Baptist next ensuing, he bounden to say and 
 use the mattens, even song, and celebration of the Lord's Supper, 
 and administration of each of the Sacraments, and all their com- 
 mon and open prayer, as is mentioned in the Book of Common 
 Prayer, and administration of Sacraments and other rites and 
 ceremonies in the Church of England, authorized by the Parliament 
 of England, of the 5^6 years of the raigne of King Edward the 
 Sixth," under pain in case of their refusal, or of their using any 
 other rite or ceremony, of forfeiture for the first offence, of one 
 year's profits of their benefices and six months' imprisonment ; for 
 the second offence, of one year's imprisonment and deprivation of 
 their benefices, at the pleasure of the patron ; and for the third 
 offence, of absolute deprivation of their benefices and imprisonment 
 for life. 
 
 " And that from and after the sayd Feast of St. John the Baptist, 
 all and every person and persons whatever living within this realm, 
 shall diligently and faithfully, having no lawfid or reasonable 
 excuse to be absent, resort to their paroch churche or chappell 
 accustomed, or to some usual place, where common prayer and 
 such service of God shall be used upon every Sunday and holy 
 dayes, and there abide orderly and soberly during the time of 
 common prayer, preachings or other service of God, upon pain 
 of the censures of the Church, and of forfeiture of 12c?. for 
 every offence, to be levied by the churchwardens for the use of 
 the poor." (a) 
 
 " And forasmuch as every common priest or minister hath not 
 the knowledge of the English tongue, and for that the same may 
 not be in the native Irish language, as well for the difficultie to 
 get it printed, as that few of the whole realm can read the Irish 
 letters, that it shall be lawful for the said common minister or 
 priest to use and say the said mattens, even-song, celebration of 
 the Lord's Supper, and administration of each of the Sacraments, 
 and all their common and open prayers in the Latin tongue." 
 
 The manner in which this covert attempt to compel the adop- 
 tion of the English novelties was met by the bishops and 
 
 (a) Repealed by 9 & 10 Vict. c. 59. 
 
15 
 
 clergy of the Irish Church need hardly be mentioned here (or). 
 Deprivation, imprisonment, death, were preferred by them to 
 submission. Their people " went out" with them to the hill 
 tops (a), to hear the word of God from the lips of men whose 
 sincerity was above suspicion ; and assist at the celebration of 
 the solemn mysteries of their religion, by confessors too happy 
 to become martyrs in its cause. It was long before Reformed 
 Ministers could be found to supply the places of the clergy 
 who thus abandoned their cures. "The churches," says 
 Leland, " fell to ruin ; the people were left without religious 
 worship or institution, even in places of most civilitie ; and the 
 statutes lately made were evaded, or neglected with impunity." 
 As years rolled on, clerks more obsequious were placed and 
 maintained in the vacant benefices by the power of England, 
 and, for the first time in the history of any Christian land, the 
 monstrous spectacle was presented, of a church without a people 
 — a people without a church ! The statute of Elizabeth, re- 
 enacted after the troubles of the Commonwealth, by the 17th of 
 Charles 2nd, c. 6, is still the law. Still, in every parish, on every 
 Sabbath day, in front of the parish church, the descendants of 
 the men who first defied its terrors, protest against its injustice ; 
 nor is the desolation worked by it in the holy places any where 
 more conspicuous, than within the echoing aisles and untrodden 
 precincts of St. Canice. 
 
 Yet the behest of Elizabeth is no where more religiously 
 obeyed. A dean, precentor, chancellor, archdeacon, treasurer, 
 or one of seven prebendaries, enjoying incomes in right of their 
 dignities, and of the " benefices forming the corps thereof," 
 varying from 130/. to 2500/. per annum, reads and prays six 
 days of every week to the vacant stalls; on the seventh, to such 
 rare worshippers as may chance to prefer the service of the 
 cathedral to the more commodious sittings at St. Mary's, 
 capable of accommodating 700 ; or St. John's, capable of 
 
 (a) Leland, vol. 2. See also the letter of Sir Henry Sidney to Queen 
 Elizabeth, in the 18th year of her reign, in which he describes the state 
 of the diocese of Meath. Ibid, p. 320. 
 
16 
 
 accommodating 250 persons, and amply sufficient for the wants 
 of the Protestant population. St. Canice has also a corpora- 
 tion of vicars choral, with revenues derived from the rents of 
 houses, lands, and tithes of parishes held under them, the 
 amount of which is unknown but to themselves (a). An 
 ample Economy Fund provides for the organist, verger, sexton, 
 sextoness, singing girls, bellows blowers, beadles, and bell- 
 ringers, who are required for the service of the Church, 
 and for the maintenance of its fabric in that excellent state 
 of preservation, which Catholics and Protestants — the former 
 possibly with something like the feelings of reversioners — 
 are delighted to contemplate. Close to the cathedral is the 
 deanery, now occupied by one, foremost in all good works, 
 whose fortune, were it large as the poor could wish it, would 
 sink under the benevolence of its dispenser. At the back 
 of it is the episcopal palace, a handsome residence, surrounded 
 by about forty acres of ornamental ground, and improved during 
 the last thirty years at a charge, most moderate for an Irish 
 See house, of about 3300/. 
 
 Spite of the irremediable falseness of his position, and the 
 infirmities which weighed upon his latter years, the remem- 
 brance of the last Protestant prelate, who enjoyed the tempo- 
 ralities of Ossory, and of his family, is still respectfully cherished 
 by their neighbours of both the Churches. But neither high 
 attainments, nor unblemished character, nor distinguished 
 
 (a) These gentlemen profitting by the "kind memento" of Burns, 
 " Aye free afF 'han your story tell, 
 When wi a bosom crony, 
 But still keep something to yoursel, 
 Ye scarcely tell to ony." 
 declined, in 1 834, to discover to the King's commission, the annual renewal 
 fines received from their lessees, or by what principle they had been 
 regulated. This was the only instance of the kind. The answers to the 
 queries of the commissioners were in all other cases unreserved. The 
 beneficed clei'gy of the Irish Church, relying, as they well may, on the 
 security of vested interests — placed the fullest information within their 
 power, at the disposal of the Crown. 
 
17 
 
 alliance, nor the influence derived from the patronage of dig- 
 nities and benefices, the rents of messuages and of manors, and 
 a life interest in 21,730 acres of "profitable land," sublet at 
 enormous usury, by a lucky tenantry of lords and squires, and 
 magistrates, could save his bishoprick from the fate of all insti- 
 tutions which are at war with the nature of things. Though se- 
 cured "for ever" — " permanently and inviolably," by the Articles 
 of Union (a) and the Roman Catholic Relief Act (i), it has 
 been cut off by the Legislature as a superfluous sinecure in the 
 Church ! Reduced to the level of Old Leighlin, its patronage 
 and spiritual jurisdiction have been transferred, under Lord 
 Stanley's Act, to the richer diocese of Ferns ; its revenues are 
 vested in commissioners for the general purposes of the 
 Establishment ; and a few years hence it will be no more 
 remembered than the bishoprick of Clonmacnoise, Glandelagh 
 or Emly. 
 
 Yet wielding the same jurisdiction as was exercised in the 
 5th century by the Saint of Seir Kyran, bearing testimony to 
 the faith which Kyran went to Rome to learn, and which the 
 noble pile of St. Canice was built to perpetuate, there is still 
 a Bishop of Ossory ! Placed in a region above the career of 
 political storms; independent of the whims of statesmen and the 
 breath of parliaments, his see stands upon foundations, very 
 different from those which have just slipped from the feet of its 
 departed sister. His revenues, consisting of the voluntary 
 offerings made to him as the parish priest of two parishes of his 
 cathedral city, containing together a population of about 10,000 
 souls ; and the united annual contributions of clergymen minis- 
 tering in one hundred and eight chapels of his diocese, assure 
 to him a position, not probably of affluence, but of independ- 
 ence. Of 44,000 heads of families, inhabiting the county of 
 Kilkenny and one barony of the Queen's County, 36,000 at 
 least, acknowledge his spiritual authority. I shall not presume 
 
 (a) Article 5. (*) 10 Geo. 4, c. 7, s. 24. 
 
18 
 
 to trespass on my personal recollection of kindness received 
 during the last twenty years, from three Catholic Bishops of 
 Ossory, further than to assure such supporters of the voluntary 
 system as I trust may read these pages, that no discredit is 
 thrown upon their principles by his house or establishment. 
 
 Around him, on all sides, arise evidences of the untiring 
 zeal of his predecessors, in the cause of education and reli- 
 gion. Two chapels, capable of containing 6000 persons, 
 built during the last ten years, one of them almost shaded 
 by the old tower of St. Canice, and as large as its deserted 
 nave; the restored Dominican abbey, with its magnificent 
 window, and the chapel of a Capuchin convent, now in course 
 of erection by its exemplary guardian (a), bear noble testimony to 
 the piety of the people. A convent of nuns, of the Presentation 
 Order, supplies gratuitous education to poor female children. 
 St. Kyran's College, connected by Royal Charter with the 
 University of London, a spacious building, in the domestic style, 
 founded by the late Dr. Kinsella, is the ecclesiastical seminary of 
 the diocese. The gradual completion of a new cathedral, of beau- 
 tiful design and material, commenced by the same prelate, has 
 only been suspended by the awful visitation with which it has 
 pleased Providence to afflict the country. While millions were 
 being spent on works of doubtful utility, what a glorious opportu- 
 nity was lost of converting this, and similar unfinished structures, 
 in all parts of Ireland, into monuments of national regret for 
 national injustice and spoliation ! It, too, has its dean and chap- 
 ter, its precentor, treasurer, archdeacon, and prebendaries; all of 
 them also parish priests, and depending, like their bishop, for 
 support, on the gratitude and the justice of their flocks. 
 
 The opinion is now openly, and " with the deepest concern 
 and most reluctant conviction," avowed, " that if a reasonable 
 and honourable State Provision for the Roman Catholic clergy 
 
 (a) This man, the Rev. Peter Mulligan, literally sold all he possessed 
 during the famine, and gave it to the poor. He is struggling now to 
 provide employment by building the chapel of his convent, which convent 
 is proscribed by the Relief and Bequests' Acts. 
 
19 
 
 of Ireland be not adopted, the Established Church of Ireland 
 will be swept away" (a). 
 
 Those who know nothing of the Roman Catholic clergy 
 assume, that the discontent which prevails, more or less, in all 
 parts of Ireland, is stimulated and fomented by them, that 
 they are moved to this unworthy course by the inferiority of 
 their worldly circumstances, as compared with those of the 
 ministers of the Established Church, and that the surest mode 
 of shoring that Church, against the irresistible pressure which 
 threatens its destruction, is to take the former possessors of its 
 property — its natural enemies into pay. Once released from de- 
 pendence upon their flocks, they are expected to take a business- 
 like, common sense view, of the ecclesiastical arrangements of 
 their country — and to become gradually reconciled to a system, 
 which, however objectionable in theory — will, at least, have 
 the practical merit, of providing handsomely for themselves. 
 No greater mistake can be made than that which is involved 
 in this mode of reasoning. If there be one thing more 
 striking than another, in the conduct and conversation of the 
 Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland, it is their unwillingness to 
 take part, or engage their people, in measures of hostility to 
 the Established Church. Not that they are guilty of the 
 duplicity of pretending, any interest in its stabihty — or insen- 
 sible to the manifold mischiefs which result from the social 
 discord which it engenders and feeds, but that they fear a 
 contrary course might make the condition of those for whom 
 they are most solicitous, worse even than it already is. 
 
 The Acts by which rent charges have been substituted for tithes 
 — parish cesses and church rates abolished, have put an end to 
 the lamentable collisions which formerly took place between 
 the peasantry and the collectors of the Church revenues. 
 
 The owners of lands and houses, and the employers of 
 labour are in great part Protestants ; the small tenants and 
 labourers for the most part Catholics. 
 
 (a) Quarterly Review, December, 1848, p. 298. 
 
 c2 
 
20 
 
 Looking to the patronage of their Church as to a means 
 of providing for their families, the former have the deepest 
 interest in discouraging any movement which may have 
 a tendency to disappoint their expectations. When shared by 
 not more than 120,000 families, the chance of obtaining one 
 out of 139 dignities, of which the net annual income is 
 24,478/.; one of 178 prebends, the net annual income of 
 which is 7894/. one of 1395 benefices, with an average net 
 income in the provinces of Dublin or Cashel, of 336/. 2s, Ifc?. — 
 in the provinces, in Armagh and Tuam of 421/. 2s. ll^d.{a) — 
 and next thing to nothing in the world to do, is too good 
 to be sacrificed to any primitive tenderness for the dictates of 
 a dependent's conscience. Evictions, notices to quit, loss of 
 custom and of employment, would be the sure and certain fate 
 of the village disturber, who should dare to fret under the 
 yoke of the ascendency. None know this better than the priests ; 
 and they forbear, in mercy to their people. 
 
 But it is one thing to submit in peace to unjust laws — 
 another to become accomplices in the wrongs they perpetuate. 
 By whatever sleight of legislation the fact may be veiled, the 
 Catholic clergy know, that the weight of the Establishment is 
 on the poor. Every where else, the sustentation and suitable 
 adornment of the churches, in which the majority of the people 
 worship — as well as the expenses of that worship — and the 
 maintenance of its ministers, are thrown by law upon the 
 land. It is so in England and in Scotland — and in theory 
 also in Ireland (a). He who neither toils nor spins, and yet is 
 secured in all the comforts and luxuries of life, may well spare 
 
 (a) It may be here observed, that the incomes hereafter stated are the 
 net incomes returned by the incumbents, in 1 837, to the Ecclesiastical Com- 
 missioners of Ireland, under the 3 & 4 Wm. 4, c. 37. By the 1 & 2 Vict. 
 c. 109, so much of the gross income as was derived from tithe composi- 
 tion is reduced by one-fourth, and converted into rent-charge. This 
 rent-charge has priority over all other charges, liens, mortgages, &c^ 
 affecting the lands chargeable therewith, but it is subject to deductions, 
 on account of the poors' rate, under 1 & 2 Vict, c 56, and 1 & 2 Vict, 
 c. 109, s. 25. The gross incomes will be found in the Appendix. 
 
21 
 
 the cost of the building, in which, once in the week, the artificers 
 of his fortune, hope to be sheltered from cold and rain, while 
 they listen to the only lessons which can make them contented 
 with their lot. In Ireland, these charges fall on small freeholders 
 and farmers, already fleeced by the proctors of a hostile creed, 
 or on peasants doubtful of their next day's meal ! 
 
 Every pound of rent-charge paid to the minister is at 10c?. 
 per day, a month's wages lost to an agricultural labourer. A 
 nation, the industry of which is oppressed by the burthen of 
 two such establishments as the establishments of the Church of 
 England and of Rome in Ireland — must reel and faint under 
 the load. It is idle to palter with the truth. The charge 
 of the latter alone, precarious and inadequate as it is to 
 the exigencies of its position, is as much as the country 
 can bear. Were the large item required for the maintenance 
 of the present Catholic clergy — provided from other sources — 
 the supply of districts now destitute of spiritual care, the 
 building, rebuilding, enlarging, and decoration of churches — 
 the endowment of schools, orphanages, and diocesan semina- 
 ries, particularly as now restrained (a) — would still leave for 
 years to come but a small surplus of the revenue collected by 
 the Roman Catholic Church. 
 
 But let us accompany the dean, archdeacon, chancellor, 
 precentor, and prebendaries of St. Canice, to the benefices 
 which form the corps of their dignities and prebends, and in 
 which they have cure of souls, and see whether it be worthy of 
 the Queen's government, to offer — of the Churchmen and Dis- 
 senters of England to permit — of the Catholic clergy to accept, 
 a pecuniary compromise with the existing system. I avoid the 
 mention of names because it is far from my wish to give pain, and 
 because most of the individual clergymen to whom reference is 
 made, are not only entirely innocent of the evils which I deplore, 
 but by their considerate and charitable conduct contribute much 
 
 (a) 7 & 8 Vict. c. 97, s. 16. 
 
22 
 
 to their mitigation. Be it remembered, that all the charges 
 which formerly in Ireland as now in England were provided for 
 by Church-rates, are since 3 & 4 Wm. 4, c. 37, defrayed by 
 the ecclesiastical commissioners, out of funds placed at their 
 disposal by Parliament. These funds consist of the revenues 
 of suppressed bishopricks and dignities — of benefices in which 
 Divine service had not been celebrated during three years pre- 
 vious to 1st February, 1833, and of a graduated tax varying 
 from ^^ to 15 per cent, on all ecclesiastical incomes not 
 exceeding 300^ The building, rebuilding, enlarging, and 
 repairing of churches — the fencing of churchyards — the pro- 
 viding of Bibles, Prayer Books, Communion elements, stoves, 
 candles, surplices and other things necessary for the celebration 
 of Divine worship, fall under this head. A sum of about 
 35,0001. (a) is annually disbursed, by the commissioners, for 
 the expenses of Divine worship alone. For several years an 
 outlay of not less than 50,000^. was incurred for the repair, re- 
 building, and enlargement of churches. That item in the 
 estimates is now decreasing, and there is no doubt — that the 
 churches, such as they are, throughout Ireland, are in perfect 
 order and preservation. As respects the diocese of Ossory I 
 infer from the fact, that the commissioners have found it neces- 
 sary to rebuild only two — that of Kells (b), capable of accommo- 
 dating 200 — that of Offerlane(c), capable of accommodating 400 
 persons, and to enlarge only one, that of Kilculliheen, capable 
 of accommodating 200 persons, as well as, from the general 
 appearance of those I have seen, that they afford abundant 
 church room for the Protestants of the parishes in which they 
 are situate. 
 
 Aghavoe — with a net income of 526/. Ss. id., a population of 
 6196, and a church "capable of accommodating" 200; — Offer- 
 
 (a) See their Reports to the Lord Lieutenant for 1846, 1847, and 1848. 
 
 (b) At an expense of 687Z. 13«. 10c?. 
 
 (c) At an expense of 121 U. 7s. 5d. See the Appendix to the Report 
 of the Commissioners in 1843. 
 
2S 
 
 lane, with a net income of 600/., a population of 9915, a church 
 "capable of accommodating" 400 persons; — Rathdowney, with 
 a net income of 500/., a population of 6654, and a church 
 capable of accommodating 250 persons ; — St. Patrick and 
 Urlingford, with a net income of 579/. Is, Id., a popu- 
 lation of 2743, and no church, with a commodious residence at 
 Kilkenny — constitute the corps of the deanery of St. Canice. 
 
 Tullowherin — with a net income from rectorial tithes, amount- 
 ing to 194/. I85., a population of 895, and a church " capable 
 of accommodating" 100 persons, constitutes the corps of the 
 precentorship. 
 
 Incheholohan, Outrath and Grove, with a net income of 
 459/. 4*. ll^d., a population of 2G2I, and a church "capable of 
 accommodating" 300 persons, form the corps of the chancellor- 
 ship of St. Canice — the incumbent also holds the benefice of 
 the Rower, with a net income of 506/. 135., a population of 
 3589, and a church " capable of accommodating" 200 persons. 
 
 Ennisnag, with a glebe-house, built at an expense of 
 738/. 95. 3d., a net income of ]52l. 6s. Id., a. population of 
 550, a church capable of accommodating 200 persons, forms 
 the corps of the treasurership. 
 
 The Rectory of Kilfane and the Vicarages of Tullowherin, 
 and Blanchvilles Town, with an excellent glebe-house, built 
 at a cost of 1384/. 12s. 3fc/., a net income of 505/. 17*., a 
 population of 2017, and a church capable of accommodating 
 100 persons, form the corps of the archdeaconry. 
 
 The Benefice of Blackrath, with a net income of 130/. lOs. 
 4:d., a population of 730, no residence, and no church, consti- 
 tutes the corps of the prebend of Blackrath. 
 
 The Rectories of Aghoure, Rathbeagh, Clashacrow, Cloman- 
 tagh — the Vicarages of Tubridbrittain, Sheffin, Balleen, and 
 Coolcashin, with an excellent glebe-house, a net income 
 of 755/. Ss.6d., a population of 6186 souls, one church capable 
 of accommodating 300 persons ; the Vicarages of Rathcoole 
 and Kilkyran, with a net income of 93/. 45., a population of 
 
24 
 
 1331, and no church, form the corps of the prebend of 
 Aghoure. 
 
 The Rectory of Mayne, with a net income of 220/. 19s. O^d., 
 with a population of 633 — and no church forms the corps 
 of the prebend of Mayne. 
 
 The Rectory of Kilmanagh, with a glebe-house, built at a 
 cost of 1402/. 145. Ofc?., a net income of 549/. 12*. 7^d., a popu- 
 lation of 1663, and a church capable of accommodating eighty 
 persons, constitutes the corps of the Prebend of Kilmanagh. 
 
 The Vicarage of Inistiogue, and the Rectory and Vicarage 
 of Clonameary, with a glebe-house, built at a cost of 
 960/. 45. 7^d,, a net income of 288/. 3s. 9d., a population of 
 3998 souls, and a church capable of accommodating 200 per- 
 sons, forms the corps of the prebend of Clonameary (a). 
 
 The duty of these several dignitaries in respect of their 
 dignities, is to preach in rotation one month in every year 
 in the Cathedral of St. Canice — they are for the most part 
 habitually resident in their respective benefices — and, con- 
 sidering their station in society, and the expense necessarily in- 
 curred, in educating and providing for their children, no one can 
 think their incomes excessive. But the question is, whether a 
 Church establishment can be justified, solely or mainly on the 
 ground of its providing handsomely for the families of the clergy, 
 and these incomes are inordinate, when the amount of service 
 rendered for them is considered, and when added to the sums 
 expended by the people for the purposes of their own worship. 
 Nor do the benefices I have mentioned present the most remark- 
 able contrasts in the diocese of Ossory, between the amount of 
 the population and the church room required for the Protestant 
 parishioners. Thus, 
 
 Castlecomer with a net income of 825/. 6s. 7^d., a glebe- 
 house, built at a cost of 1647/. 135. 10c/., has a population of 
 
 (a) Report (1837) of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of Ireland on 
 the Revenue and Patronage of the Irish Church. Diocese of Ossory, 
 p. 144. 
 
25 
 
 13,242, and two churches capable together of accommodating 
 700 persons. 
 
 Callan Union, comprising the rectories of Callan, Coolagh- 
 more, Killaloe, Tullomain, Ballycallan, and Tullaroan, with a 
 net income of 21971. i5s. 7^d., has a population of 14,647, — 
 one church in Callan capable of accommodating 250 persons, 
 and one in Ballycallan capable of accommodating 80 persons. 
 
 Burnchurch Union, including the vicarages of Burnchurch 
 and Danesfort — the districts of Kilfera and Pleberstown — the 
 rectories of Jerpoint-West, Ballylinch, Grangelegan, Dunbelkj 
 Kilreegrange, Blacknew, Mollgrange, Blackrath, Grangelovin, 
 and Rathbin has a glebe-house built at an expense of 
 3692/. 6s. 2d., a net revenue of 1333/. 10*. 6d., a population 
 of 7965, and one church capable of accommodating 100 
 persons. 
 
 Kells Union, comprising the vicarage of Kells, the rectory 
 of Ballytobin — the rectories of Killree, Mallardstown, Stum- 
 carty, Earlstown, and Annamult has a glebe-house built at a 
 cost of 1700/., a net income of 698/. 85., a population of 5778, 
 and two churches capable of accommodating together 420 
 persons. 
 
 Knoctopher Union, including the rectories and vicarages 
 of Knocktopher, Kilneddy, Aghaviller, Kiltorcan, Derryna- 
 hensy, Kilmoganny, Kilkerrill, Kilkeasy, and Donemaggin, 
 has a glebe-house built at a cost of 1493/., a net income of 
 1093/. 195. 5^d., a population of 7,327, and one church 
 capable of accommodating 200 persons. 
 
 Gowran has a glebe-house built at a cost of 1062/. 2s. 8c/., 
 a net income of 446/. 6s. 10|c?., a population of 2735, and 
 one church capable of accommodating 150 persons. 
 
 Twenty benefices with " cure of souls," containing a popu- 
 lation of 98,992 souls, with seventeen churches enlarged to 
 the utmost probable need of their respective parishes, and 
 with church room for not more than 4330 persons ! ! ! 
 
 Of the whole diocese, the population is about 230,000, the 
 
26 
 
 number of churches forty-nine (a), the number of incumbents 
 fifty-nine, their net annual revenues 22,9071. 10s. 9d., and 
 church room for 9170 persons ! ! 
 
 Various circumstances have combined to make the diocese of 
 Ossory as favourable a test for the Establishment, of its actual 
 services to the people, as any which could be selected. With 
 the exception of two large estates, almost all the fixed property 
 of at least six out of the eight baronies (6) with which it is 
 co-extensive, is in the hands of Protestants. The number of 
 absentee proprietors is comparatively small; the several 
 branches of the great historic houses of Ormonde and Mount- 
 garret, as well as the noble families of Ponsonby, and Agar, 
 mindful of the maxim that property has its duties as well 
 as its rights, have hitherto considered the tenants on their 
 large possessions, to be worthy of their personal care. Every 
 thing that could be done by the Establishment itself, by the 
 countenance and encouragement of its most powerful and 
 popular members, and the example of a numerous resident 
 gentry, to wean the people from the old religion, and reconcile 
 them to the " mattens, even-song, and administration of the two 
 Sacraments, as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer^'' has 
 been done> and failed. The desperate fidelity with which they 
 adhere to their solemn protest against the Act of Elizabeth, 
 and the uniformity thereby enjoined, is really remarkable. 
 The chapels and friaries, some of them erected and main- 
 tained at a painful cost, yet often with earthen floors and but 
 indifferent roofs, are crowded twice or thrice on every Sunday 
 to sufibcation — the parish churches all but empty. 
 
 Indeed, I am much mistaken if there are 4000 persons in the 
 diocese of Ossory in the habit of attending the service of the 
 Establishment. From Ferry Bridge, opposite Waterford, along 
 the right side of the Barrow to its junction with the Nore, includ- 
 
 (a) See Appendix. 
 
 (ft) The barony of Upper Ossory, in tlie Queen's County, is in this 
 diocese. 
 
27 
 
 ing the most populous portions of the barony of Ida-Igrin, and 
 Ibercon ; thence through Rosbercon, or the Rower, to the bridge 
 of Inistiogue, the Protestant inhabitants, if any, of any class, 
 are few and far between. In the baronies of Gowran, Kells, and 
 Knoctopher, they are more numerous ; farmers, millers, trades- 
 men, and country gentlemen. Kilkenny and its vicinity contri- 
 bute their quota, as do also the banmiies of Iverk, Fassadineen 
 and Upper Ossory. But although^ the most striking feature 
 on the principal roads throughout these districts, is the constant 
 recurrence of glebe-houses and ornamental glebes, of a descrip- 
 tion hardly so frequent in any part of England, and nowhere 
 in Scotland, the sinecures made manifest by a glance at the 
 Sunday congregations of the large villages — are too glaring to 
 leave a doubt upon the question. The church of the Union 
 of Burnchurch, consisting of 21,703 statute acres, might be 
 closed to-morrow, without inconvenience to a third of the small 
 number it is capable of containing. During the progress of 
 the late state trials at Clonmel, I spent the morning of Sunday, 
 the first of October, at Callan, the benefice of which we 
 have seen, contains a population of 14,647 souls. The chapel 
 of the Rev. John Mullens, the parish priest and prebendary of 
 Cloneamory — a handsome structure, erected during his incum- 
 bency by his parishioners at a cost of 3400/., was at the nine 
 o'clock and the eleven o'clock services, completely full. The 
 chapel of the Augustinian Friary, not so large, but still of con- 
 siderable dimensions, was also full at the masses of nine, half-past 
 nine, and again at eleven o'clock. Knowing the value of the 
 Protestant benefice, and struck with the mean appearance of 
 the parish church, built within, and contrasting strongly with, 
 the ruin of an ancient Gothic abbey of great beauty and extent, 
 I resolved to ascertain with my own eyes the actual number of 
 its congregation. It consisted of eighty-seven persons, men, 
 women and children, besides about ten soldiers belonging to a 
 regiment quartered in the town ! ! 
 
28 
 
 Thanks to the pious energy of a Carmelite Friar, a chapel 
 was built some years ago at Knoctopher, which once in every 
 week, receives a greater number of worshippers than the united 
 congregations of seven Protestant Churches within an hour's 
 ride of it (a). But perhaps the largest village of the diocese is 
 Thomastown, in which several respectable Protestant families 
 reside. I never can forget the impression produced upon my 
 mind by the appearance of the Catholic chapel there, on my first 
 visit to Ireland in \822. There must be standing room in it 
 for 1500 persons. It has a mud floor. The rail which sepa- 
 rates the sanctuary in which I sat, from the body of the chapel 
 was strengthened by iron stancheons, to enable it to sustain 
 the weight of the people, and fearful was the rush of men and 
 women, huddled together like sheep or beeves, as they rose from 
 their knees, after the communion, and were pressed forward by 
 the multitude from without. That sight I have often witnessed 
 since, and always, with sorrow and shame ! I was told by the 
 Rev. Laurence Murphy, the late parish priest, that his annual 
 income varied from 300^. to 350/., out of which he had to main- 
 tain two curates, and that his parishioners were too poor to 
 enlarge or rebuild their chapel. He died, a year ago, in a 
 wretched lodging near the town, leaving a sum of 200/. to his 
 flock, as his contribution towards an object which his successor, 
 under the advice of the bishop, has not yet felt himself justified 
 in attempting. The Catholic parish of Thomastown has two 
 Catholic chapels of ease, and is much larger than the Protestant 
 benefice. The latter contains a population of 3959, the incum- 
 bent has a net income of 488/. 6s. 5d., a glebe-house, surrounded 
 by park-like grounds, built at an expense of 1025/. 15*. 8^d., 
 and a church within the ruins of a much larger one, capable of 
 accommodating 120 persons. About sixty are, on Sundays, in 
 the habit of attending it. 
 
 (a) Knoctopher, Kells, Kilmoganny, Thomastown, Kilfane, Ennisnag, 
 Dungarvan. 
 
29 
 
 This, on a small scale, is a faithful picture of the system, to 
 which the Roman Catholic prelates and priests of Ireland will, if 
 common fame speaks truth, be soon called upon to subscribe. 
 Their seal is at last found necessary to the bond given by the 
 Act of Uniformity, and confirmed by the Act of Union, to the 
 Church by law established in Ireland. Without it the security is 
 deemed worthless. They are asked to take up the parchment 
 for the honor of Edward and Elizabeth. Gold more than their 
 necessities require, paid quarterly on a Treasury warrant, without 
 condition, account, or inquiry — assured competence with all the 
 blessings in its train — personal comfort, the means of hospi- 
 tality, the delights of literature, the luxuries of charity — a life of 
 merit, and an age of ease — every thing, save a clear conscience — 
 will be the reward of their compliance. Can the gain be "justi- 
 fied by honor?" They and their people think not. The 
 acceptance by the heir of Charles Radcliffe of the dole flung to 
 him from the Treasury of Greenwich Hospital (o), is surely no 
 precedent for them ! During the twenty years which have elapsed 
 since the laity of their communion were restored to the privileges 
 of the Constitution, the Catholic clergy have abstained from all 
 attacks upon the temporalities of the Establishment. Until it 
 pleased God to mow down their people with the scythe of disease 
 and hunger, they had almost become resigned to their enormity. 
 In that course they are ready to persevere. If the Church 
 falls by its own weight, how are they to blame ? It will be time 
 enough to consider the propriety of receiving salaries from the 
 State, when their position and character as parochial ministers 
 shall be recognised by the State. Having shared in the pros- 
 perity of their flocks, " the clergy of Ireland are now willing to 
 share in their privations, and are determined to resist a measure 
 calculated to create vast discontent, to sever the people from 
 their pastors, and ultimately to endanger Catholicity in their 
 country" (6). 
 
 (a) Quarterly Review for September, 1848, p. 605. 
 (&) See the Resolutions of the Assembled Prelates, October 11th, 1848. 
 — Battersby's Directory for 1849, -p. Z12. 
 
30 
 
 But is it then hopeless to endeavour to improve the relation 
 between the Church of Rome in Ireland and the State? Must 
 the religious establishments of the Queen's Irish subjects 
 remain for ever beyond the pale of the conservative policy of 
 the empire ? Are there no means of healing the wounds which 
 have festered for centuries, and of making national reparation 
 for national wrong ? Happily, this is far from being the case. 
 If the government would but learn how easy iNis to deal with 
 men who, content with honorable poverty for themselves, ask 
 for nothing from the State, but protection, independence, and 
 the means of usefulness to the poor flocks whom they serve — 
 and how firm a bulwark of national power and national union, 
 the contentment of such men on their own principles would 
 be — there would be no need of resorting to schemes, which 
 must inevitably rekindle the slumbering embers of religious 
 hate, excite throughout the realm that spirit of resistance to 
 church patronage which has already been evoked in Scotland — 
 and again throw down, not probably to be again solved in the 
 same way, the question of church government in England. 
 The assistance of the Irish Catholic clergy is thought necessary 
 for the pacification of Ireland. Nothing so easy as to obtain 
 it. Begin by embracing in all sincerity the conviction, that 
 whatever may be their faults, selfishness is not among them, 
 and that the true cause of any discontent which they have 
 manifested is the deplorable misery of their people. They 
 know better than you, its extent and its cause; they know as 
 as well as you, and make full allowance for, the difficulty which 
 must attend all attempts to relieve it. Evince your respect for 
 them, and your respect for yourselves, by proposing nothing to 
 them, which is not perfectly consistent with the principles, to 
 which you as the ministers of a Protestant Sovereign — they as 
 the pastors of a Catholic people, are pledged. Try to forget 
 the old habit of legislating for them without consulting them, 
 and cajoling them when measures which affect the interests 
 of their church are pending, by expectations which you don't 
 intend to realise. 
 
31 
 
 Endeavour to believe and act upon the conviction that 
 the Roman Catholic bishops and priests of Ireland, are really 
 sincere, honest men, in whose estimation the temporal and 
 eternal interests of their flocks are of an importance, infinitely 
 higher than any provisions for their own comfort and con- 
 venience. By so doing you will win their esteem and con- 
 fidence. You will have their active and cordial co-operation 
 in all good objects — and before many years have passed, it will 
 be a subject for equal wonder and regret, that the government 
 of the British Crown in Ireland was so long without deserving 
 the aid of such powerful and cheap auxiliaries. 
 
 A minister, sincerely anxious to obtain the confidence of the 
 Catholic clergy and people of Ireland would, if well advised, 
 direct his attention to the following objects : — 
 
 1. A competent provision for building, repairing, enlarging, 
 and maintaining, the fabrics of their churches, and for the 
 expences of their public worship. 
 
 We find in the writings of Warburton, and of Paley, a great 
 difference of opinion respecting the grounds and the principles 
 on which the maintenance of a church establishment rests. 
 The former held that the Church was naturally the ally of the 
 State — the latter that the theory of the alliance of Church and 
 State was wholly indefensible. But both these eminent men 
 were agreed, that a church establishment, to be at all justifiable, 
 must be the church of the majority of the people (a). Catholics, 
 Churchmen, and Dissenters are, fortunately, equally opposed 
 to the application of that principle, in its integrity, to Ireland. 
 But when it is considered, that the State, out of the Ecclesi- 
 astical revenues of that country, has yet provided Church accom- 
 modation for 367,759 persons (b) only, out of a population of 
 7,943,940, it surely may be hoped, that no insuperable scruples 
 could be raised to the supply of so great a deficiency. 
 
 (a) Moral and Political Philosophy (1809), 345 — Alliance between 
 Church and State, (1811), B. 3, p. 143. 
 
 (5) The number of persons which the 1293 Protestant Churches of 
 Ireland, in 1837, were capable of accommodating. Eeport of the Eccle- 
 siastical Commissioners for that year. 
 
32 
 
 The late Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, in his ex- 
 amination before the committee of the House of Commons, 
 appointed, in 1825, to inquire into the state of Ireland, stated, 
 that of one hundred and six places of Catholic worship in his 
 diocese, nearly one hundred were thatched, only fifteen to 
 eighteen slated, and that he had no funds whatever applicable 
 to their improvement, except the voluntary contributions of the 
 faithful, of the clergy and bishops, and the aid they receive 
 from their Protestant brethren and neighbours. 
 
 His Grace was asked: — 
 
 Placing out of consideration the advantage and the comfort that 
 it would be to the people to have suitable places for their reception, 
 do you conceive that any aid would be more acceptable to persons 
 of the Catholic persuasion, in Ireland, than some means being 
 afforded for improving their places of religious worship ? 
 
 I know of no act that would give the Catholic population of 
 Ireland so much satisfaction as to see that there was some arrange- 
 ment for the erection of houses of worship for them. 
 
 Is it not usual, when the inferior class of the persuasion are 
 unable to contribute money for them, to contribute their labour, 
 and in other ways to compensate for the deficiency of their sub- 
 scription ? — Yes, they give their labour ; where it is a thatched 
 chapel the poor bring straw, and they give aid in that manner 
 towards the repair of the chapel. 
 
 The assessment made upon such occasions, though in its name 
 voluntary, is, in point of fact, upon those who are able to contri- 
 bute any thing, an obligation which cannot be avoided ? 
 
 It cannot be conveniently avoided ; and, in order to reconcile 
 the people in some measure to it, the plan I have pursued in 
 having those chapels erected, is to recommend the clergyman to 
 form a committee, to consist of the principal men in each village, 
 and to appoint a treasurer ; and that the priest, with the aid of the 
 principal men in each village, should lay an assessment upon the 
 people, according to their circumstances : this assessment is col- 
 lected in the best manner it can, then put into the hands of a 
 treasurer, and expended afterwards upon the building. 
 
 Dr. Magaurin, Roman Catholic Bishop of Ardagh,is asked: — 
 
 What is the state of the chapels in your diocese ? 
 
S3 
 
 There are some of them in a miserable state ; but there is an 
 improvement within these few years. 
 
 Are there many places in your diocese where the chapels are 
 entirely inadequate to the number of the congregation ? — I think, 
 in general, all are so. 
 
 Will you describe what occurs in such cases, or how the popu- 
 lation can attend Divine Worship ? — At the chapel at Ballymahon 
 I attend every morning at eight o'clock on Sundays, invariably; 
 and my curate attends at ten and at twelve afterwards, and there 
 is a large congregation each time. 
 
 The Rev. Michael Collins is asked : — 
 
 In what state are the chapels of the Catholics in the County of 
 Cork? 
 
 In general they are in a very bad state ; they are too small in 
 general for the congregations that resort to them ; efforts were 
 lately ipade in some places to build new chapels upon a scale more 
 suited to the number that required them, but the poverty of the 
 people, and the pressure of demands for the Established Church, 
 have rendered the progress of these buildings slow indeed, and in 
 some instances they have failed altogether. I have myself an old 
 chapel in the town of Skibbereen in such a state, that I daily fear 
 some accident may occur whenever the people assemble in it, in 
 consequence of the decayed state of the roof, and of the wall ; it 
 is altogether too small for the congregation, so much so, that more 
 than one-half of the congregation are obliged to kneel in the yard, 
 or on the highway in the open air, and they cannot hear the 
 instructions of the priest : I made an attempt to build a chapel on 
 a larger scale, and in a more eligible situation ; I had no means 
 but a halfpenny collection on Sundays at the chapel from the poor 
 as they went in ; a great number of the people going there have 
 not often the means of paying a halfpenny, they are consequently 
 excluded, and lose the benefit of religious worship and religious 
 instructions; however, after a continuance of exertion since the 
 year 1818; we have raised 4001. or 500/., with which we com- 
 menced a chapel last year, and we have succeeded only in raising 
 part of the walls; we are going on very slowly, and do not expect 
 to have the walls finished this year for want of means." 
 
 There are, I believe at this time, not more than two or three 
 Catholic chapels with thatched roofs in the two first of these 
 
84 
 
 dioceses, one of which, hke the thatched cottage of Romulus, 
 it would be well to keep to mark the progress of improve- 
 ment during the last fifteen or twenty years. In all parts of 
 Ireland, but no where more than in Tuam and Ardagh, the 
 exertions of the bishops and clergy have been unceasing to 
 provide suitable houses for the public worship of their reli- 
 gion, and they have been nobly supported in their endeavours 
 by their flocks. The cathedrals of the Catholic Archbishops 
 and Bishops of Armagh, Dublin, Tuam, Waterford, Kildare 
 and Leighlin, Kerry, Ardagh, and Ossory, and churches in 
 all parts of Ireland, too numerous to be here mentioned, 
 are splendid evidences of the attachment to their religion of 
 the Catholic people. Still, much in many districts remains 
 to be done, and when we recollect that 50,000/. has been 
 annually expended by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of 
 Ireland on 1293 churches of the Establishment, it will 
 readily be conceived that the burthen of supporting 2205 
 Catholic churches and chapels, must be seriously and incon- 
 veniently felt. It behoves the Government, before any attempt 
 is made to negotiate with the Catholic priesthood, to give a plain 
 striking unmistakeable proof of its disposition not to tolerate 
 merely, but to cherish the religion of the great majority of the 
 people. There are no means so effectual of doing this, as to 
 raise up and maintain in every parish, within sight of the little 
 church capable of accommodating 80, 100, 120, or 200 wor- 
 shippers in which the Act of Uniformity is obeyed — a sub- 
 stantial and commodious edifice in which the thousands who 
 have hitherto felt themselves to be outcasts on account of their 
 faith in their native land, may thank their Maker for all 
 his blessings, but chiefly for the happy change which shall 
 have taken place in the hearts of their rulers. The main 
 thing to be attended to in such a design is, that it be 
 based upon a distinct intelligible principle, such as a Pro- 
 testant Government may avow, and a Catholic people ap- 
 prove. Fifty years ago there might have been some diffi- 
 
35 
 
 culty in reconciling with the settled policy of the empire, a 
 further provision for the religious worship of persons not con- 
 forming to the doctrines of the Established Church. But the 
 legislation of the last twenty years has removed all such 
 impediments. Protestant bishops and archbishops have in a 
 spirit of commendable liberality, and without the least sacrifice 
 of principle, consented to become trustees for Roman Catholic 
 priests and chapels — the Parliament of Protestant England has 
 made a munificent provision for the education of the Irish 
 Catholic clergy. Catholic altars have been erected in the 
 asylums provided by the State for the reception of the im- 
 potent and disabled poor. Catholic instruction is in them 
 secured to the orphan children of Catholic parents {a). Catholic 
 bishops in various parts of the British dominions receive from 
 the colonial treasuries suitable and competent revenues. 
 
 Surely it is time to reap from a more general application to 
 Ireland of the liberal principles thus adopted by the Legislature 
 of the United Kingdom, the lasting fruits of social happiness, 
 peace, and charity. 
 
 The statute book of the empire will furnish abundant pre- 
 cedents for enactments calculated to effect such objects. 
 
 By the 58 Geo. S, c. 45, the Crown was empowered to 
 appoint commissioners, afterwards incorporated by the name of 
 " Her Majesty's Commissioners for Building New Churches," 
 to examine into the state of the parishes of England and 
 Wales, and to ascertain the most effectual means of providing 
 additional means of church accommodation for the people. 
 The act recited that population had greatly increased, more 
 particularly in the Metropolis and its vicinity, that the churches 
 in many great and populous parishes were inadequate to 
 the accommodation of the inhabitants, and that it was neces- 
 sary that additional churches and chapels should be erected in 
 such places, and that a certain number of free sittings should 
 be made therein. 
 
 (a) 1 & 2 Vict. c. 56, ss. 48, 49. 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 One million sterling, and by a subsequent statute 500,000/. 
 were granted by Parliament for the promotion of this object. 
 
 The commissioners are empowered to build, rebuild, and 
 enlarge churches and chapels, defraying according to their 
 discretion the whole or part of the charge thereof — upon a 
 general rule that accommodation should be provided for one- 
 fourth, and by the later acts for a larger proportion of the 
 population. 
 
 The consent of the bishop of the diocese and of the incum- 
 bent of the parish, are necessary to the pulling down, building, 
 rebuilding, and enlarging of churches by the Commissioners. 
 The Commissioners are empowered to accept from persons 
 willing to give the same, any buildings fit to be converted into 
 churches or chapels, and lands, proper for sites of churches, 
 and churchyards attached thereto ; and also houses, with five 
 acres of land, for the residence of the incumbent (a). 
 
 Upon consecration of the church, the house and land become 
 the house of residence and glebe, and vest in the incumbent, 
 for the time being as such. 
 
 The Commissioners of Woods, her Majesty, and the Duke 
 of Cornwall, by grants signed by the Chancellors of the 
 Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall (6), and any body politic, 
 collegiate and corporation sole, may sell any such building 
 site, with or without ground for cemeteries, or any such house 
 or garden for residence. 
 
 The Commissioners of Woods and Forests, her Majesty, 
 and the Duke of Cornwall, and all corporate and collegiate 
 bodies, are empowered to give and grant any stone, slate, 
 timber, or any materials, from any quarries, forests, or wastes, 
 belonging to them, for building any church and any house, 
 and appurtenances, for the residence of any spiritual person 
 who may serve any church or chapel built under these 
 acts (c). 
 
 The Commissioners of Customs and Excise of England, 
 
 (a) 58 Geo. 3, c. 45, s. 33 ; and 1 & 2 Vict. c. 137, s. 9. 
 (b) S. 34. (c) 59 Geo. 3, c. 134, s. 20. 
 
27 
 
 Scotland and Ireland respectively, with consent of the First 
 Lord, or any three of the Lords of the Treasury, may remit 
 all or any proportion of the duties upon the aforesaid materials, 
 hondjide, used in any such church or chapel, or order the same 
 to be drawn back or repaid (a). 
 
 The Commissioners of Stamps, subject to regulations made 
 by the Lords of the Treasury, may allow the full amount of 
 stamp duties on any deeds, bonds, contracts, agreements, or 
 instruments, made in relation to the purchasing or providing 
 any sites or buildings, any churches, or purchasing or pro- 
 viding any materials for such buildings. 
 
 I ask rather in sorrow than reproach, of those who are now 
 anxious to take the Catholic clergy into pay, how it has 
 happened that, during the twenty years which have elapsed 
 since the Catholic Relief Act, nothing of this kind has been 
 done or offered to be done, for the Church of the vast majority 
 of the people ? It would be easy to adopt these provisions to 
 the circumstances of its position ; on terms satisfactory to its 
 prelates, acceptable to the people, and honourable to the 
 state. The work of church building, in populous places, has 
 been already half done by the generosity and piety of a nation, 
 which various circumstances, and among them their patient 
 submission to the burthen of the Church of another country, 
 have reduced to a state of unexampled poverty and depression. 
 If you really wish to improve the condition of the priests, 
 better far to give them residences and glebes, in right of their 
 offices, and so insure to them a certain amount of visible 
 inalienable comfort, than tempt them to neglect their duties by 
 incomes independent of the good opinion of their flocks. 
 
 Let your commissioners be selected on the principles which 
 govern your selection of commissioners, when the interests 
 of your own Church are concerned. A large proportion of 
 them should be prelates of the Roman Catholic Church. 
 The act by which power is given to the appointment, should 
 be drawn up after consultation with them — and the govern- 
 
 (a) S. 34. 
 
38 
 
 ment, profiting by past experience, should understand and act 
 upon the belief, that no measure, however promising — will be 
 received as a boon — which interferes with the Episcopal 
 jurisdiction, discipline, and independence of their Church. 
 
 It may be asked, whence, in the present state of the finances 
 of the country, are the funds to come for such a change as 
 this ? To which, I apprehend, there can be but one answer — 
 from the Ecclesiastical property of Ireland. The amount 
 required would probably not be nearly so large — as might be 
 inferred from the number of the parishes and chapels, and the 
 population who worship in them. The Churches of the 
 Establishment, are, on the showing of the commissioners, in 
 a state of excellent order, — already have the estimates for 
 church works diminished one-half, and well they may, con- 
 sidering the enormous sums which have been spent upon them 
 during the last ten years ! 
 
 Some time ago it was proposed to get rid of church-rates in 
 England, and to provide a fund for the repair of the fabric of 
 the churches of the kingdom, by a more thrifty system of 
 letting and renewing the leases of Ecclesiastical property. 
 Until the Catholic people of Ireland are satisfied of the in- 
 tention of the English Government to do them justice ; there 
 may possibly be prudential reasons for letting Church lands at 
 rents little more than nominal. If the 22,000 acres of profit- 
 able land, which belonged to the suppressed See of Ossory, 
 did really produce no more, in 1847, than 224:81. Is. 3d., the 
 greater part of them must be given away (a). That they have 
 been given away hitherto to a considerable extent is perfectly 
 plain. You have only to look at the list of tenants, the 
 lands they occupy, and the rents they pay, to be satisfied of it. 
 All this must be changed, of course with a due regard to the 
 just claims of the tenants. In the meantime, a transfer for 
 ten years next to come, by Act of Parliament, of 40,000/. or 
 50,000/., from the account of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners 
 
 («) Report of Ecclesiastical CommissioKers, 1833 ; Episcopal Patronage 
 and Kcvenue ; Diocese of Ossory, p. 158. 
 
39 
 
 of Ireland, to the account of "her Majesty's Commissioners for 
 Building new Churches in Ireland," would be productive of 
 the most beneficial effects. 
 
 It is idle to suppose that the large sums, which have been 
 hitherto disbursed by the commissioners, can be permanently 
 required for the support of the small substantial unadorned 
 buildings in which the richest classes of the community worship. 
 If the essential usefulness of the Established Church itself, the 
 respectability of its ministers, and a portion of the influence 
 derived from its large patronage, be things worth preserving, 
 depend upon it, the best mode of preserving them, is to make 
 the rent-charge, paid to a great extent by Catholic farmers, in 
 some sense a Catholic as well as a Protestant tax. The members 
 of the Irish Protestant Church may rub their eyes a little, when 
 first called upon to subscribe to so much of the 35,0501. 3s. \0d., 
 annually disbursed for Bibles, Prayer-books, Communion Ele- 
 ments, Surplices, and Stoves, &c., as may be required for Divine 
 Service in their particular localities ; but they will soon recover 
 from the shock, and see the justice and good sense of the arrange- 
 ment. There will not be a bishoprick, prebend, or benefice the 
 less for years to come ; and, should reforms or re-arrangements 
 be still deemed necessary in the Established Church, they will 
 be conducted with a due regard to the important interests at 
 stake, and not under the duress of the pressure, which is now 
 supposed to threaten its destruction. 
 
 2. Next to a permanent provision for the public worship of the 
 Catholic people of Ireland, is the suitable recognition of the legal 
 character and status of the Roman Catholic bishops and priests. 
 
 A bishop of the church, by law established, is a corporation 
 sole ; so is the persona EcclesicB, or parson of a church. They 
 and their successors are incorporated by law, in order to give 
 them certain legal capacities and advantages, particularly 
 that of perpetuity, which in their natural persons they could 
 not have. All personal rights die with the person, and as 
 the necessary forms of investing a series of individuals, one 
 after another, with the same identical rights would be very incon- 
 
40 
 
 venient, if not impracticable, it has been found necessary, when 
 it is for the advantage of the public to have any particular 
 rights kept on foot and continued, to constitute artificial per- 
 sons, who may maintain a perpetual succession, and enjoy a 
 kind of legal immortality (a). As the law now stands in Ireland, 
 property conveyed or bequeathed to a Roman Catholic bishop 
 or priest, as such, would, at his death, descend to his heir or 
 his representative ; and there are no means of preventing this 
 inconvenience, where it is intended that property should 
 belong to the bishop, or parish priest, for the time being — 
 that is, to the present incumbent and his successors — but by the 
 intervention of trustees, a mode always attended with expenses 
 sometimes with risk, uncertainty, and the necessity of a resort 
 to legal tribunals. 
 
 This evil the late Mr. O'Connell proposed to remedy, by a 
 bill to make the Roman Catholic bishop of every diocese, and 
 the parish priest of every parish, a corporation sole. 
 
 If it had passed into a law, all the unfortunate irritation 
 which was occasioned four years ago, by the Act for the better 
 regulation of Charitable Donations and Bequests, would have 
 been avoided. 
 
 It is difBcult to understand, as Lord Hatherton said in the 
 House of Lords, what objections could exist to the constitution 
 of the Catholic archbishops, bishops, and priests, as bodies 
 politic and corporate, for the mere purpose of the inexpensive 
 security of Catholic charitable donations and bequests. But 
 Mr. O'Connell's fate, during his life, was to have some of his 
 best practical measures rejected, and the merit of having pro- 
 posed them forgotten. It were well if some of them could be 
 adopted, now that he can neither be pained by their failure, nor 
 gratified by their success. 
 
 o. In other respects, also, the position of the parish priest 
 might be altered with some increase to his usefulness, his per- 
 sonal comfort, and the interest and contentment of his flock. 
 The law has placed him in a relation of almost unavoidable 
 («) Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. 1. 
 
41 
 
 antagonism and rivalry with the Protestant minister, whom only 
 it recognises as the pastor of the parish. One is the clergyman 
 of the wealthy few — the other, of the multitude poor. It is 
 folly to aggravate this contrast between their positions by the 
 vexation of idle formalities. By the Easement of Burials Act, 
 in 4 Geo. 4, c. 25, it was enacted: — 
 
 " That it should be lawful for the officiating minister of the 
 Church, by law established, in each and every parish in Ireland, 
 upon application made to him, in writing, by any clergyman or 
 minister not of the Established Church, stating the death of any 
 member of his congregation, for permission to perform the Burial 
 Service, at the grave of such person, in the churchyard of such 
 parish, according to the rites of such Church or congregation, to 
 grant permission accordingly ; provided that such permission 
 should be in writing ; and that, in order to prevent any inter- 
 ruption or interference with the celebration of any of the rites 
 of the Church of Ireland by law established, such interment and 
 service shall be had and celebrated, at such time only as should be 
 appointed in such permission, by such officiating minister of the 
 Church of Ireland." 
 
 " This Bill," says the late Dr. Doyle, " was a kind of 
 remedial measure ; it reminds one of the bone thrown to 
 Cerberus to engage his attention without satisfying his appe- 
 tite, as the visitors passed unmolested to the shades below. 
 While the Catholics as one man despised it, while their priests 
 and prelates universally, would rather be condemned to labour 
 at a treadmill than seek a license for interment, or a permit that 
 the remains of one of their communion should be gathered to 
 those of his fathers in the vault or ground which his own 
 religion had enclosed and consecrated ; while these sentiments 
 pervaded our entire body, so little were they known or re- 
 spected, that the organ of the committee who prepared the 
 Bill, new modelled as it was in England, did not hesitate to 
 call it a charter of toleration, and to assure the Parliament 
 with all the confidence of a friend and advocate of Catholic 
 rights, that if passed it would work well ; that this bill would 
 work well, which in no one instance has ever worked at all. 
 
42 
 
 This proved to us not only the evil of our exclusion, and that 
 there is no one to represent our feelings and opinions in Par- 
 liament, but that we are considered even there, and by our 
 friends, as a degraded class, who do not require to be treated 
 like other men, and to whom what would be an insult to 
 others may be offered as a boon" (a). 
 
 These words were written twenty-four years ago by the illus- 
 trious Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin. Since then nothing has 
 been done to remedy this cruel grievance. It is one which goes 
 home to the hearts of the people, and must, I think, be felt 
 quite as unpleasantly by the Protestant minister as by the 
 Catholic priest. A short act declaring the right of every 
 parishioner to be buried according to the rites of his own 
 church in the parish churchyard, without permission obtained 
 from the parson — provided that no such interment should take 
 place during Divine Service, would be a wise and salutary 
 improvement. 
 
 By the Irish Act, 33 Geo. 3, c. 21, s. 12, by which some 
 relief was granted to the Catholics, it was enacted, 
 
 " That nothing therein contained should be construed to 
 extend to authorize any Popish priest, or reputed Popish 
 priest, to celebrate marriage between Protestant and Pro- 
 testant, or between any Protestant (or one professed within 
 twelve months to be so) and a Papist, unless such Protestant 
 and Papist should have been first married by a clergyman of 
 the Protestant religion. 
 
 " And that every Popish Priest, or reputed Popish Priest 
 who should celebrate any marriage between two Protestants, 
 or between any Protestant and Papist, unless such Protestant 
 should have been first married by a clergyman of the Pro- 
 testant Church, should forfeit the sum of 500/. to his Majesty 
 on conviction thereof." 
 
 (a) This act did however repeal the Irish act ofWm. 3, by which 
 burials in any suppressed monastery, abbey, or convent, or the precincts 
 thei-eof had been prohibited, and legalized such burials, provided the place 
 had been used for interments within ten years, or the permission of the 
 proprietors was obtained. 
 
43 
 
 By the 3 & 4 Wm. 4, c. 102, " So much of this and other 
 recited acts of the Parliament of Ireland as contained any 
 penal enactment which exclusively affects a Roman Catholic 
 clergyman celebrating marriage between any persons, knowing 
 them, or either of them at the time of such^ marriage to be of 
 the Protestant religion, or enacted that any Roman Catholic 
 clergyman who should celebrate any marriage between two 
 Protestants, or reputed Protestants, or between a Protesant or 
 reputed Protestant and a Roman Catholic, should be guilty 
 of felony, and suffer death as a felon, without benefit of clergy* 
 or as enacted that any Roman Catholic clergyman who should 
 celebrate any marriage between two Protestants, or between 
 any such Protestant and Papist, unless such Protestant and 
 Papist should have been first married by a clergyman of the 
 Protestant religion, should forfeit the sum of 500^." was re- 
 pealed. But, it was provided, 
 
 " That nothing in this act should extend, or be construed to 
 extend to the giving validity to any marriage ceremony«n Ireland, 
 which ceremony was not then valid under the existing laws." 
 
 It was at one time commonly supposed that the marriage by 
 a Roman Catholic priest of a Protestant with a Catholic, 
 although no ceremony had been performed between them by a 
 Protestant minister, was under the act 3 & 4 Wm. 4, valid. 
 Such, however, is not the case. Some cases of cruel decep- 
 tion practised upon females, have occurred undercover of this 
 defect in the law. The Catholic archbishops and bishops have 
 petitioned the Legislature to remedy this evil, and it is hardly 
 possible to believe that their remonstrance will be neglected. 
 It has been held by the Court of Queen's Bench in Ireland (a), 
 that under the Presbyterian Marriage Act, 7 & 8 Vict. c. 81, 
 s. 45, a Catholic priest who celebrates a marriage between two 
 Protestants is guilty of felony. I have no pity for a Catholic 
 priest who celebrates a marriage between two Protestants. But 
 the judgment applies to marriages between Catholics and Pro- 
 testants, and cases may easily be conceived in which the 
 («) Reg. V. Taggart, Ii-isli Law Reports, vol. 9, p. 395. 
 
4i 
 
 invalidity of such marriages, and the guilt of felony attached to 
 them would be productive of the worst injustice. The Catholic 
 prelates have petitioned for relief from this new penalty, and there 
 can be little doubt that their remonstrance will be attended to. 
 
 5. By an act of the Parliament of Ireland, 17 & 18 Charles 
 the Second, the support of Protestant Ministers in Cities and 
 Corporate Towns was provided for by a tax upon all the houses 
 of each parish, according to the yearly value of each house, 
 to be allotted and charged on the inhabitants, received by the 
 churchwardens of the parish, and by them paid to the several 
 incumbents. And in case of refusal or delay of payment, the 
 churchwardens were empowered to levy the amount allotted by 
 distress and sale. 
 
 By the 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 34, reciting that these duties were 
 burthensome to the churchwardens, the incumbents were era- 
 powered to appoint collectors of Ministers' Money in the City 
 of Dublin, and within other Cities and Towns Corporate of 
 Ireland. And it was enacted that in case of refusal or delay 
 of payment, it should be lawful for every such collector to 
 levy and distrain in the same manner as churchwardens were 
 theretofore directed to do by the recited act. 
 
 This tax is severely felt by all Catholic residents of towns, 
 but it is doubly vexatious and offensive to the Roman Catholic 
 bishops and clergy. There would be no great difficulty in 
 providing a substitute for this insulting impost, and it would 
 be far better to repeal it quietly than wait until — being only 
 collected by sale and distress — it effectually repeals itself. 
 
 6. The repeal or amendment of the act 7 & 8 Vict. c. 97, 
 for the more effectual application of Charitable Donations 
 and Bequests. 
 
 By this statute a very material alteration was made in the law 
 relating to Roman Catholic Charities. Various acts of Parlia- 
 ment had from time to time been passed in England and in 
 Ireland for the purpose of conferring on societies and institu- 
 tions, that description of legal immortality which is mentioned 
 in an earlier page of these remarks. 
 
45 
 
 In England the Governors of Queen Anne's Bount}', the 
 Commissioners for Building Churches, the two Universities, 
 the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy, Bedlam Hospital, 
 the Foundling Hospital, the London Hospital, St. George's 
 Hospital, Greenwich Hospital, and many others too numerous 
 to be here mentioned ; in Ireland, the Commissioners of 
 First Fruits, the Trustees of the Library of the Archbishop of 
 Armagh, the Trustees of the Green Coat Hospital at Cork, 
 and the Foundling Hospital Dublin, the trustees of the 
 Vaughan Charities and others, were incorporated by Act of 
 Parliament, and some of them empowered to take and purchase 
 lands in perpetuity to themselves and their successors, for the 
 permanent support and prosecution of the purposes for which 
 these corporations were respectively formed. No such act has 
 ever been passed in favour of any Roman Catholic Institution, 
 except the trustees of the Royal College of Maynooth. 
 
 There is no Roman Catholic corporation, sole or aggregate, 
 to enjoy this privilege of perpetuity for the purposes of its 
 institution. 
 
 Roman Catholic establishments were, indeed, until a com- 
 paratively recent period, not only without encouragement, but 
 discountenanced by the laws. Although the act of 1 Edward G, 
 by which superstitious uses were declared, had not been 
 enacted in Ireland, it influenced as a declaration of public 
 policy, the decisions of the Courts of Equity ; and bequests of 
 property, for Catholic religious objects of all kinds, were under 
 the pi'ovisions of the 40 Geo. 3, c. 1, confiscated without 
 mercy to Protestant purposes. 
 
 As the wealth and consideration of the Irish Catholic body in- 
 creased, the natural sense of right in the minds of the Judges of 
 the Irish Equity Courts revolted against a system of injustice 
 which no statute had enjoined ; and the late Lord Manners, at 
 length, in the case of a bequest of a sum of money in trust, to 
 apply the interest in clothing such poor children as should be 
 educated in a nunnery at Waterford, declined to act on the 
 presumption that the object contemplated was against public 
 
46 
 
 policy, and ultimately decreed in favour of the intention of the 
 testator {a). The precedent thus established was gladly acted 
 upon by other Judges in similar cases ; and as the English 
 act of the 9 Geo. 2, c. 36, by which it was enacted, that no 
 manors, lands, tenements, &c., or sums of money, should be 
 given, conveyed, or settled, to or upon any person or persons, 
 in trust or for the benefit of charitable uses, unless by deed 
 indented and executed before two witnesses, twelve months 
 before the death of the donor, and enrolled within six months, 
 — had not been enacted in Ireland, the charities of Roman 
 Catholics, though they had obtained no facilities, were not 
 subject to any positive restrictions. On the avowed alteration 
 of the policy of the law, as it affected their religion, by the 
 Emancipation Act, this favourable disposition received a legal 
 sanction ; and the result was, that except the necessity of 
 appointing trustees, and the unavoidable insecurity and expense 
 to which the cestui que tnist of small properties is exposed, 
 there was no restraint of any kind, on Catholic donations and 
 bequests for charitable purposes. 
 
 By the 7 & 8 Vict. c. 97, a Corporation of Commissioners of 
 Charitable Donations and Bequests is established, 
 
 " with power to take and hold all descriptions of property in trust, 
 for building, enlarging, upholding, or furnishing any chapel, or 
 place of religious worship, of persons professing the Roman Ca- 
 tholic religion ; or in trust for any archbishop or bishop, or other 
 person professing the Roman Catholic religion ; or in trust for any 
 archbishop or bishop, or other person, in holy orders of the Church 
 of Rome, officiating in any district, or having personal superin- 
 tendence of any congregation of persons professing the Roman 
 Catholic religion, and for those who shall from time to time so 
 officiate, or shall succeed to the same pastoral superintendence, or 
 for building a residence for his or their use." 
 
 If the act had stopped there, it would have given to those 
 who might choose to make the commissioners trustees of their 
 
 (a) Attorney General v. Power, 1 Ball & B. 145. 
 
47 
 
 donations and bequests for Catholic church purposes, the 
 power of securing their bequests in perpetuity, ^ei without the 
 influence which attaches to the possession of property — to the 
 objects of their bounty. It will be observed, however, that 
 this facility was confined to one particular class of charities. 
 Even for them nothing was done, beyond the mere nomination 
 of official trustees appointed by the Crown to administer their 
 funds. All others, such as diocesan seminaries and colleges, 
 establishments for ladies bound by religious vows, of which 
 there are about fifty in Ireland, mostly Sisters of the Orders of 
 Mercy and Charity ; orphan societies ; asylums for aged men 
 and women ; asylums for female penitents ; Catholic hospitals ; 
 guilds, and so forth, are left by that section where they were. 
 
 But then comes the 16th section, which imposes, and was 
 intended to impose, a severe restriction upon all charities 
 indiscriminately. 
 
 " That no devise or bequest for pious or charitable uses in Ireland 
 shall be valid to create or convey any estate in lands, tenements, or 
 hereditaments for such uses, unless the deed, will, or other instru- 
 ment, containing the same shall be duly executed three calendar 
 months at the least before the death of the person executing the 
 same, and unless every such deed or instrument, not being a will, 
 shall be duly registered within three calendar months after the 
 execution thereof." 
 
 This §nactment was preceded by no inquiry ascertaining the 
 relative amount of bequests made at a distant period, or recently 
 before the death of testators. No flagrant instances of the 
 unjust disherison of natural heirs by deathbed donations for 
 Catholic purposes, had been complained of. It never had been 
 imputed, except by the Bishop of London, before the Mortmain 
 Committee (a), that the alarms of dying sinners were worked 
 upon by unscrupulous priests, for their purposes. It was 
 a deliberate, uncalled for, unjustified, contrivance to diminish 
 the amount of property held by any tenure, or in any hands 
 for Catholic charitable or ecclesiastical purposes. It had not 
 
 (a) Report of Mortmain Committee, p. 82. 
 
48 
 
 even the poor excuse of assimilating the law of Ireland, to the 
 law of England, or of Scotland. 
 
 In Scotland, a man, although ill of the disease of which he 
 afterwards dies, may charge or convey landed property to any 
 person for any purposes whatever, provided he survive sixty 
 days. If cut off by an accident, occurring after its execution, 
 the deed cannot be reduced (a). And this law is by the 2 & 3 
 Wm. 4, c. 115, preserved to the Catholics of Scotland. 
 
 In England, the 9 Geo. 2, c. 36, establishes a general 
 rule, but there are important exceptions to it. 
 
 By the 43 Geo. 3, c. 107, the Governors of Queen Anne's 
 Bounty are empowered to take all property — bequeathed or 
 devised to them by will of any sane person, for and towards 
 the augmentation of the maintenance of ministers officiating 
 in churches and chapels where the Liturgy and rites of the 
 Established Church are used and observed. 
 
 The two Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and all the 
 colleges and houses of learning connected with them, as well 
 as the colleges of Eton, Winchester, and Westminster, are by 
 the 9 Geo. 2, c. S6, itself, expressly excepted from the operation 
 of its general provisions. 
 
 If the government (taking all reasonable security against 
 abuse), were now willing to make exceptions in favour of 
 similar objects connected with the Roman Catholic Church in 
 Ireland, such as Roman Catholic diocesan seminaries, and other 
 educational institutions and the religious orders, whose services 
 are in many parts of Ireland of infinite value to the poor, it is 
 possible that the Board might in time obtain some portion of 
 public confidence. Hitherto, notwithstanding the veneration 
 in which three of the Roman Catholic commissioners are held 
 — and the perfectly unblemished honour and character of them 
 all — they have not been troubled with the administration of 
 any new Catholic donations or bequests. 
 
 Nor is this in the least degree attributable to the interference 
 
 (a) Bell ; Principles of the Law of Scotland, p. 647. 
 
49 
 or influence of their Protestant colleagues. Nothing could be 
 more fair or better calculated to inspire confidence, than the 
 bye-laws to which the judicial members of the board assented, 
 and the manner in which they, but particularly the present 
 Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, then Master of the Rolls, 
 interpreted the provisions of the statute. 
 
 I ventured four years ago to submit, that the best mode of 
 avoiding any danger of an improper interference by the lay com- 
 missioners with the discipline and jurisdiction of the Church, 
 would be to constitute all the Catholic Metropolitans, commis- 
 sioners ex officio, and to make the certificate of each of them 
 conclusive on all points, relating to the discipline and usages of 
 the Church in his province. It is gratifying to find that this 
 suggestion has been adopted, by their graces the Catholic 
 Archbishops of Armagh and Dublin, and the Bishop of Ferns, 
 in a petition which they have lately prepared — and in which 
 they also pray for the repeal of the 16th section. 
 
 For my part I adhere to my first impression, confirmed as it 
 was by the opinion of most of the Catholic Bishops and clergy 
 of Ireland, that the act was intended by its author {a), whoever 
 he may have been, to starve and cripple the exertions of the 
 Roman Catholic Church. It is difficult, I admit, to reconcile 
 that view with the act of the following year, by which the 
 endowment of Maynooth was increased ; but the Bequests' 
 Act speaks for itself, and in my judgment, no one who under- 
 stands it, can think otherwise of it than I do. By the enemies 
 of the Roman Catholic Church, its authors must, I conceive, be 
 considered to have covered a multitude of their sins, and it is 
 doubtful whether any modification of its provisions could render 
 them generally acceptable to those, whose interests it pretended 
 to serve. 
 
 The Roman Catholic archbishops and bishops have prepareda 
 petition for presentation to Parliament, in which, acknowledging 
 
 (a) The late Lord Wharncliflfe first moved the bill in the House of 
 Lords. 
 
 K 
 
50 
 the important benefits of late years conferred on the Catholics 
 of Ireland, they lament that the Catholic regular clergy should be 
 excluded from those rights and privileges which their fellow- 
 subjects enjoy. Their Lordships assure the Legislature that 
 the perfect loyalty, unimpeachable virtues, and eminent ser- 
 vices of the regular clergy, in promoting sound morality, are 
 not surpassed by any portion of her Majesty's subjects, and 
 pray that all their legal disabilities may be removed, and that 
 they may be placed on a footing with the other Catholic clergy. 
 
 The case of the religious orders is undoubtedly one of 
 peculiar hardship. When the Catholic Emancipation Act was 
 making its way at the expense to its authors of great obloquy 
 through Parliament, the clauses relating to the regular clergy 
 naturally excited their apprehensions, and it was understood at 
 the time, that the most friendly assurance had been given, that 
 those clauses should not be executed to their vexation. That 
 pledge was faithfully redeemed, and until the passing of the 
 7 & 8 Vict. c. 107, except perhaps in some few cases in the 
 Irish Courts of Equity, they sustained no more practical incon- 
 venience from the state of the law than their Catholic clerical 
 brethren. But this last act professing to extend a new pri- 
 vilege to other Catholic clergymen, expressly exempts " any 
 order, community, or society of the Church of Rome bound by 
 monastic rules" as illegal, from its benefits, gives a new sting 
 to the clauses relating to them in the Relief Act, and amounts 
 to an injunction that all bequests and donations to them, their 
 convents, or chapels, shall be applied to objects other than 
 those of their donors. 
 
 It is quite unnecessary for me to add anything to what is 
 stated by the Catholic prelates, as to the merits and services of 
 the religious orders. There are some districts in which the 
 people, except at great inconvenience, would be without any 
 religious worship or institution, but for their exertions. The 
 alarm entertained in England about them is really a mere 
 bugbear ; but still it exists in the minds of honest but pre- 
 
A 
 
 51 ' 
 
 judiced men — and, notwithstanding the great ability with which 
 the cause of the regulars has been advocated in Parliament, I 
 fear it has not yet, much advanced in public opinion. Whether 
 it would be possible in the event of an amendment of the 
 Bequests' Act, to extend its provisions, so as to include all 
 existing establishments of religious orders within its enabling 
 clauses, and thus allay the fears of their undue increase by 
 which some minds are haunted, I don't know. But the heat 
 and acrimony which the repeated discussion and refusal of 
 their just claims create, are very serious evils to the general 
 interests of the Catholic body. 
 
 Having thus endeavoured to direct the attention of those 
 who may chance to read these pages, to the chief impediments 
 which exist to a more friendly relation between the Irish Ca- 
 tholic Church and the State — I venture to submit, that they 
 are all capable of being removed, or very much mitigated, 
 without injury to vested interests, violation of religious prin- 
 ciples or danger to established institutions. With respect to 
 the Protestant Church of Ireland, I feel quite satisfied, that no 
 impartial inquirer can read the annual reports of the Eccle- 
 siastical Commissioners without being convinced that 40,000/. 
 or 50,000/. per annum might well be spared from their revenues 
 without any serious inconvenience. When I find that during 
 the last thirteen years, a sum not less than a million sterling 
 has been spent on the building, rebuilding, and expenses of 
 Divine Worship of 1200 churches, in which the richest classes 
 of the community worship, and which have not even the 
 sorry merit of adorning the country out of its own spoils, 
 I cannot doubt, that large reductions may be made in that 
 expenditure without peril to the essential usefulness of the 
 Church as a religious society for the cure of souls. When 
 again I find that 132,701 acres described as "profitable," 
 belonging to thirteen suppressed bishopricks, have produced in 
 the hands of the commissioners no greater income than 
 42,770/., and remember at what rate land has been let in 
 Ireland, I cannot help suspecting that the ecclesiastical 
 
 E 2 
 
5^2 
 
 revenues might be made, without injustice to the tenants 
 of church lands, more conducive to the contentment of the 
 Irish people and the ease of its government, than they are 
 at present. Unfortunately the most distinguished statesmen of 
 our time, by a very recent, elaborately constructed, and delibe- 
 rately adopted measure, for the regulation of the temporalities 
 of the Irish church, have bound themselves hand and foot, to 
 the maintenance of the existing system. It would require, I 
 cannot help thinking, a harder struggle with themselves than 
 with the feelings of the people of England to enable them to 
 undo what has been so lately and so solemnly decided. Yet 
 if timely precautions be not taken, the day will come when 
 amendment is no longer possible — when public attention will 
 be called to abuses long veiled in mist and obscurity, and the 
 cry will be, not for correction but destruction. Better, while 
 there yet is time, to endeavour without sacrifice of principle 
 gradually to accommodate the existing system to the exigen- 
 cies of the country, looking forward for a final adjustment 
 to a period, when the earnest now given of a sincere desire 
 to reconcile conflicting interests, shall have produced its 
 fruits, than peremptorily disregard all warning, and refuse 
 all reform. The Irish Church Temporalities Act, ably, and 
 I have no doubt honestly executed by the commissioners, 
 has, beyond all question been productive of the greatest 
 benefit to the Protestant Church. It has swept away many 
 shameful sinecures, caused a great increase of zealous endea- 
 vour to promote the doctrines of the reformed faith, and 
 relieved the Catholic people, sensibly and unmistakeably, from 
 that perpetual worry and vexation which could hardly fail to 
 iTiar any chance it ever had of success. But on the other 
 hand, it has laid bare the enormous disproportion between 
 church revenue and spiritual service. It has operated as was 
 anticipated of the first tithe Composition Act as a Bill of 
 Discovery; the value of church property has been ascertained 
 by it, and in the language of Dr. Doyle, " all who have eyes 
 can see, the glories of the establishment." 
 
53 
 
 The disgrace and overthrow of a religious society in com- 
 munion with the Church of England, and to which the faith of 
 Parliament has been repeatedly pledged, would in its direct 
 and indirect consequences be a social evil of the most serious 
 magnitude. The contrast presented by the small, but com- 
 fortable, congregation, which assembles every Sunday in the 
 neat, snug, well warmed and well painted little oratory, called 
 the parish church, and the uncared for multitude who worship 
 how and where they can, is already most injurious to the 
 peace and happiness of the country. But a violent disruption 
 of the ties which bind the higher classes of society in Ireland 
 to the Established Church in England would be productive 
 of still greater evils. I feel quite satisfied that such a mode 
 of adjusting this ancient quarrel is not desired by, and would 
 give no satisfaction to, the Catholic people. 
 
 Neither are they advocates for the recognition by the State, 
 of the principle of religious indifference. They have no wish to 
 see their country disgraced, by the monstrous incongruity of 
 two established churches, one protesting against the other, 
 both secured by law, in co-ordinate rank, dignity, and autho- 
 rity. They do not grudge to the small religious society which 
 is established in Ireland, in connexion with the Church of 
 England, the precedence which the law secures to it. In their 
 eyes freedom is incompatible with, and better than State favour; 
 but they do claim that the religion of the vast majority of a people, 
 bound by a community of interest, and by the dearest recol- 
 lections of renown to England, who have been ever ready at a 
 moment's notice, to sail to any clime, and pour out their blood 
 like water in her cause, should by the laws of England, be 
 countenanced, protected, and cherished, upheld in high respect 
 and veneration, and in its place provided with all the means of 
 making it a blessing to the people who profess it. 
 
 The advocates of a provision for the Roman Catholic clergy 
 of Ireland are, many of them, I have no doubt, perfectly sin- 
 cere in their belief, that it would, as charity does, bless alike the 
 givers and the receivers. Although I think the desire to connect 
 
54 
 
 the Roman Catholic Church of Ireland by a sort of morganatic 
 union with the State, is perceptible in the Maynooth Col- 
 lege Act, and in the Act for the better regulation of charitable 
 donations and bequests, I do not believe a direct interference by 
 means of pecuniary arrangements with its discipline or episcopal 
 jurisdiction's seriously contemplated by persons of any weight or 
 influence, in either House of Parliament. I know it is common 
 in the careless conversation of society, to hear it asserted, that 
 the Catholic priesthood are a set of troublesome firebrands, and 
 that their ardour would be quenched, by making their salaries 
 dependent on their conduct. But this notion which assumes 
 the expedience of restraining by means other than their own 
 sense of propriety, the free exercise of their rights as citizens, 
 is not, I am satisfied, adopted by any party, or indeed by any 
 public man, of mark, or authority in the State. It is incon- 
 sistent with all that has been done since 1828 by Sir Robert 
 Peel, and with the whole course and character of Lord John 
 Russell's political career. 
 
 Assuming therefore, that if a State provision is oflTered to the 
 Catholic clergy it will be offered on terms the least unfavourable 
 to its acceptance, and the least inconsistent with the discipline 
 and constitution of their Church, still it appears to me to be most 
 objectionable — and very little calculated to secure to the cause of 
 order and good government in Ireland, the weight and influence 
 of those, who are no doubt capable of giving efficient support to 
 whatever they approve. 
 
 The position of a Roman Catholic priest in a country, the 
 higher orders of which are for the most Protestant, a country 
 in which a tone and fashion of conformity to the religion of the 
 State extends to classes of society, which but for it, could 
 advance none but the most ordinary claims to consideration, 
 is in many respects — peculiar. It is impossible to conceive 
 any one unworthy motive, for aspiring to the ministry in the 
 Irish Catholic Church. From the first moment of its con- 
 templation, the life it offers must present itself to the mind of 
 tlie youthful student, as one of privation and self denial. That 
 
n5 
 
 feeling increases in strength in the course of the years which 
 elapse before he can be ordained, and during which he has 
 acquired, a degree of mental cultivation, which may render 
 success in other pursuits by no means improbable. Persons 
 who have not taken the trouble to inform themselves respecting 
 the practical working of a system which they are very ready to 
 condemn, and much too confident of their ability to improve, 
 have little idea of the number of excellent young men who 
 pause on the threshold of the sanctuary, find by self-study 
 and the advice of their superiors, that they are not called to the 
 holy office of the cure of souls, and thankful for the instruction 
 they have received, become useful members of society, in other 
 walks of life. But supposing the collegian to proceed through 
 the various degrees of minor orders which are so many warnings 
 to him, to be cautious as he treads, and that he arrives at the 
 dignity of the priesthood, what then are his prospects ? Ten, 
 fifteen, twenty years, of laborious disheartening service as a 
 curate among the poorest of the poor! During the whole of 
 that time an entire abnegation of his own will as to his place of 
 residence, an unreserved devotion of himself at all hours of the 
 day and night, to duties, which nothing but the consciousness of 
 doing good to a pious and thankful people could requite. 
 When the best years of his life are gone, he, in the due grada- 
 tion of preferment, becomes a priest of a parish, where probably 
 he is altogether unknown. Once inducted he can only be 
 removed for a distinct cause of canonical fault for which by the 
 law of the Catholic Church, according to its degree, he may be 
 suspended, deposed, or even degraded by his Bishop (a). He 
 is now dependent for support on the generosity and gratitude 
 of his flock, who generally take care to institute between him 
 
 (a) The occasions for the exercise of this authority are rare indeed. 
 And as the law gives the Bishop no power to examine witnesses on oath 
 or declaration, and he cannot of course act upon doubtful, much less 
 hearsay testimony — the only wonder is — that misconduct for which the 
 canon law, makes ample provision, is not of occasional occurrence. 
 
56 
 
 and his predecessor — a tolerably strict comparison. His lot 
 may be cast in a district, where the religious or political 
 opinions of the more fortunate, are of a character to exclude 
 him from all access to such society, as might relieve the dull 
 monotony of his attendance, on the mass of poverty which sur- 
 rounds him. His duties, were he not sustained in them by the 
 hope of a higher reward than this world can give, are such as 
 to break the strongest body, and wear down the strongest mind. 
 Neither distance, nor infirm health, nor inclemency of season, 
 nor dread of contagion, nor peril of any kind, keeps him 
 from the bedside of the sick parishioner, who, warned of the 
 approach of death, requires his assistance. There is no 
 sacrifice, he will not make, no expense he will not incur, to 
 discharge this important duty. His greatest happiness is to 
 soothe with the consolations of religion, the pillow of the 
 dying penitent, or to feel the assurance in the just man's de- 
 parture, of an end, precious in the sight of God. And think 
 you that the people to whom charity like this is shown, have 
 no pleasure in evincing their gratitude for it? There is no 
 Catholic whatever his condition, who does not feel the high value 
 of such services, and the knowledge on the part of the humblest 
 peasant, that he may command them for himself and his family 
 in his hour of need, endears to him his church and it's pastors. 
 Nor is it only in the last dread moment of existence, that the 
 priest is the comforter of the poor. In all their troubles, griefs, 
 and anxieties, as well as on occasions of domestic happiness, 
 his kindness and attention are appreciated by those who have 
 none other, above their own degree, to sympathize with them. 
 He composes differences, heals dissensions, admonishes and 
 instructs the young, reclaims the sinful, consoles the bereaved, 
 the aged and the infirm. He wins the confidence of his flock by 
 the punctual and edifying discharge of his sacred functions, 
 and the regularity and abstemiousness of a life from which all 
 superfluity is retrenched, and laid by, for works of mercy, the 
 adornment of the altar, or the decorous service of the church. 
 
57 
 
 It will be said, this is the picture of a parish minister 
 faithful in the discharge of his duty, the original of which may 
 be found in the Churches of England and Scotland, as well as 
 in the Roman Catholic communion. I don't doubt it, nay such 
 instances have come under my own observation in both ; but 
 the lives of clergymen in most Christian countries, are not so 
 exclusively devoted to the humblest and the most destitute 
 class of the community, as is often the life of the Irish priest. 
 There is rarely so wide a waste between the feelings and 
 modes of thought, of the clergyman of the parish and the 
 landed proprietors, as religious jealousies fostered by bad laws, 
 have made in Ireland. No where but there, is a rival pulpit 
 set up, and endowed by the Government, to decry the doc- 
 trines y^'hich he believes and teaches. Everywhere but there, 
 the spii-it of the laws, the great national establishments and 
 institutions in which that spirit is embodied, and the tone of 
 cultivated society are in harmony with the religion of the 
 people. Its minister, in addition to the mere income attached 
 to his cure, enjoys the respect and consideration of all classes 
 of his fellow citizens. 
 
 But what security shall the people of whom the Irish priest 
 is the spiritual guide receive, for the faithful discharge by 
 his successor of his duties to their children, if just at that age 
 when passion takes the reason prisoner, and the choice of life 
 is made by the youth of the Irish Catholic colleges, the glittering 
 lure of a state pension is dangled before their eyes? As things 
 are now, no man enters into Holy Orders, without a sincere 
 and hearty purpose to redeem, to its last letter, the solemn, 
 pledge which he gives at his ordination. If, when he enters 
 on his ministry, his heart should fail, or his zeal through 
 the weakness of human nature grow cool, every incentive which 
 can operate on the mind of man is at hand, to revivify and con- 
 firm his resolution. The solemn admonishment of his bishop in 
 the name of Him, in whose sight the very heavens are not clean 
 — Accipe potestatem offerre sacrificium Deo, et missas celehrare, 
 
 /„ 
 
58 
 
 is for ever ringing in his ears. The remembrance of it, and the 
 daily privilege it confers, are his sure safeguard against tempta- 
 tion. A faithful discharge of duty, brings with it not only peace, 
 the courage of a good conscience, influence and honour, but also 
 worldly means sufficient for the requirements of his station. 
 By neglect of duty he forfeits them all. Beginning with a pure 
 unbiassed wish, to serve God in the sacred ministry — he is 
 sustained amidst the trials and mortifications of his position, 
 by the remembrance that they were the deliberate and dis- 
 interested choice of his early life — and the result is — that 
 his character is distinguished for all the qualities which befit 
 his station, and for which the great body of the Irish priest- 
 hood is revered. It may well be doubted how long this 
 would last, if all who took orders at Maynooth or elsewhere, 
 received at the same time a vested interest in a government 
 pension. 
 
 The measures which I have ventured to suggest in an earlier 
 part of these remarks, would materially improve the position, 
 the respectability in the eyes of Protestants — the personal con- 
 sequence, so to speak, of the Irish priest, in his neighbour- 
 hood, without increasing his pecuniary resources — or impairing 
 the respect now paid to him by his flock. They would be quick 
 enough to see, that no arrangement had been made, between 
 their Church and the State, which was not eminently conducive 
 to their own comfort, and to the credit and honour of their 
 religion. Gradually, year by year, through exertions similar to 
 those of the present Ecclesiastical Commissioners of Ireland — 
 an appearance of increased neatness, order, and preservation 
 would be observed about their places of religious worship — and 
 the residence of their pastor, which would give a sort of 
 weekly practical earnest — that they were at length cared for by 
 the government of their country, and that their faith was no 
 longer to be to them, in the eyes of their richer neighbours, a 
 reproach. It would soon become known in every cabin through- 
 out the Kingdom, that the church accommodation at Armagh, 
 
59 
 
 at Longford, at Kilkenny and elsewhere, had been found 
 wholly inadequate to the wants of the people, and that funds 
 had been placed at the disposal of the bishops, by the 
 Commissioners, for the completion of churches and cathedrals 
 already sufficiently advanced, to be for ever, monuments of the 
 zeal and love of a pious people, for the beauty of the house of 
 prayer. The list of Catholic Chapels enlarged, rebuilt, repaired 
 and furnished, with funds, in part at least, supplied by the 
 commissioners, would, at the close of every session be laid 
 before Parliament, and through Parliament before the people 
 of Ireland, to their infinite contentment. As material pros- 
 perity increased, the wealthy of their own communion — 
 aye, and the wealthy of the hitherto hostile creed, would vie 
 with each other in their exertions to improve and soften the 
 f. manners of the people, by associating their religious feelings 
 with the contemplation of those beautiful representations of the 
 various stages of the Saviour's life and passion, which are 
 engraved upon the memories of us all, and adorn the altars of 
 every land in which the Church of Rome is upheld in respect 
 and reverence. Would not this be better than destroying the 
 influence of the man — whose principle, conscience, and sense 
 of duty, were but yesterday the only holds you had upon the 
 loyalty and good conduct of the people ? No doubt the first 
 suggestion of such a change as this, would be denounced as an 
 abandonment of Protestant principle, a betrayal of the Protestant 
 Church, a sacrifice of the interests of the Protestant people of 
 Ireland to the clamour of their relentless enemies. But what 
 real danger could result from it to the interests of the Es- 
 tablishment ? Am I to be told that the respectable congrega- 
 tion which 1 saw at Callan on the first of October, could 
 not, or would not supply the means of upholding their little 
 Church, and providing stoves. Prayer Books, Surplices, and 
 Sacramental Elements for their own use, during the next ten 
 years, if by so doing they could contribute to the religious 
 peace and social concord of their neighbourhood ? I believe 
 nothing of the kind. Besides, we began by a declaration of a 
 
60 
 
 respectable authority in matters of conservative policy — 
 that unless some large concession to the great body of the 
 people is made — the Church must yield to the irresistible 
 pressure which threatens its destruction. The question no 
 longer is whether anything should be done, but what is the best 
 thing to be done to improve the now unfortunate relations 
 between the Church of Rome in Ireland and the State. 
 
 The object proposed to myself in these remarks, will 
 not be attained if they fail in satisfying many just-minded 
 Englishmen, that the evils in the condition of Ireland, 
 which all deplore, are capable, without political incon- 
 venience, or sacrifice of religious principle, of early and great 
 alleviation. I have been most unfortunate, if they do not succeed 
 in removing from the minds of many in Ireland, who can hardly 
 doubt the sincerity of the feeling which has prompted them, 
 the benumbing influence of that despair of obtaining justice 
 from the Legislature, which now pervades all ranks and classes 
 of the Catholic people. They do not know, what I have daily 
 opportunities of noting, how much the minds of persons here, 
 even the most attached to the principles of their own religion, are 
 disturbed by the reproach of Ireland's misgovernment, and how 
 earnestly they long to be comforted by the assurance of her 
 happiness and prosperity. 
 
 Before a nation abandons itself to that despondence, which 
 is the most insurmountable of all obstacles to the correction of 
 abuses, it should at least remember, how much it has already 
 gained — how many hard battles have been fought in Parliament 
 for an approach to the principles which are advocated in these 
 pages — how often the dearest feelings of departed and of living 
 statesmen, the generous ambition of the leaders of great parties, 
 have been sacrificed, to their endeavours to make atonement for 
 the injustice of their ancestors. Never, in my humble judgment, 
 has the influence of this disposition been more manifest than now. 
 If I might venture to give expression to the appeal which is 
 made to the Irish people, by all who take interest in its affairs — 
 whether in private society, tlie resorts of commerce, the clubs, 
 
Gi 
 
 the Courts, or the Senate, it is — " Do, show how the evils of 
 your country can be remedied, without forcing us into a hopeless 
 conflict with the religious convictions, and the national pride of 
 the English people, and command our services. How is it, while 
 our time is consumed, our patience exhausted, our political posi- 
 tions endangered, by the hard necessity of taking part in discus- 
 sions which can lead to little, affording at most, an opportunity to 
 your enemies of obtaining credit for worthless concessions, that 
 the representatives of a people, which has one flagrant and 
 admitted grievance, make no appeal to us for its redress ?" It is 
 difficult to deny the reasonableness of these complaints, painful 
 to go home and reflect, that while the poor and the lowly, with 
 the front and attitude of consistent men, still cling immoveably, 
 and at a cost altogether beyond their strength, to their protest 
 against the injustice done to their forefathers — others, to whom 
 Providence has given many talents to be accounted for, are tame 
 enough to bear without a blush, the taunts which assail them. 
 
 Inured as I am, to a total abstinence from all allusion to 
 religious dififerences in our English Courts of Justice, I have no 
 words to describe, the shudder with which for one whole day, 
 I listened at Clonrael, to a discussion of the proportion 
 between the number of Protestants and of Catholics on a panel, 
 from which twelve men were to be balloted, to try a fellow- 
 subject for his life. In the condition of society indicated by 
 such a proceeding, it is impossible that any country, under 
 any form of government, can prosper. 
 
 I believe, with Lord Ellenborough, that the evils of Ireland 
 are of a social, rather than of a political character, — with 
 Mr. Bright, that the time has arrived for a signal reparation of 
 her ancient wrongs, — that religious injustice and its poisonous 
 fruit, religious discord, are responsible for most of her disorders, 
 and that the speediest and most effectual mode of removing them, 
 is to bring the practical working of an intolerant and indefensi- 
 ble system, earnestly, frequently, and perseveringly, to the notice 
 of the people and the Parliament of England. 
 
62 
 
 Table of Benefices in the Diocese of Ossory, showing the 
 Amount of the Population in each Parish, the Number of 
 Persons the Parish Church is capable of accommodating, 
 and the gross Income of the Incumbent. 
 
 Benefice. 
 
 Aghavoe 
 
 Aghoure 
 
 Aglishmartin 
 
 Aharney 
 
 Attannagh 
 
 Aughmacart 
 
 Ballylarkin 
 
 Ballynemara 
 
 Blackrath 
 
 Bordwell 
 
 Burnchurch 
 
 Callan 
 
 Castlane 
 
 Population. 
 
 6196 
 
 6486 
 
 401 
 
 Church Room 
 for. 
 
 ... 200 
 ... 300 
 
 4017 
 3733 
 243 
 867 
 730 
 869 
 7965 
 
 150 
 150 
 
 120 
 
 100 
 
 14,657 330 
 
 778 
 
 Castlecomer 13,242 
 
 Clomantagh 
 
 Clonmore 
 
 Donoghmore 
 
 Dungarvan 
 
 Dunkill 
 
 Dunmore 
 
 Durrow 
 
 Eirke 
 
 Ennisnag 
 
 Fertagh 
 
 Fiddown 
 
 Gowran 
 
 Inchiholopan 
 
 Inistiogue 
 
 Jerpoint East 
 
 Kells 
 
 Kilbeacon 
 
 Kilcoan 
 
 Kilculliheen 
 
 Kilfane 
 
 Killamery 
 
 Killermagh 
 
 4261 
 947 
 1211 
 1784 
 5098 
 2660 
 2911 
 5565 
 550 
 3265 
 
 100 
 700 
 180 
 120 
 200 
 100 
 100 
 100 
 300 
 150 
 200 
 250 
 
 6073 500 
 
 2735 
 2621 
 3998 
 1983 
 5778 
 2878 
 937 
 1756 
 2017 
 1837 
 1078 
 
 150 
 300 
 200 
 
 200 
 100 
 
 200 
 100 
 100 
 130 
 
 Gross Income. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 540 5 lOi 
 
 915 7 2 
 
 106 18 51 
 
 318 19 6 
 541 
 
 246 13 
 
 30 15 4i 
 
 6 31 
 
 90 18 
 
 139 1 
 
 138 9 
 
 1807 3 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 2415 11 31 
 
 264 2 6 
 
 987 4 71 
 
 103 3 5 
 
 288 8 31 
 
 505 5 
 
 179 10 
 
 541 9 2| 
 
 232 10 
 
 160 
 
 724 101 
 
 185 
 
 374 9 101 
 
 1082 
 
 531 
 
 1 101 
 
 H 
 
 528 18 11^ 
 380 
 186 1 2 
 875 3 
 188 
 158 1 111 
 78 6 8 
 602 7 11 
 283 19 
 482 
 
63 
 
 Benefice. 
 
 Kilmacow 
 
 Kilmanagh 
 
 Kilmogaany 
 
 Kilmocar 
 
 Knoctopher 
 
 Listerling 
 
 Mayne 
 
 Mothel 
 
 Odogh 
 
 OfFerlane 
 
 Polrowan 
 
 Rathcoole 
 
 Rathdowny 
 
 Rathsaran 
 
 Rosbercon 
 
 The Rower 
 
 St. John's 
 
 St. Mary's 
 
 St. Patrick's 
 
 Seirkyran 
 
 Skeirke 
 
 Tascoffin 
 
 Thomastown 
 
 Population. 
 
 1923 
 1663 
 2107 
 1413 
 7327 
 1551 
 633 
 3764 
 
 Church Room 
 
 for. 
 ... 70 
 ... 80 
 ... 200 
 
 200 
 90 
 
 300 
 
 4644 150 
 
 9915 400 
 
 2975 
 
 1331 
 
 7576 .... 
 
 868 .... 
 
 6790 .... 
 
 3589 .... 
 
 6461 .... 
 
 .... 250 
 
 .... 140 
 
 .... 100 
 
 .... 200 
 
 .... 250 
 
 5000 700 
 
 2748 
 
 1484 300 
 
 911 100 
 
 1283 150 
 
 3959 129 
 
 Gross Income. 
 
 £ s, (i. 
 
 393 
 
 643 2 6 
 
 108 2 
 86 
 
 1493 12 71 
 
 278 9 2 
 
 240 3 1 
 
 746 8 71 
 
 430 
 
 618 8 9 
 
 284 2 
 
 109 19 11 
 866 6 9 
 298 
 421 4 5| 
 560 
 
 1 6 
 9 1 
 1 2 
 
 331 
 
 195 
 
 698 
 
 161 
 
 389 7 10 
 
 185 
 
 5^8 10 
 
 9 5i 
 
 LONDON : 
 PRiNTED BY RAYNER AND HODOES, 
 
 109, Fetter Lane, Fleet Street.