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 ■^- FACTS 
 
 RESPECTING THE PEESENT STATE OF 
 
 THE CHUECH IN lEELAND. 
 
 THE REY. ALFRED T. LEE, LL.D., D.C.L. 
 
 IlliCTOR Ol' AHOGHILL, AND RURAL DEAN, DIOCESE OF CONNOR, CHAPLAIN TO HIS EXCELLENCY 
 
 XHK LORD LIEUTENANT, AND HONORARY SECRETARY TO THE CHURCH INSTITUTION 
 
 lOR THE IROVINCE OF ARMAGH. 
 
 " In IrcUind not only is there a vast proportion of tlie property, but also a vast 
 proportion of members of the learned professions, and of others whose importance 
 cannot be denied, who are attached to the Protestant Church, and hy wliom any 
 thing tliat could he considered as at all tending to overturn the Estahlished 
 Church tcotdd he looJced upon as placing them in a state of political inferiority to 
 their felloiii-countrymen. And besides this, we must recollect that the Act of Union 
 made the Irish Church Establishment a part of the Church Establishment of Eng- 
 land. From these considerations, Sir, I cannot but come to the conclusion that 
 
 any measure involving the destruction of that Church would involve a breach 
 
 in the Act of Union ; endangering the integrity of the empire in the first place, 
 and in the second place, considering how many years have elapsed since the Act of 
 Union has passed into the laAv of the land, probably occasioning such a rent in the 
 whole ecclesiastical constitution of thc^-c realms, that I thinJc the Church of 
 England tvould suffer deeply from such a measure." — Speech of Eael Russell, 
 May 14, 1838 {Hansard, 3rd Series, Vol. XLII., p. 1178), 
 
 FIFT V- THIRD TIIO US AND. 
 
 EIVINGTONS, 
 
 HODGES, SMITH, AND FOSTEB, DUBLIN, 
 
 1868. 
 Frice Tioonciice.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. The Esfcablislicd Churcli is the old Catholic Church of Ireland . . 9 
 
 II. The Established Church iu Ireland the rightful Possessor of the Tithes 
 
 of Ireland 10 
 
 III. The Church of England and the Church of Ireland Ecclesiastically one 
 
 before the Act of Union . . . . . . • . . .11 
 
 IV. The Temporalities of the Church in Ireland placed on the same footing 
 
 as those of the Church in England by the Act of Union . . .13 
 
 V. The attack on the Church in Ireland is virtually an attack on the 
 
 Church in England also 13 
 
 VI. The Church in Ireland has not lost ground in that Country since the 
 
 Census of 1834 14 
 
 Protestant Dissenters in Ireland have decreased since 1834, not in- 
 creased, as stated by the Census Commissioners of 1861 . .15 
 
 VII. Difference between a Benefice and a Parish in Ireland . . . .16 
 
 VIII. Difference between the Gross and Church Population of Parishes . . 17 
 
 IX. Necessity of maintaining the Parochial System 18 
 
 X. Present Revenues of the Church in Ireland 19 
 
 XL Effect of the Church Temporalities Act 20 
 
 XII. The Established Church in Ireland a great benefit to the Country . 21 
 
 XIII. Present Position of the Church in Ireland 22 
 
 XIV. Irish Difficulties originally political, not religious . . . .22 
 
 XV. Abolition, not Reform, the object of the present attack . . .23 
 
 Conclusion 24 
 
 The Roman Catholic Bishops of Ireland on the Established Church in 1826 
 and 1864 24 
 
 A Roman Catholic definition of " The Root of the Irish Evil" ... 26 
 
 Appendix (A).— Increase of Clergy, &c., from 1730 to 1863 . . . .27 
 Appendix (B).— Remarkable Eras in Irish Church History . . . .27 
 Appendix (C).— Glebe Lands in Ireland and Educational Statistics . . .28 
 Appendix (D). — Roman Catholic Church in Ireland — Number of Protestants 
 and Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom — Classification 
 
 of Benefices 30 
 
 Appendix (E).— Summary of Present Position of Established Church in Ireland 31
 
 PREFACE TO FORTY-SIXTH THOUSAND. 
 
 The results of clis-establishing the Irish Church,, so pithily 
 described by Earl Russell in the motto on the title-page of the 
 present edition, are worthy of especial attention at this crisis. 
 
 Earl Russell, when he made the speech referred to, was a 
 responsible Minister of the Crown. He held at that time the 
 distinguished post of Secretary of State for the Home Depart- 
 ment in Lord Melbourne's administration ; and he then told the 
 people of England that the results of overturning the Established 
 Church in Ireland would be tlireefold^ viz. : — 
 
 (1.) It would place the Churchmen of Ireland in a state of 
 
 political inferiority to their fellow-countrymen. 
 (2.) It would involve a breach in the Act of Union, and 
 
 endanger the integrity of the Empire. 
 (3.) It would probably occasion such a rent in the whole 
 
 ecclesiastical constitution of this realm as to cause the 
 
 Church in England to suffer deeply from s^icli a measure. 
 Lord Russell, no longer afflicted with official responsibility, 
 has changed his opinions on the Irish Church. But this change 
 in Lord Russell does not in the least change the actual facts of 
 the case, or the results that will flow from the dis-establishment 
 of the Church in Ireland. They remain the same as before. 
 Nothing has occurred to alter them. If the overthrow of the 
 Established Church in Ireland in 1838 would then have placed 
 the Irish Churchmen in a state of political inferiority to their 
 fellow-countrymen, the same result will follow in 1868; if its 
 dis-establishment then " involved a breach in the Act of Union, 
 and endangered the integrity of the Empire,'' it even more does 
 so now ; if then such a measure would ^^ occasion a rent in the 
 whole ecclesiastical constitution of these realms," it would equally 
 do so now. Instead of the comparatively calm atmosphere of- 
 1838, we are living in the midst of the pohtical tempest of 1868; 
 and the Irish Church is in danger of being sacrificed to a party 
 cry, when the vast importance of the interests involved should 
 place it above all party. We trust those moderate men who are 
 inclined to agree with Lord Russell in his present political creed, 
 will calmly weigh the full meaning of his important declaration
 
 niEl'ACE. 
 
 of 1838. The Irish Church is but a very small portion of the 
 vast question on the consideration of which England has now 
 entered. The Nonconformist has already warned its friends that 
 " the Irish Church question will not be finally disposed of before 
 the public mind will be prepared to entertain proposals in reference 
 to the Scottish Kirk and the Church of England. As it lias been 
 with one IJstallisJmient, so prohahly will it he toitli the others. 
 Their time is fixed. 3fr. Gladstone is hut now treading on the 
 verge of a wide region of change. He knows not whither his 
 convictions will ultimately impel him. He may be regarded as 
 raised up and qualified by Divine Providence for great and Idcuc- 
 ficent purposes.'''' Let_, then^ the Clergy and Laity of England 
 look plainly at the real battle tha't is before them. The Irish 
 Church is a very small matter in the eye of the Liberation 
 Society and its allies. It is the first attacked^ because it is the 
 weakest ; but it is only the first. Should English Churchmen 
 (for with them the issue really rests) permit the Irish Church 
 to be dis-establishedj they will have allowed principles of 
 Parliamentary legislation to have been laid down which will 
 pave the way for the advance of the enemy to the ver}^ heart of 
 their own citadel. It is assumed as an axiom by those Church- 
 men who are inclined to favour a separation of Church, and 
 State, that a Church free from the trammels of the State is a 
 necessary consequence of dis-establishment. But this by no 
 means follows as a certain consequence. We have already had 
 hints of the great danger ^^ of creating, in cool blood, a formidable 
 tmj^erium. in imperio.^' The leading journal has already warned 
 us that it is quite possible for the Church to be dis-established 
 and robbed of its endowments, and yet for the Crown to retain 
 the nomination to its bishoprics and deaneries. Let us then be 
 wise in time. Let us consider well where the destruction of the 
 Irish Establishment will finally land us. Let us remember the 
 immense danger of removing the only organization which can 
 prevent Rome from becoming politically, as well as religiously, 
 supreme in Ireland. Let us also, each individually, consider 
 our duty as members of Christ^s Churcli, to stand l)y our brethren 
 " of like faith " in Ireland, who are one with us in Creed, and 
 Liturgy, and Articles — one with us "in the confession of the 
 same Christian faith, and in the doctrine of the Sacraments '' 
 (Ibt Irish Canon of 16-jl', still in force). 
 
 Mau, 1868. <»^A> 
 
 . UIUC ^
 
 PREFACE TO THIRTY-SEVENTH THOUSAND. 
 
 The public at length know what the demands of the Irish Roman 
 Catholic Bishops are, with respect to the Established Church in 
 Ireland. Headed by Cardinal Cullen_, they metin Dublin during 
 the first three days of October, and subsequently published a 
 manifesto declaring that ^' Irish (Roman) Catholics cannot cease 
 to feel as a gross injustice and an abiding insult, the continued, 
 even joartial, maintenance of the Establishment/'' In other 
 words, the Roman Catholic Bishops openly demand that the 
 Established Church in Ireland, which is the chief impediment to 
 the religious and political supremacy of Rome in Ireland, should 
 forthwith be done away. 
 
 The reasons given by Cardinal Cuilen, in a pastoral published 
 with " the Declaration " for this course of action, are worthy of 
 attentive consideration. 
 
 "The Ministers of an Establishment founded on injustice,'''' 
 says he, " can have no claim to the Endowments of the past 
 ages of our Church. They teach not her doctrine : they have 
 abandoned her discipline : they revere not the memory of her 
 saints : they are strangers amongst us ; unlike our forefathers 
 in the faith, they hold not the communion of the see of Peter, 
 on whom Christ built His Church ; and to whom He gave the 
 Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. They have no claim to Holy 
 Orders : the Catholic Church regards their ordination as invalid, 
 and when any of them return to her fold, they are received only 
 as laymen ; or they are re-ordained, should they wish to be ranked 
 among her Clergy .^^ 
 
 This is plain speaking. The Cardinal hesitates not to use 
 arguments which apply equally to both branches of the United 
 Church. The Church in Ireland has reformed herself; she is not 
 in communion with the see of Rome, tl/erefore she has no rightful 
 claim to her endowments, and her Clergy are laymen. Mutatis 
 imitandis, the same is true of the Church in England. Let 
 Englishmen therefore pause before they permit the Irish Church 
 question to be treated as a mere Irish matter. It is far more 
 than this. It is a direct attack on our Protestant constitution in 
 Church and State. Destroy that Constitution in Ireland^ and it
 
 6 PREFACE. 
 
 will be impossible to maintain it long in England. Roman 
 Catholics see tliis clearly enough. "When will those Englishmen 
 who are helping on Romeo's Supremacy see it also ? 
 
 Let Englishmen also remember that the Reformed Faith in 
 Ireland will he destroyed, loitli very few exceptions, in three 
 provinces in Ireland out of four_, if the parochial system is removed. 
 From the peculiar circumstances of the count ry_, the Church 
 cannot exist in those districts without endowment. To assist in 
 removing the Established Churchy then, is to assist in blotting out 
 the Reformed Faith in three-fourths of Ireland, and to deliver that 
 country, morally, socially, and politically, into the hands of Rome. 
 
 The removal of the Established Church would increase and not 
 remedy the difficulties of Ireland. The Roman Catholic Bishops 
 and Priests do not even pretend that it will satisfy them. It 
 is but the first step in their programme. Education and the Land 
 question are behind. " First destroy the Church, then obtain 
 supreme command of the religious and political education of the 
 people, and then the land must soon be ours.''^ This is their 
 thinly veiled and scarcely concealed intention. 
 
 Again, the destruction of the Established Church would not 
 conciliate a single Fenian, and so would in no wise remove the 
 mainspring of Irish discontent ; but it would introduce a new and 
 powerful, but hitherto unheard of element into Irish society, viz. 
 that of active Protestant discontent, from which results might 
 flow which we even shrink from contemplating. From the aboli- 
 tion of the Irish Church the following results would ensue : — 
 
 1. The religious and political supremacy of Rome in Ireland 
 would be secured; for the Roman Catholic Priests are the poli- 
 tical as well as the religious leaders of the people; "they exercise 
 as vigilant superintendence over the votes as over the morals 
 of their parishioners.^^ (Vide Lord DufFerin''s opening address 
 at Belfast, as President of the Social Science Congress.) 
 
 2. The Protestant population would rapidly diminish; absenteeism 
 would increase; and the Landlords, who are mostly Protestants, 
 would, wherever it is possible, become non-resident. 
 
 3. Ireland would be left without any National Church. As far as 
 the state is concerned, ^' our scheme of government then would 
 degenerate into a mere system of police.-" (Vide Mr. Disraeli's 
 address to the Electors of Buckinghamshire, in 1865.) 
 
 4. The face of Irish society would be changed, but not for the
 
 PREFACE. / 
 
 better. Bitter religious feuds would spring up on all sides^ and 
 Irish Eoman Catliolies and Protestants would be divided by a 
 chasm tenfold wider than that which now separates them. 
 
 5. The Act of Union^ in its most fundamental article_, would have 
 to be repealed,, much of the Act of Settlement cancelled^ and 
 the spirit of the Ttoman Catholic Emancipation Act of 18^9 
 openly violated. 
 
 6. The Constitution will have received the most violent shock it 
 has sustained since the Reformation, and all for what ? Let 
 every English citizen answer this question, and count the cost 
 before he embarks on this perilous crusade. 
 
 Eemember, also, that this is not a mere Irish question, or one 
 of revenue only. The dearest interests of the nation, both religious 
 and political, are involved in this struggle. The Irish Church 
 question does not stand alone. It cannot be settled alone. 
 With it far weightier interests are bound up. One of our leading 
 statesmen (Mr. Gladstone) has warned us " that the moment we 
 touch it practically it invokes a nest of problems of the utmost 
 political difficulty/" and the significant expression of opinion 
 respecting tithe property in general, ])otli in England and Ireland^ 
 given by a leading member of the late Government, the Duke of 
 Argyle, in the Irish Church debate of June 24th, 1867, should 
 clearly show to all friends of the Church, that the very existence 
 of her property is involved in this struggle. 
 
 " I ask,"*-* said the noble Duke, " what are tithes ? I venture to 
 maintain, against the authority of the noble and learned Lord 
 [Lord Cairns] — although I am not sure that he committed his 
 authority upon that question — that tithes are a fund, not strictly 
 a tax, but rather a reserve in rent, charged upon the land of the 
 country, which are entirely at the disposal of the siLpreme Legis- 
 lature of the country. They are not private property, not even 
 corporate property — not, as Sir James Graham argued in 1835, . 
 trust property — but a revenue at the disposal of the State, to be 
 disposed of with those considerations of prudence, and of respect 
 for existing rights, which Parliament ought always to follow. 
 
 I maintain that tithes are the jorojoerty of no onSj hut 
 
 they are at the absolute and free disjposal of the State, or any 
 purpose to which the State may think fit to devote them^ — {Times, 
 June 25, 1867.) 
 
 After considering these clearly expressed opinions of an Ex-
 
 8 PREFACE. 
 
 Cabinet Minister;, can any one reasonably clouljt that the confisca- 
 tion of Church property in Ireland must lead, before long, to the 
 confiscation of the Church property in England also ? 
 
 The Liberation Society and their friends see this plainly and 
 distinctly. Hence their new-born zeal for the destruction of the 
 Established Church in Ireland, and the consequent supremacy of 
 Rome there. 
 
 Such being" the gravely important position which the Irish 
 Church question now holds, it surely is the imperative duty of all 
 who take any interest in the future welfare of the Church, to 
 make themselves personally acquainted with the true state and 
 position of the Church in Ireland, and not to trust for informa- 
 tion to the commonly received, but most erroneous and exag'ge- 
 rated statements that are current respecting her. 
 
 It is hoped that the following* summary of '"'' the present state 
 of the Church in Ireland,'''' which has been compiled from Par- 
 liamentary returns and other authentic documents, and has been 
 more than once carefully revised, will enable those who are 
 interested in this matter to obtain accurate information on the 
 subject, at a time when not to be well informed as to the true 
 state of the Irish Church question is to be in danger of being 
 altogether misled respecting it. 
 
 January, 1868
 
 TIE CHUECH IN IRELAND. 
 
 The importance of an accurate knowledge of the true condition of 
 the Church in Ireland at the present time will be allowed by all. 
 For several sessions a parliamentary attack has been impending over 
 her. Of late, the Roman Catholic Bishops of Ireland have formed 
 a National Association, one of the avowed purposes of which is the 
 abolition of the Church Establishment ; and we are assured from 
 time to time by those who seek for its destruction that it is the true 
 cause of the political difficulties that exist in that country. 
 
 The following brief narrative has therefore been put together in 
 the belief that there are many who will be glad to become acquainted 
 with some of the principal facts respecting the Church in Ireland, 
 which they have no leisure to investigate for themselves. 
 
 I. — The Estahlislied Church is the old Catholic Church of Ireland. 
 
 The Church in Ireland is the only religious 1)ody in that country 
 Avhicli can rightly claim to be the true successor of the Church of 
 St. Patrick. It was more than 700 years. after Christianity was first 
 established in Ireland Ijefore the supremacy of the Pope was fully 
 exercised there \ St. Patrick landed in Ireland a.d. 432, but the 
 Papal supremacy was frst formally achnowledged in the Synod of 
 Kells, A.D. 1152. At the time of the Reformation the continuity of 
 Episcopal succession was not broken ; the bishoj)s then in possession 
 of the Irish sees continued to exercise their function in the Refonned 
 Church, and thus the regular and ancient succession of bishops from 
 St. Patrick has descended continually in the Church in Ireland to 
 . the present day. The ecclesiastical ancestors of the present Roman 
 Catholic Bishops of Ireland were not consecrated by Bishops of 
 Ireland. They were not of Irish creation ; they dei-ive their orders 
 from Italy and Spain, and not from the Irish Church ". The present 
 Roman Catholic hierarchy in Ireland is therefore a new episcopate 
 introduced from abroad, and set uj^ in that country in the 16th 
 century in opposition to its ancient and lawful episcopate, and has no 
 connexion with the Church founded by vSt. Patrick ^ The Established 
 
 1 King's Irish Church History, pp. 579—581, and Appendix, pp. 23, 1\. 
 
 2 See Wordsworth's History of Irish Church, p. 227 ; Palmer on the Church-, 
 ii. 567; King's Irish Church History, p. 903; also especially E. P. Shirley's 
 Original Letters on the Church of Ireland, pp, vii. and viii. 
 
 2 An attempt has recently been made by Dr. Brady and some others to controvert 
 this ctatemeut ; but, after u careful investigation of the whole nupstion, I see no 
 
 A3
 
 10 FACTS RESPECTING THE PRESENT STATE 
 
 Cliurcli, therefore, is not a new Cliurcli introduced into Ireland from 
 England in the 16th century, as is commonly, but most erroneously, 
 believed, but is the only old Catholic Church of Ireland. 
 
 11. — The Established Church in. Ireland the riyhtful Possessor oj 
 the Tithes of Ireland. 
 
 All proj^erty in Ireland is the creation of some English King ; and 
 the first property so created was that of the Church. Since the 
 synod of Cashcl, A.D. 1172, by which tithes were first authorized 
 in Ireland, every foot of Irish territory has been again and again 
 forfeited to the Crown. The title of the present landlords of Ireland 
 to their property, when traced to its original source, is the bounty of 
 the Crown of England ; and when they received their estates it was 
 Avitli a i-eservation of the original grant to the Church. 
 
 Tithes, therefore, avere never part of any lay property 
 NOW IN EXISTENCE. The Churcli is paid by the tithe rent-charge, 
 which v/as a commutation for the tithes on terms that are very 
 beneficial to the landowner. The late lamented Sir Gr. Cornewall 
 Lewis will be an unexceptionable witness on this subject. 
 
 " This grievance is commonly stated to be that the Roman 
 Catholics are compelled to contribute by the payment of tithes to 
 the support of a Church from the creed of which they differ. Now, 
 in fact, the Roman Catholics, althoufjh they may pay the tithe, contribute 
 nothing, inasmuch as in^ Ireland tithe is in the nature, not of a tax, 
 but of a reserved rent, ivliich never belonged either to the landlord 
 or the tenant ^" 
 
 Moreover, the Churcli of Ireland, when it submitted to the Pope, 
 in A.D. 1172, was invested by Henry II. with certain temporalities. 
 The same Church of Ireland, on renouncing the Papal Supremacy, 
 was confirmed in its temporalities by Ileniy VIII. If the investitui-e 
 was valid, there is no reason to object to the reinvestiture. 
 
 As regards the glebe lands of Ireland, many of them (exclusive 
 of those in Ulster) were granted to the clergy of the Church of 
 Ireland for ever by the native princes and lords of Ireland during 
 their primitive independence of all foreign supremacy. They tvere 
 never granted for the benefit of the Church of Rome^. She claimed no 
 
 reason for altering in any way the statement of tlie text. For fuller information 
 see Archdeacon Stopford's " Unity of the Anglican Churcli/' and the author's 
 "Irish Episcopal Succession, in reply to Mr. Froude and Dr. Brady." And also 
 an article of great research on Mr. Froude's recent statements respecting the Irish 
 Bishops, in the Contemporary Reoieiv, for April, 1867, hy Mr. Ilichard Nugent. 
 
 ^ The Irish Church Question, p. 351, ed. 1836. 
 
 - A great portion of the lands now held by the Bishop of Meath were granted 
 to Kieran of Clonmacnoise (now united to Meath) in the sixth century, nearly six 
 centuries before Home had any jurisdiction in Ireland. (Archdeacon Stopford's 
 lloply to Serjeant Shee, p. 95.) And the Archdeacon remarks, infra, 97, " no pro- 
 perty to which the Church of Rome could show an original title has passed into the 
 hands of the Clnu-ch at the Eeformation." The property of the monasteries of 
 modern foundation— i. e. since the twelfth century — is not possessed by the Irish 
 Cliurch, but by lay impropriators, who now receive over £81,000 a year from this 
 source.
 
 OF THE CHURCH IN IRELAND. 11 
 
 jurisdiction in Ireland till many centuries after the time when these 
 grants began to be made^ ; and by far the most valuable of them, 
 which lie in the North, were original grants from the Crown to the 
 Reformed Church at the time of the plantation of Ulster in 1609 ^ 
 In that year a Royal Commission was issued, in which it was ordered 
 that the Commissioners " should assign to the incumbent of each 
 parish a glebe, after the rate of threescore acres for every thousand 
 acres within the parishes, in the most convenient places or nearest 
 the churches, and for the more certainty to give such glebe a certain 
 name whereby it may be known ; and to take orders, that there be 
 a proviso in the Letters Patent for forming the glebes to restrain 
 alienations thereof." — ("Concise View of the Irish Society," p. 14, 
 ed. 1822.) It will thus be seen who have tlie legal right to the tithe 
 rent-charge and glebes of Ireland. 
 
 IJl.—The Church oj England and the Church of Ireland Ecclesias- 
 tically one before the Act of Union. 
 
 The Synod of Cashel, held a.d. 1172, was " a plenary Council, 
 both national and ecclesiastical," and was held for the express pur- 
 pose of " bringing the Irish Church into exact conformity with the 
 English ^" Its seventh Canon enacted, that "all divine matters shall 
 in future, in all parts of Ireland, be i-egulated after the model of 
 Holy Church, in accordance with the observance of the Anglican 
 Church." Romanism was thus fully developed in Ireland, and " the 
 Sarum Ritual " came into common use there, although a long series 
 of years elapsed before the ancient Irish clergy could be induced 
 altogether to submit to its decrees*. At the time of the Reformation, 
 the Church of Ireland received " the Book of Common Prayer," and 
 in the public documents of that period, e.g., the Injunctions of Edward 
 VI., A.D. 1547, "the Church of England and Ireland" is spoken 
 of ^. In a bidding prayer, included in the Injunctions of Queen 
 Elizabeth, in 1559, a like expression is used ; and the title of the 1st 
 of the Irish Canons of 1634 (which accepted verbatim et literatim 
 the English Articles) is " Of the agreement of the Church of England 
 and Ireland, in the possession of the same Christian religion ;" and 
 the Canon itself declares their agreement, " in the confession of the 
 same Christian faith and the doctrine of the Sacraments." Since 
 
 1 King's Irish Church History, pp. 1058, 1059. 
 
 - See page 20. 
 
 •■5 Gerakl. Camb. Expug. Hibern. i. 03 j Wilkins, Coucil. i. 471; Cox, Hib. Augl. 
 i. 22 — 24. It will thus be seen that tlie Anglican faith was introduced into Ireland 
 centuries before the Ilefonnation. 
 
 'i It is a remarkable fact, that in the Council of Constance held in A.D. 1414, 
 the English Church was declared to be entitled to vote as a separate National 
 Church, on the ground that the English and Irish were 07ie National Church. 
 And it is Avorthy of observation, that in all committees, &c., of the Council, the 
 Anglican Church was represented by " Patrick, • Bishop of Cork." Labbe and 
 Cossart's Concilia Generalia, vol. xii., Col. 1727, ed. 1672, as quoted by Archdeacon 
 Stopford — Reply to Serjeant Shee, j). 99. 
 
 ° Sparrow's Collections, p. 48. 
 
 A 4
 
 12 FACTS EESPECTING THE PRESENT STATE 
 
 1634, tbe Articles of the Clmrcli in Ireland have been the same as 
 those of the Church in England. The Liturgy has been the same 
 since the Reformation. Their Canons differ in some minor points ; 
 hut this no more prevents the provinces of the Irish Church being in 
 perfect union with those of the English, than the difference of the 
 Canons of the province of York in former times prevented its l)eiug 
 considered one Church with the province of Canterbury. 
 
 IV. — The Temporalities of the Church in Ireland placed on the 
 same footing as those of the Church in England hy the Act 
 
 of Union. 
 
 The words of the 5th Article of the Act of Union are as follows : — 
 '• That the Churches of England and Ireland, as now hy latv esta- 
 blished, be united into one Protestant Episcopal Church, to be called 
 'The United Church of England and Ireland,' and that the doc- 
 trine, worship, discipline and government of the said United Church 
 shall be, and shall remain in full force for ever, as the same are now 
 l)y law established for the Church of England ; and that the continu- 
 ance and preservation of the said United Church as the Established 
 Church of England and Ireland shall be deemed and taken to be an 
 essential and fundamental part of the Unions 
 
 To attack the Established Church in Ireland, then, is to attack the 
 Established Church in England, for the legal status of both branches 
 of the United Church is exactly the same ; and, as Sir Robert Peel 
 said in the House of Commons \ " an attack upon the Established 
 Church in Ireland is but a necessary preliminary to an attack on the 
 
 Established Church in this country The endowments of 
 
 Ireland cannot be dealt with alone ; if you wish to deal with the 
 revenues of the Irish Church you must enter into a wider field and 
 deal with all endowments given by the State." Moreover, it should 
 be remembered that the Act of Union would never have been passed 
 by a Parliament exclusively Protestant, unless the faith of England 
 had been first pledged to the maintenance of the Established Church 
 in Ireland. What said Lord Castlereagh, the mouthpiece of the Go- 
 vernment at the time of the Union ? — " One State, one Legislature, 
 one Church, these are the leading features of the system, and without 
 identity with Great Britain in these three great points of connexion, 
 we can never hope for any real and permanent security. The Church, 
 in particular, while we remain a separate country, will ever be liable 
 to be impeached on local grounds. When it shall once be completely 
 incorporated with the Church of England, it ivill be placed upon such 
 a strong and natural foundation as to be above every apprehension 
 
 ' It is important to observe that an Establisliocl Clmvcli and an Endoioecl 
 Church, though often confounded, are not synonymous terms. The Established 
 Cliurch of Enghuid and Irehind has certain legal rights which a simply Endowed 
 (Jhurch would not possess. Moreover, whilst the Irish Clergy are supported by 
 their own property, the endowment annually paid to the Presbyterian Ministers 
 in Ireland, commonly called the Heyinm Dotium, is voted each year by the House 
 of Commons, and is paid out of thc'unnual revenue of the couu'try. It nmounted 
 in 1867 to 41/178/. 3i'. 6rf.
 
 OP THE CHURCH IN IRELAND. 13 
 
 and fear from adverse interest, and from all the fretting and irri- 
 tating circumstances connected with our colonial situation. As soon 
 as the Church Establishments of the two kingdoms shall be incor- 
 porated into one Church, the Protestant will feel himself at once 
 identified with the population and property of the Empire, and the 
 Establishment will be placed on its natural basis." — (See Quarterly 
 Review, vol. xlvi. p. 425.) Therefore, it was that in the 5th Article 
 of the Act of Union, the continuance and preservation of the Esta- 
 blished Church Avas declared " to be an essential and fundamental 
 part of the Union.'" And if we do away with an essential and fun- 
 damental part of the Act of Union, what will that which remains be 
 worth ? 
 
 V. — The. attach on the Church in Ireland is virtucdly an attach on 
 the Church in England also. 
 
 The upholders of the Voluntary System know well that if they 
 can insert the thin edge of the wedge in any part of the Established 
 Church, they will have gained a great step towards destroying the 
 Avhole. Their motto is " Divide et impera." They think the weak 
 point of the Established Church at present is the Church in Ireland, 
 and therefore it is against it that their attacks are first directed. If 
 they succeed in persuading the Legislature that because the members 
 of the Church in particular parishes in Ireland are in a numerical 
 minority, therefore the Established Church should be abolished, how 
 unanswerable an ai'gument will they have when they come to deal 
 with England and Wales ! There is no argument that can be ad- 
 duced against Ireland that cannot bo brought with greater force 
 against Wales. The benefices in Wales are about 1,000. The 
 population of each benefice on an average is about 1,300 ; of these 
 about 400 belong to the Established Church, and 900 to the Dis- 
 senters ; and if the Church in Ireland is to have her revenues redis- 
 tributed or confiscated because she is not the Church of the majority, 
 the same principle must in all justice in due season be applied to the 
 Church in the Principality. Besides, whilst in Ireland there are only 
 752 benefices (of Avliich 60 are suspended or disappropriated, &c., so 
 that 692 would be the truer number), in which there are less than 
 200 members of the Church', in England and Wales there are 
 4,149 parishes where the gross population (Churchmen cmd Dis- 
 senters) is less than 200, of which 1,864 (xi far larger number than 
 all the benefices in Ireland) contain fewer than 100 inhabitants ^ 
 
 Of both branches of the United Church, then, it may be said — 
 
 " Quo res cunque cadent, uuum et commime periclum, 
 Una sakis ambobus erit." 
 
 1 Thorn's Ahnanac for 1865, p. 775. 
 
 2 See Report of Committee of Council on Education, for 1863-4, pp. xxv—
 
 14 
 
 FACTS TJESPECTING THE PRESENT STATE 
 
 VI. — The Chirch. hi Ireland has vot lost r/rmnid in that Country 
 since the Census o/1834. 
 
 The returns of the Census Commissioners in 1834 and 1861, us 
 i-egards the religious population, were as follows : — 
 
 
 1S34. 
 
 18G1. 
 
 Decrease. 
 
 In- 
 crease. 
 
 Per 
 
 Cent. 
 
 Established Church . . .1 
 
 including ' 
 
 Methodists . . . J 
 
 Roman Catholics 
 
 Presbyterian .... 
 
 and other 
 Protestant Dissenters 
 
 Corrected return of Protestant^ 
 Dissenters (see below) . .J 
 
 853,160 
 
 6,436,060 
 
 643,058 
 
 21,882 
 
 693,3571 
 45,399/ 
 4,505,265 
 523,291 
 76,661 
 
 114,404 
 
 1,930,795 
 119,767 
 
 54,839 
 
 13-4 
 
 30-4 
 
 18-6 
 
 251-3 
 
 7,954,160 
 
 21,882 
 
 5,798,967 
 
 16,990 
 
 2,164,966 
 
 4,892 
 
 54,839 
 
 224 
 
 The whole population of the country has thus decreased, in 27 
 years, 27' 1 per cent., or more than a fourth, or one per cent, per 
 annum. 
 
 All the religious bodies therefore have necessarily decreased, hut 
 hy no means in the same proportion. The Roman Catholics in this 
 period lost nearly a third of their whole number ; the Presl)yterian 
 body between a fifth and a sixth, whilst the Church lost only between 
 a seventh and an eighth. Nor should this important fact be lost 
 sight of, — viz. : That in twenty-one out of the thirty-two Irish 
 dioceses the proportion per cent, of the members of the Established 
 Church to the general population has risen since 1834 — has remained 
 stationary in two — and, notwithstanding the large total decrease of 
 population, has fallen only in nine. This shows that in spite of many 
 adverse circumstances the Established Church has been quietly 
 making its way in all parts of the country \ (See Census Report for 
 1861, p. 33.) 
 
 In 1834 the Methodists were reckoned with the Church, in 1861 
 they tvere reckoned separately. This is overlooked in many of the 
 calculations founded on . the late census : and the Church is said to 
 have decreased by 159,803 ; whereas the absolute decrease, as shown 
 above is only 114,404, whilst, in the same period, there is a relative 
 increase of two per cent. 
 
 ^ Durinn; the same period the Homan Catholic population dhnlnished in every 
 Diocese in Ireland, except two— viz., Dublin and Connor (see Thorn's Official Irish 
 Directory, for 18G0, p. 768). In a country Rural Deanery in a northern Diocese, 
 with which the author is well acc[uaintcd, the Rural Dean at his last inspection 
 louud that, out of the nine parishes in the Rural Deauery, in three new Churches 
 were being built, and in three others, that the churches were about to be enlarged, 
 u pretty conclusive proof of the increase of Church population in those parts.
 
 OF THE CHURCH IN IRELAND. 15 
 
 Protestant Dissenters in Ireland have decreased since 1834, not in- 
 creased, as stated by the Census Commissioners 0/I86I. 
 
 Much has been said of the increase of Protestant Dissenters in Ire- 
 land (exclnsive of the Presbyterians) since 1834, which the Census 
 Commissioners of 1861 (Report, page 28) have stated to be at the 
 rate of 251*3 per cent. This is utterly fallacious, as is clearly shown 
 by the Archbishop of Armagh in his Charge of 1864 (pages 17, 18, 
 and 31). The truth is, there has been an absolute decrease of 4,892 
 "other Dissenters" since 1834. 
 
 The return of the Census Commissioners is as follows : — 
 
 1834. 1§61. Increase. 
 
 Other Protestant Dissenters . . 21,822 76,661 54,839. 
 
 Rate per cent. 251*3. 
 
 This total of 76,661 is formed as follows (Report, p. 6) : — 
 
 Methodists 45,399 
 
 Independents 4,532 
 
 Baptists 4,237 
 
 Society of Friends 3,695 
 
 Other Persuasions 14,695 
 
 Unascertained 4,103 
 
 76,661 
 
 In 1834, as stated above, the Methodists were enumerated as 
 members of the Established Church ; in 1861 tliey are classed as 
 "other Dissenters." Thus, in the return of 1861, the Methodists 
 are classed as if they had all sprung into existence since 1834, and 
 their existence at that time is entirely ignored. In addition to this, 
 4,103 persons, whose religion was "unascertained," are classed as 
 " other Persuasions ;" and 156, who are clearly members of the Esta- 
 blished Church, are enumerated as Dissenters. The correction of 
 these mistakes reduces this increase of " other Protestant Dissenters " 
 from 54,839 to 5,181 ; but, in addition to this, in 1861 various sub- 
 divisions of Presbyterians, returned as such by this enumeration, 
 were transferred by the Census Commissioners to " other Persua- 
 sions," these having been included amongst Presbyterians in 1834 ; 
 and so also were the Unitarians, amounting to 3,800 ; and as the 
 Primate justly remarks in his Charge (p. 18), from which these 
 calculations are taken, " in a comparative table of two different 
 periods, they cannot be attached to a class different from the one 
 under which they were reckoned. They are not Dissenters coming 
 into existence since 1834, but only Presbyterians differently classed." 
 If, therefore, Ave deduct these 10,073 Presbyterians, we shall find 
 that, so far from there having been an increa.se of " other Protestant 
 Dissenters" since 1834, there has been an actual decrease of 4,892. 
 After this, we hope we shall hear no more of the large increase of 
 Protestant dissent in Ireland within the last thirty years.
 
 16 FACTS I^F.SPECTING THE TRESENT STATE 
 
 VII. — Difference between a Benefice and a Parish in Ireland. 
 
 The Census Commissioners of 1861, in their Report, page 21, 
 mention three classes of parishes in Ireland. 
 
 1. The parish of the Established Church. 
 
 2. The Civil parish. 
 
 3. The Roman Catholic parishes — very often differing from 
 
 both. 
 
 The Census Commissioners have adopted the second classification 
 in their reports^, and the results of the Census thus appear in 
 the most disadvantageous light possible as regards the Established 
 Church. 
 
 In Ireland a parish is not conterminous with a benefice. A bene- 
 fice is often a union of several parishes under one incumbent ". Thus, 
 whilst there are 2,428 civil parishes in Ireland, there are only 1,510 
 benefices ; from which it follows, that there are 918 more civil 
 paiishes in Ireland than benefices. If we remember this important 
 fact, the statement (Table ix. Census Report, 1861, p. 36) of which 
 we have lately heard so much, viz., that there are 199 ■parishes in 
 Ireland without any Church j)opulation, loses all its significance ; 
 for whilst it may be pei'fectly true that there are some portions of 
 benefices (called in the Report civil parishes) in this state, there is 
 but a single benefice in all Ireland to be found ^, and that one par- 
 ticularly circumstanced, in which there are not several members of 
 the Established Church. 
 
 These civil parishes arose in several ways — in many cases from 
 the consolidation of separate chapelries — and since 1662 all the acts 
 by the Lord Lieutenant in council have provided that parishes united 
 by certain statutes should be one parish. Several Acts of Parliament 
 state that, in some parts of the country parishes are " so small, that 
 five or six lie together within a mile or two." (Sec Dr. Hume's 
 Analysis of the Census, p. 62.) 
 
 There are certain benefices in the Irish Church, in number less 
 than a thirteenth part of the whole, in which the Church popula- 
 tion is very small, numbering from twenty-five downwards. These 
 
 ^ Ireland is divided into 2,428 districts or civil parishes, for facilitating the 
 collection of county rates ; some of these districts have for more than two centuries 
 ceased to be parishes in the ecclesiastical sense of the term, and many of them 
 are of very small area ; c, g., the parish of St. Doologes, in Ferns, is only forty 
 yards square. For other instances, see Archbishop of Armagh's Charge of 1864, 
 p. 14. 
 
 2 E. g, — the union of Listowell, diocese of Ardfert, contains ten parishes under 
 one incumbent, net income £276 ; Kilcolgan, diocese of Kilmacduagh, nine 
 parishes, net income £413 ; Donanaughta, diocese of Clonfert, seven parishes, net 
 income £254. Thus, in three unions, we lind tweuty-six parishes, total income 
 £943, or on an average £36 5.?. for each parish. Other similar instances may be 
 found in Captain Stacpoole's Eeturn, from which this is taken. 
 
 ^ Manslieldtowu, diocese of Armagh, net value £191 10.?. per annum. There 
 is a churcli, however, in which Divine service is performed, and a congregation 
 attends from the adjoining parish, which is conveniently situated for that purpose. 
 (See Trimate's Charge, 1861, p. 29).
 
 OF THE CHURCH IN IRELAND. It 
 
 j)arislies are situated in all parts of the country, being found in every 
 diocese, except Down and Connor, and Derry and Raplioe. They 
 average about three and a half to each of the thirty-two dioceses into 
 which Ireland is divided. These are the parishes which form the 
 stock-in-trade of the opponents of the Irish Church. Upon them 
 their chief assault is based. They are brought before us again and 
 again in pamphlet after pamphlet, in speech after speech, in lead- 
 ing articles, in quarterlies, in monthly and fortnightly magazines. 
 Sinecures,- pluralities, non-residence, have passed away — no attacks 
 can be made on these points. Therefore these parishes are con- 
 tinually kept before the public eye. These benefices number altoge- 
 ther 114^ The average proportion of net income of each Incumbent, 
 without making any allowance for Curates, is £164 6s. \0d. Now, 
 if the Irish Church is to be maintained in the remote districts as an 
 Establishment at all, on what smaller pittance than this could a 
 Clergyman exist ? If the Churchmen of these parishes are not to 
 be left without any spiritual ministrations whatever, on what more 
 economic system could the Clergy be maintained ? We may be told 
 that in places where the Church population is small the parish should 
 be annexed to the neighbouring one, and a Curate should be placed 
 in care of it. But surely no Curate could be expected to undertake 
 the sole charge of a widely-scattered district as most of these parishes 
 are, and to visit which effectually a horse is a necessity, on less than 
 £150 a year ? And what do the Clergy of these much-abused 
 parishes now receive ? — on an average £164 6s. 10c?. per annum. 
 So that the net gain by the proposed reform is £14 Qs. \0d. per 
 parish, a goodly sum indeed ! And to gain this the foundations of 
 all Church property ai'e to be rooted up ; and we are told that 
 because of this " monstrous abuse " large reforms are imperatively 
 demanded in the Irish Church. 
 
 VIII. — Differences between the Gross and Church Pojndation of 
 
 Parishes. 
 
 It is customary in England, when speaking of the population of a 
 parish, to mention the gross population as imder the charge of the 
 Incumbent, including Dissenters of all denominations ; but when 
 speaking of Ireland, the same person speaks of the Churcli popula- 
 tion of the parish only. This gives a most unfair estimate of the 
 parochial work of an Irish Clergyman, as in many parts of the 
 country, and especially in the north, the very poor of other denomi- 
 nations would often be left without any spiritual ministrations, were 
 it not for the exertions of the Incumbent. All the inhabitants of the 
 parish are considered by the Irish Clergy to be their parishioners as 
 much as by the Clergy in England. 
 
 ^ See Archdeacon Hincks' Synoptical Table of the Irish Church, 1866. Only 
 nineteen of these parishes are in the Province of Armagh ; the remaining ninety - 
 five arc in the Province of Dublin.
 
 18 FACTS RESPECTING THE PRESENT STATE 
 
 IX. — Nccessitif of maintaimnrj the Parochial System. 
 
 It is essential to the maintenance of the Established Chnrch in 
 Ireland that the principle on which the jDarochial system is based 
 should be preserved in all its integrity. Surrender this, and the 
 Church of Rome obtains an easy and permanent triumph ^ Therefore 
 one of the chief objects of her opj)onents is to disconnect the Church 
 from the parochial system, and make her clergy merely the ministers 
 of particular congregations'. It may seem j)Ciradoxical, hut in many 
 parishes in Ireland the smaller and the more widely scattered the Church 
 iwpulation, the more necessary it is to maintain the Church there. How- 
 ever small the Church population of a parish may be, as long as the 
 parochial system is preserved, there is always a nucleus of cliurch- 
 mauship and loyalty in the parish, to which accretions can be con- 
 tinually made. Eemove the Church and the Clergyman, and in 
 many cases the Church landlords will soon follow, and the inevitable 
 result will be that in a few years the parish will become religiously 
 and politically Romish ; for without the ministrations of the Church 
 large tracts of country would be left without a Protestant place of 
 Avorship or a Protestant Clergyman^. The few Protestants left could 
 not provide ministrations of the Church for themselves and their 
 families, and they must soon be absorbed in the Romanism by which 
 they are surrounded. In the three provinces of Munster, Connaught, 
 and Leinster (including Dublin) the ivhole Protestant 'population not 
 belonging to the Establislied Church does not exceed 40,000 ; 
 whilst all tlie Presbyterians in these three provinces only number 
 1 9,456 ^ 
 
 At present the only spiritual ministrations which many Protestant 
 Dissenters scattered throughout these provinces receive is from the 
 Clergy of the Established Church ; and if they were removed, the 
 voluntary system would be totally unable to supjily their place, and 
 the Church of Rome would be virtually left in undisturbed possession 
 of the greater part of the country. Apart, then, from the question 
 of truth and error, sound policy would dictate that the Established 
 Church should be maintained in all its integrity, even in districts 
 
 ^ Let it never be forgotten that the Church of Homo has a powerful Diocesan 
 and Parochial System in Ireland which overspreads the whole country. (See Ap- 
 pendix D.) 
 
 ^ "In tlie circumstances of Ireland, where the great population do not belong to 
 the Established Church, the congregational is the right, 'proper, and fitting system." 
 (Speech of Mr. Bernal Osborne in House of Commons, June 26, 1863.) 
 
 If sucli a system was adopted, large tracts of the country w'ould be at once con- 
 demned to perpetual spiritual barrenness. 
 
 ■'* " To sweep away the Protestant Establishment would, in most cases, increase 
 absenteeism, by compelling the Protestant families who desired to attend the rites 
 of their own Church to seek them in England. In many parishes of the poorer 
 districts in Ireland, it ivould remove the only resident gentleman, and the hest friend 
 of the foor tohen in want or sicJcness.'" (The Irish 'Difficulty, by an Irish Peer, 
 1867, p. 83.) 
 
 * See Census Report, 1861, p. 10. If Dublin is excluded, the Protestant popu- 
 lation of the three provinces not belonging to the Established Church does not 
 exceed 29,000.
 
 OF THE CnUKCH IN IRELAND. 19 
 
 where the Church population is at present ])ut small ; for, in the 
 words of Mr. Spencer Perceval, " The example of the Clergy of the 
 Estahlished Church in Ireland is of more force than all the penal 
 laws in Christendom." 
 
 X. — Present Bevenues of the Churcli in Ireland. 
 
 Parliamentary returns enable us to calculate with some degree of 
 certainty the present Pevenues of the Established Church'. 
 
 The total net income of the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland 
 amounts to £55,110 per annum. Of this the Archbishop of Armagh 
 receives £8,328, the Archbishop of Dublin £6,569, the Bishop of 
 Deny £5,939, the Bishop of Kilmore £5,246, and each of the other 
 eight Bishops on an average £3,628 ^ The net income of all the 
 beneficed Clergy, arising both from tithe rent-charge and glebe land 
 (considerable deductions not being made from 1,070 livings under 
 £300 a year), is £393,833 125. Id. ; or making allowance for these 
 probable deductions, the average net income of the 1,510 beneficed 
 clergy would only be £245 each^ 
 
 Nor should the following facts be forgotten : — The actual rent- 
 charge of Ireland (gross value) is £401,114 a year, or in round 
 numbers £400,000 per annum^ ; for eight-ninths of this Protestant 
 landlords are responsil^le, and only a ninth comes to the Clergy 
 through Roman Catholic landlords. The whole is a sum less than 
 the annual income of at least one English nobleman, and consider- 
 ably less, as Sir Robert Peel lately remarked, than the cost of one of 
 our ironclads. 
 
 This tithe rent-charge is a composition for tithe, and is of the nature 
 of a reserved rent, ivhicJi never belonged either to landlord or tenant '\ 
 By the Act of 1838 the landlord, indeed, is bound to pay the rent- 
 charge to the Incumbent, but for bearing this responsibility the hand- 
 some allowance of £25 per cent, is made to him, so that when this Act 
 came into operation the Clergy in future only received £75 for every 
 £100 of their former income. The tithe rent-charge therefore is paid 
 neither by Protestants nor Roman Catholics, but is the produce of 
 property which has always belonged to the Church since its first esta- 
 blishment in Ireland. 
 
 Moreover, the Chui'ch in Ireland owes a considerable portion of 
 
 ' See especially Capt. Stacpoole's Return, No. 267, May 4, 1864, and Sir Fred. 
 Heygate's, No. 56 (Feb. 16, 1864), No. 273 (May 6, 1864). 
 
 ^" From this, however, an average deduction of £100 a year from each bishopric 
 is to be made for agents' fees, &c. See Primate's Charge of 1861, p. 6. 
 
 3 Dr. Brady has recently endeavoured, without success, to controvert the accu- 
 racy of the statement contained in the text. It is wholly taken from parliamentary 
 returns, and no better authorities exist at present on this subject. An able 
 expose of Dr. Brady's fallacies respecting the revenues of the Irish Church, called 
 " Observations on Dr. Brady's Letter to The Times," prepared, it is understood, 
 with the sanction of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for Ireland, has recently 
 been issued. 
 
 * The whole of the tithe rent-charge possessed by ecclesiastical persons is less 
 than a hundx-edth part of the produce of the soil. 
 
 ^ See Sir G. C. Lewis's testimony to this, at page 10.
 
 20 FACTS RESPECTING THE PRESENT STATE 
 
 lier i3resent endowments to the exertions and munificence of her 
 Bishops since the Reformation. Dr. Hook, in his Life of Archbishop 
 Bramhall (Eccles. Biog. vol. iii. p. 52), rehites that in four years that 
 indefatigable Primate recovered about £40,000 a year to the Church, 
 which had been Avasted or impropriated. Primate Boulter^ left 
 £30,000 for the augmentation of small benefices and for the purchase 
 of glebes for the Clergy. Primate Robinson left a smaller sum for 
 the same purpose. Both funds are still available. It has already 
 been noticed that most of the glebe-lands in Ulster have been spe- 
 cially granted to the Church since the Reformation-. The income 
 of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners arises from the following sources 
 (1864) :— 
 
 Suppressed See Estates £58,127 
 
 Suspended Benefices and Dignities .... 19,162 
 
 Tax on Bishoprics and Benefices and annual charge ) q*? 1 07 
 
 on the Sees of Armagh and Derry . . / ^'j-Lo' 
 
 Interest on Government Securities . . . 7,460 
 
 £111,936 
 
 of this, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners pay £12,500 a year in lieu 
 of Ministers' money, and also some £8,000 a year in augmentation of 
 small livings, and for disproportioned tithes — both of these items are 
 included in the return of the annual income of these Incumbents. 
 In estimating, then, the annual income of the Church, they cannot 
 again be counted. This leaves £91,436 a year, which, if added to 
 the net income of the Bishops and Clergy, viz. £448,943, would give 
 £540,379 as the annual available income of the Irish Church — out 
 of which the salaries of clerk and sexton, church requisites, grants 
 for the repairs and building of churches, &c. (in addition to the 
 incomes of the Bishops and Clergy) have to be provided ; so that 
 the greater part of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners' fund goes in 
 relief of tlie Laity, and not for the use of the Clergy, these items 
 being formerly paid by Church Cess. 
 
 'XI.~— Effect of the Church Temporalities Act. 
 
 By this Act all sinecures, excej^t those in private patronage, were 
 abolished. On their next avoidance two archbishoprics w^ere reduced 
 to the rank of bishoprics, ten bishoprics w^ere suspended, and the sees 
 annexed to other existing dioceses. A tax, payable to the Ecclesiastical 
 Commissioners, and varying from 2 J to 15 per cent., was placed on 
 the incomes of the Clergy, whilst their former incomes were sub- 
 sequently (by the Tithe Act of 1838) reduced by 25 per cent. Vestry 
 cess or Church rates, amounting to about £60,000 a year, Avas 
 abolished ; and the expenses formerly paid by means of it, such as 
 repairs of churches, salaries of clerk and sexton, &c., were placed 
 upon the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The result has been that the 
 
 * He died In 1712, and Primate Kobiuson in 1794. 
 2 See p. 2».
 
 OF THE CHURCH IN IRELAND. 21 
 
 Bishops and Clergy of Ireland receive now £240,000 per annum less 
 than they did in 1834 ; and in 1854, the Church's revenues were 
 further diminished by £12,500 a year ; Ministers' money (hitherto 
 paid by the inhabitants of other towns) being ordered, by 17 & 18 
 Vict. c. 11, to be paid in future out of the funds of the Ecclesiastical 
 Commissioners. 
 
 XII. — Tlie Established Church in Ireland a great benefit to the 
 
 Country, 
 
 The memorable words of the great Lord Plunket on this subject 
 should be borne in mind by all who are now seeking to undermine its 
 influence. He said^ : 
 
 " He had no hesitation in stating that he considered it (the Esta- 
 blished Church) the great bond of union between the two countries ; 
 and if ever that unfortunate moment should arrive when they should • 
 rashly lay their hands on the property of the Church, to rob it of its 
 rights, that would seal the doom and separate the connexion between 
 the two countries." 
 
 To this testimony of an experienced and far-sighted statesman, let 
 that of a Roman Catholic layman, the late Anthony Richard Blake, 
 well acquainted with Irish interests, and delivered by him on oath 
 before a Parliamentary Committee, be added : 
 
 " The Protestant Church," said he, " is rooted in the constitution ; 
 it is established by the fundamental laws of the realm ; it is rendered, 
 as far as the most solemn acts of the legislature can render any insti- 
 tution, fundamental and perpetual ; it is so declared by the Act of 
 Union between Great Britain and Ireland. / thinh it could not now 
 he disturbed ivithout danger to the general securities ive 'possess for 
 liberty, property, and order — Avithout danger to all the blessings we 
 derive from being under a lawful government and a free constitution. 
 Feeling thus, the very conscience which dictates to me a determined 
 adherence to the Roman Catholic religion would dictate to me a 
 determined resistance to any attempt to subvert the Protestant 
 Establishment, or wresting from the Church the possessions which 
 the law has given it "." 
 
 We Avill only add the following remarkable declaration of Dr. 
 Slevin, a Roman Catholic Professor at Maynooth, given in evidence 
 before the Commissioners of Education in 1826 : 
 
 " I consider that the present possessors of Church property in 
 Ireland, of whatever description they may be, have a just title to it. 
 They have been bona fide possessors of it for all the time required by 
 any law for prescription : even according to the pretensions of the 
 Church of Rome, which require 100 years ;" and even an opponent 
 will respect the testimony of Lord Macaulay when he says, " This 
 principle of prescription is essential to the institution of property itself, 
 and if you take it away it is not some or a few evils that must follow, 
 
 ^ Quoted by Sir Hugli (uow Lord) Cairns in debate, June 29, 1863. 
 ^ O'Sullivan and Phelau's Digest of Evidence before Committees of both 
 Houses of Pavliameut, 183^-35, vol. ii. pp. 216, 317.
 
 22 FACTS KESPECTING THE PRESENT STATE 
 
 — not some or a few evils, but general confusion." (Speech on 
 Dissenters' Chai:>el Bill \) 
 
 XIII. —Present Position oj the Churcli in Ireland. 
 
 The Established Church in Ireland now is the same Church as 
 that which has existed there for fourteen centuries. In the 12th 
 century it was first formally established by the State, in the 16tli 
 century it refoi'med itself; no new Church was introduced in Ireland 
 at the Reformation, that was done by the Roman Catholics in the 
 succeeding century. The Bishops of the Irish Church before the 
 Reformation became the Bishops of the Irish Church after the 
 Reformation ; they enjoyed the same revenues, they discharged the 
 same or similar duties. The Chnrch that noiv j^ossesses the tithes 
 and glebe-lands of Ireland is the same body corporate as possessed 
 them before the Refor7nation. According to the laiv both of Church 
 and State, the continuity of succession has never been brolcen. The 
 Bishops of the Church in Ireland now are the only legitimate suc- 
 cessors of the Irish Bishops before the Reformation, and therefore the 
 Clergy of the Church in Ireland now are the only legitimate and 
 rightful possessors of its property ; moreover, the revenues they enjoy 
 are not sufficient for the work they have to do. To give every bene- 
 ficed clergyman in Ireland only £300 a year would require £60,000 
 to be added to the present yearly revenue of the Church. It is true 
 that the members of the Established Church are in a minority, but 
 they are such a minority as comprehends the great majority of those 
 upon whom the present and future Avelfare of every country must 
 depend -. A very great proportion of the nobility, gentry, landed 
 proprietors, and members of the learned professions, and of the skilled 
 artisans, belong to the Established Church ; and 90 per cent, of the 
 land of Ireland is the property of Protestants (see Dr. Hume's 
 Analysis of the Census of 1861, p. 56 — 59). The disestablishment 
 of such a Church, bound up with the dearest interests of such classes 
 of the community, could not be accomplished without a revolution. 
 The foundations of the Established Church are coeval with those of 
 the Constitution itself, and the destruction of the one would soon lead, 
 in Ireland at least, to the subversion of the other ; and is it not 
 especially significant that the most earnest supporters of the right of 
 universal suffrage are also the most active and noisy opponents of the 
 Irish Church ^? Surely, it will be a sad day for our country, in more 
 ways than one, if ever great principles like these are left to be decided 
 by merely numerical majorities. 
 
 1 But now (March, 1867), Bisliop Moriarty of Kerry (Letter to his Ckn-gy, 
 p. 26), boldly and openly uses language such as this: "We acknowledge ^o pre- 
 scription in this case, the Church docs not allow a statute of limitation to bar 
 our claim. The title of the Protestant Church has not even a colour of validity. 
 Our right is in abeyance, but it is unimpaired." 
 
 -' " If ever there was a case in which a minority should bo weighed after it is 
 counted, it is this." (llight Hon. Sir Jos. Napier's Letter to Lord Monteagle, 
 p. 41.) 
 
 3 Vide Mr. Bright's Letter of Dec. 22, 1864, to the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and 
 Mr. W. E. Forster's si>eech {it Bradford ou Jan. 10, 1865.
 
 OF THE CHURCH IN IRELAND. 23 
 
 XIV. — Irish Difficulties oriyinally Political, not Religious. 
 
 The dislike to England, which has for so many centuries rankled 
 in the native Irish heart, was not at first created by difference in 
 religion ; nor woidd it be in any way softened if the Church in 
 Ireland were disestahlished to-morrow. It originated more than ten 
 centuries ago, when the Church of the English Pale was more 
 thoroughly Ultramontane than the Church of the aboriginal Irish. 
 (See Todd's St. Patrick, p. 242.) It arose from political, not religious 
 differences : it is perpetuated through them \ 
 
 The following testimony to the state of Ireland in the times of 
 Edward III., from the pen of Thomas Moore, himself a Roman 
 Catholic, cannot be too carefully pondered over at this time : — 
 
 " Much of the opposition thus shown to the Government by the 
 Irish Clergy proceeded doubtless from political differences within the 
 Church itself ; as even at that period, ivhen all ivere of one faith, the 
 Church of the Government and the Church of the people of Ireland 
 were almost as much separated from each other by clifference in race, 
 language, political feeling, and even ecclesiastical discipline, as they 
 have been at any period since by difference in creed Dis- 
 heartening as may be some of the conclusions too plainly deducible 
 from this fact, it clearly shows at least that the establishment of the 
 Reformed Church in that kingdom was not the first or sole cause of 
 the bitter hostility between the two races."— Hist, of Ireland, vol. iii, 
 p. 114. 
 
 XY. — Abolition of the Church as an Establishment, not its Reform, 
 the object of the present attach. 
 
 Let no friend of the Church in Ireland for a moment be deceived 
 by the idea that the present attack on its temporalities is mei-ely with 
 a view to reform in order to increase its efficiency, and not with the 
 object of obtaining its abolition as an Establishment. A few internal 
 reforms may from time to time be necessary, a few anomalies may 
 demand to be safely and wisely remedied, but these require to be 
 effected by proper authority after due thought and discussion, and 
 not in haste and excitement at the pressure of an hostile faction, nor 
 should it be forgotten that reform in times past has already been 
 carried to such an extent, that, as the Primate obsei-ved in his Charge 
 of 1864, p. 11, "the incomes of the Irish Clergy have been pared 
 down to the lowest sum compatible with the existence of the Church 
 in this country." No. Abolition and not reform will alone satisfy 
 the leaders of the present movement. " We demand the disendow- 
 ment of the Established Church in Ireland," says Archbishop Cullen, 
 
 ' I am indebted to my friend the Rev. Robert King, tlie autlior of our best 
 Irish Church History, for the following valuable remarks on the subject : — 
 
 " A curious illustration of this is to be found in the fact that there is actually 
 in the native Irish tongue no vjord for Protestant; indicating the total absence 
 from the native's mind of any idea of a religious enemy as distinct from a national 
 one ; or at least the all-absorbing character of the latter notion. In the South the 
 object of enmity is the ' Sassenach ' or Saxon ; while in the North, similarly, all 
 Protestants arc indiscriminately 'Albanuchs' or Scotchmen."
 
 24 TACTS RESPECTING THE PRESENT STATE 
 
 tlic Pope's Legate, to liis coadjutors ^ : and the Liberation Society 
 heartily join in the cry. The real end which all along the oppo- 
 nents of the Irish Church have had in view, however skilfully they 
 may have managed hitherto to deceive the public with respect to it, 
 Avas clearly pointed out by Sir G. Cornewall Lewis in his work on 
 the Irish Church Question, published in 1836, to which we have 
 before referred. 
 
 "It is ever to be remembered in discussing the ecclesiastical state 
 of Ireland," said he, " that the objections of the Roman Catholics 
 to the Established Church of that country are not of more or less ; 
 
 THAT THEY WOULD NOT BE REMOVED BY THE ABOLITION OF A 
 FEW BISHOPRICS OR THE PARING DOWN OF A FEW BENEFICES, 
 BUT THAT THEY LIE AGAINST ITS VERY EXISTENCE. No improve- 
 ments in the internal economy of the Established Church, in the 
 distribution of its revenues, in the discipline of its Clergy, tend to 
 lessen the sense of grievance arising from this source : the objection 
 is of 2->rinci]:>le, not of degree, and nothing short of perfect equality 
 in the treatment of all I'eligious sects will satisfy the persons whose 
 discontentment springs from this source." — " The Irish Church Ques- 
 tion," pp. 351,352. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 From the foregoing it will be seen that the Estaljlished Church in 
 Ireland is the Old Church of iho, country : that it is the same in 
 doctrine, discipline and government as the Church founded by St. 
 Patrick ; that it is the rightful possessor of the tithes of Ireland ; 
 that it has Ijcen ecclesiastically one with the Church in England for 
 nearly eight centuries ; that the two as now by law established must 
 staiul or fall togethei', for that an attack on the one is virtually an 
 attack on the other ; that the Church in Ireland has not lost ground 
 in that country since 1834, but has relatively increased ; and that, if 
 it has absolutely lost in number, it has lost much more of its revenues 
 in proportion ; and that, instead of being a source of weakness or 
 discontent to the Irish people, as is stoutly but most erroneously 
 asserted by those who seek her destruction, the Established Church 
 is in reality the strongest bond of union between the two countries ; 
 and, in the words of Edmund Burke, " a great link toAvards holding 
 fast the connexion of I'eligion Avitli the state, and preserving the 
 connexion betAveen England and Ireland." — Burke's Works, vol. vi. 
 p. 72. Bohn's Ed. 1861. 
 
 The lloman Catholic Jji^Jiojis of Ireland in 1826 and 1864. 
 
 Dr. Doyle, Roman Catholic Bishop of Kildurc and Leigblin, in 
 his Essay on the Catholic Claims, p. 302, in order to prove the sin- 
 cerity of \\\Q Romish Bishops in disclaiming all interference with the 
 
 ^ " And tlie coadjutors echo the crj'-, • No tinkering, no patching, no efibrts to 
 make tliis detestable musajice less unpalatable, by softening down its particular or 
 minor scandals, can ever be accepted as a final Dettlcmcnt.' " Lcttci;. ol' au Irish 
 Catholic, in Tlie Times of Nov, 15, 1865.
 
 OP 'THE CHURCH IN IRELAND. 25 
 
 Established Church in Ireland, gives the following oaths signed l)y 
 the Eoman Catholic Archbishops of Armagh, Dublin, and Tnain,and 
 twenty-seven other Irish Bishops, numbering thirty in all. 
 
 " The Catholics of Ireland, far from claiming any right or title to 
 forfeited lands, resulting from any right, title, or interest which their 
 ancestors may have had therein, declare upon oath, ' That they will 
 defend to the utmost of their power the settlement and arrangement 
 of property in this country, as established by the laws now in being.' 
 They also ' disclaim, disavow, and solemnly abjure any intention to 
 subvert the present Church Establishment for the purpose of sub- 
 stituting a Catholic Establishment in its stead. And further, they 
 SWEAR that they ivill not exercise any jjrivilege to luhicJi they are 
 or may he entitled to disturb and iveaken the Protestant religion and 
 Protestant Government in Ireland.' " 
 
 This declaration was made by the Roman Catholic Prelates, not as 
 individuals, but in their corporate capacity as Bishops of the Romish 
 Church in Ireland, and would therefore, in all ordinary cases, be 
 considered binding on their successors : but what is now the language 
 of the Romish hierarchy in Ireland, headed by Archbishop Cullen ? 
 
 The second resolution of the meeting of December, 29, 1864 \ at 
 which seven Roman Catholic Bishops were present, speaks for itself. 
 It is as follows : — 
 
 " That we demand the disendowment of the Established Church 
 in Ireland as a condition without which social peace and stability, 
 general respect for the laws, and unity of sentiment and of action for 
 nationcd objects, can never prevail in Ireland." The words in italics 
 are significant, especially when we consider what these national objects 
 are ; and the first resolution, moved by Archbishop Cullen himself, 
 concluded thus : — '* This singular institution (the Established Church) 
 was originally established, and has always been maintained by force, 
 in opposition to reason and justice, and in defiance of the will of the 
 great majority of the Irish people. That we therefore resent it as a 
 badge of national servitude, ofiensive and degrading alike to all Irish- 
 men, Protestant as well as Catholic -." 
 
 We see, then, that before the passing of the Emancipation Act in 
 1829, the Roman Catholic Bishops solemnly and on oath disclaimed 
 all intention of subverting the Church Establishment, and declared 
 " they would defend to the utmost the arrangement of property in 
 Ireland, as established by the laws then in being," one of which was 
 the Act of Union. 
 
 ^ For the more recent demands of the Irish lloman Catholic Hierarchy, headed 
 by Cardinal Cullen, see Preface, page iii. 
 
 2 How little right the Irish Roman Catholic Bishops have to speak thus in the 
 name of the Irish people, may be gathered from the following extract from a leading 
 article of The Times of September 27th, 1865. Referring to the Fenian movement 
 it says, "Equally explicit is The Irish Feople about the Irish Church and Tenant 
 Right. About the former it frankly admits that Irishmen ' care very little.' Of the 
 latter one of its correspondents says that whoever proposes it, must think the Irish 
 little better than dogs to be appeased with a bone ! Neither the abolition of the Irish 
 Church, therefore, nor the establishment of Tenant Right, would have prevented 
 Fenianism."
 
 26 FACTS RESPECTING THE PRESENT STATE, ETC. 
 
 In 1864 they demand the disendowment of the Church Establish- 
 ment as a condition without which social peace and general reipect 
 for the laiv cannot exist in Ireland. Such proceedings can only be 
 justified on the principle asserted in the Bull of Pope Innocent III., 
 when excommunicating the Count of Toulouse, "Juxta sanctorum 
 patrum canonicas sanctiones ei qui fidem Deo non servat, fides 
 servanda non sit'' — Catel. Hist, des Comtes de Toulouse, p. 242. 
 
 A Roman Catholic definition of " the Root of the Irish Evil.'" 
 
 We desire to call special attention to the following remarkable ex- 
 tract from The Tablet, one of the chief organs of Roman Catholic 
 opinion. It openly asserts that "the wound of Ireland" is — 
 
 (1). That such a large proportion of the soil of Ireland belongs to 
 Protestants. 
 
 (2). That Protestants form such a large portion of those classes 
 whose social station in Ireland is above the rest. 
 The disendowment of the Church would abate neither of these evils, 
 and therefore, if the Church Establishment was removed "the Irish 
 grievance" would still remain. 
 
 The extract is as follows : — 
 
 "We have always thought that it could be shown that, if the Irish 
 Church Establishment were abolished to-morrow — if its churches, 
 lauds, and rent-charges were applied to secular purposes or even to 
 Catholic purposes — or if, leaving the Protestant Establishment alone, 
 the Catholic Church Avere endowed by the State, and put on a footing 
 of perfect equality of wealth and privilege with the Pi'otestant 
 Church, we should only have dealt with one featui-e, with one 
 symptom of the disease, and should not have reached the seat of the 
 disorder. The wound of Ireland is, that whereas the great majority 
 of the population of Ireland are Catholics, such a large projwrtion 
 of the soil of Ireland belongs to Protestants, and that Protestants 
 form such a large portion of those classes which, by superior wealth 
 and superior advantages, are raised in social station higher than the 
 rest. 
 
 "This we believe to be the root of the Irish Evil, and it lies 
 deeper, far deeper, than the Irish Protestant Church Establishment. 
 We are perfectly convinced, and on evidence than which demonstra- 
 tion could scarcely be more conclusive, that if the Legislature were 
 to confiscate to-morrow every acre of land and every shilling of tithe 
 rent-charge now belonging to the Protestant Church Establishment in 
 Ireland, and were to deprive the Protestant Bishops and Clergy of 
 every legal privilege which they now possess by virtue of their be- 
 longing to the State Church, they would not have abated the Irish 
 grievance, or cured the Irish disease ; they would only have caused a 
 change in the form of words by which the complaints of those who 
 feel aggrieved now find expression."
 
 APPENDIX. 27 
 
 APPE:^ 
 
 Progressive increase of Clergy, &c. 
 
 Clergy. 
 
 17301 800 
 1806 2 1,253 
 1826 3 1,977 
 18644 2,172 
 
 INC03IE OF II 
 
 Under £100 a year. 
 200 „ . 
 „ 300 „ . 
 
 WIX (A). 
 , in Ireland fr 
 
 Churches. 
 
 400 
 1,029 
 1,192 
 1,579 
 
 MSH Benefk 
 ices 
 
 om 1730 to 1863. 
 
 Benefices. Glebe Houses. 
 
 141. 
 1,181 295. 
 1,396 768. 
 1,510 978. 
 
 ^ES^ 
 
 276 
 353 
 426 
 
 Over that average 
 
 1,055 
 455 « 
 
 
 Total number of Bene] 
 
 1,510 
 
 
 Pateonage of Irish Benefices '. • 
 In the gift of the Crown ... 165 
 
 In Ecclesiastical Patronage . . 1,095 
 
 In Lay Patronage .... 250 
 
 Total 1,510 
 
 APPENDIX (B). 
 The following dates in Irish Church history are worthy of special notice at 
 this time ; for it will be seen from them that there is little difficulty in tracing 
 the origin and subsequent development of Romish power in Ireland, a.d. 
 Landing of St. Patrick in Ireland .... 432 
 
 The first Bishop resident in Ireland who acknowledged sub- 
 jection in spiritual matters to any but an Irish Primate 
 was Patrick, second Archbishop of Dublin . . . 1074 
 
 The Jirst assertion of the Pope's supremac}^ as extending to 
 
 Ireland was made by Pope Gregory VII. (Hildebrand) . 1084 
 
 The Jirsi Eomish Legate in Ireland was Grillebert, Bishop of 
 
 Limerick . . . . . . . . 1106 
 
 The Jirst Irish Council at which a Pope-'s Legate presided was 
 
 that of Rathbreasil ...... 1110 
 
 The frst Palls bestowed on any Bishop of the Irish Church 
 
 were sent over in . . . . . .1151 
 
 (More than 700 years after the foundation of the 
 
 Irish Church by St. Patrick.) 
 
 The fr.st Irish Council which regulated the Church ritual 
 
 and discipline of Ireland in conformity with the Church of 
 
 England, then in communion with Eome, was that of the 
 
 Synod of Cashel 1172 
 
 The first Primate of Armagh appointed by a Pope was Eugene 
 
 M'Gillivider 1206 
 
 1 Charles' Irish Church Directory for 1865. 
 
 2 Report of Commissioners of Ecclesiastical Inquiry, 1807. 
 
 3 I. C. Erck's Ecclesiastical Register. ' 
 * Parliamentary Returns, 1864. 
 
 5 Primate's Charge in 1864, p. 10. 
 
 6 Of these, according to a Parhamentary return. No. 273 (1864), 226 are under 
 £400 a year, leaving only 229 benefices in all Ireland above that annual value. 
 
 7 Thorn's Directory for 1868, p. 751.
 
 28 APPENDIX. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 The Papal Supromaoy was renounced by tlie Churcli of Ireland 1534* 
 Tlie /ir-s^i^ Presbyterian congregation formed in Ireland (Mant. i. 
 
 367) 1611 
 
 The Convocation which accepted the English Articles of 1562 
 
 and ordained the Irish Canons was held in . . . 1634 
 
 The Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland received 
 
 the Eoyal Assent, August 1 . . . . . 1800 
 
 The Roman Catholic Emancipation Act was passed in . . 1829 
 
 The Church Temporalities Act (3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 37), by which 
 
 ten Irish Bishoprics were suspended, was passed in . . 1834 
 
 The Tithe Commutation Act, by which the incomes of the 
 
 Clergy were diminished 25 per cent., was passed in . . 1838 
 
 Ministers' money (amounting to £12,500 a year), hitherto paid 
 
 by certain towns, abolished and placed on the Ecclesiastical 
 
 Commissioner's Fund ..... 1854 
 
 Irish Church History may be divided into the following periods : — yeaes. 
 The Church existed in Ireland without acknowledging the 
 
 Papal Supremacy from a.d. 432 to a.d. 1152, a period of . 720 
 The Supremacy of the Pope was exercised in Ireland from a.d. 
 
 1152 to A.D. 1534, a period of . . . .382 
 
 The Reformed Church in Ireland has renounced the Supremacy 
 
 of the Pope since a.d. 1534, a period of . . . 334 
 
 Total period of Christianity in Ireland .... 1436 
 Total period during which the Church in Ireland has not 
 
 acknowledged the Supremacy of the Pope . . . 1054 
 
 APPENDIX (C). 
 
 Glebe-Lands in Ieeland. 
 
 Area of Ireland in Statute acres. . . . 20,815,460 = 
 
 Glebe-lands in the hands of the Beneficed Clergy . 132,756 1 
 
 20,682,703^ 
 
 These Glebe-lands are distributed as follows : — 
 
 A. E. P. 
 
 Province of Armagh . . 111,151 20 3 
 
 Tuam . . 3,067 3 2^ 
 
 Province of Dublin 
 Cashel 
 
 ' " When these historical fixcts can be annihilated, and not until then, the Church 
 of Home may boast of the antiquity of the reception of her doctrines and system 
 in this country ; for the ancient religion of Ireland cannot he that whicli com- 
 menced iff! development 600 years at least after the arrival of St. Tatriclc in this 
 island. And whosoever, therefore, is disposed to look upon submission to the Pope 
 as the supreme head of the Church on earth, as a necessary sign of a good Catholic 
 Cliristian, will find very little traces of such Catholics in Ireland before the close of 
 the 11th century." — It. Kiug's Irish Church History, ii. 581. 
 
 2 Thorn's Official Directory for 1868, p. 743. 
 
 •* Report of Commissioners of Inquii'y in 1833. 
 
 114,218 
 
 3 
 
 32 
 
 9,475 
 
 9,062 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 mi 
 
 131 
 
 18,537 
 
 3 
 
 lOi
 
 APPENDIX. 20 
 
 It will be observed, that 111,151 acres (or 5-6ths of the whole) lie within the 
 ancient province of Armagh, and were granted to the Eeformed Church in the 
 17th century, and therefore never were in the possession of the Church of 
 Rome. 
 
 £ 
 Total value of Crops in Ireland in 1866 .... 30,217,776 
 Poor Law Valuation of Property in 1866 .... 12,989,026 
 
 43,206,802 i 
 
 A tithe of that would be 4,320,680 
 
 Gross Income of all the Irish Bishops and Clergy . . 586,428 
 Net Income 448,943 
 
 The above returns are taken from TJioms Official Directory for 1868. 
 
 Educatioxal Statistics ". 
 
 Trinity College Diihlin : — 1864 (last return published). 
 
 Students on the Books . . . .1,166 
 Entered in 1864 . . . . } 353 
 Degrees conferred 1864-65 . . . 441 
 
 Queeiis Colleges : — 
 
 No. of Students, 1864-65 : 
 
 Belfast . . .... 403 
 
 Cork 263 
 
 Galway 169 
 
 835 
 
 National Board : — 
 
 No. of Schools 
 Pupils on the Roll . 
 Parliamentary Grant 
 
 1864. 
 6,263 
 . 870,401 
 £251,016 
 
 1865. 
 6,372 
 922,084 
 £325,582 
 
 1866. 
 6,453 
 910,819 
 £380,583 
 
 CJiurcJi Education Society : — 
 No. of Schools . 
 Pupils on the Roll . 
 Income . 
 
 1864. 
 
 1,504 
 . 69,038 
 . £45,160 
 
 1865. 
 
 1,498 
 
 68,856 
 
 £45,155 
 
 1866. 
 
 1,510 
 
 67,227 
 
 £45,619 
 
 1 This is exclusive of the Live Stock iu Ireland, which, in 1866, was valued at 
 £50,453,522.' See Thorn's Directory for 1868, p. 787. 
 
 2 Thorn's Official Directory for 1868, p. 827, 828.
 
 30 APPENDIX. 
 
 APPENDIX (D). 
 
 SUMMAEY OF 
 
 The Roman CatJioUc Church in Ireland'^. 
 
 Archbishops 4 
 
 Bishops 27 
 
 Total number of Priests, including Kegu- 
 lars and Private Chaplains, &c. . . 3,120 
 
 Parishes 1,071 
 
 Churches and Chapels- .... 2,329 
 
 Protestants and Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom. 
 
 It is believed that the following will be found to be nearly an accurate 
 Statement of the number of Protestants and Eoman Catholics in the United 
 Kingdom in 1861 ". 
 
 
 Protestants. 
 
 Roman Catholics. 
 
 England . 
 
 . 19,498,316 
 
 707,188 = 20,205,504 
 
 Ireland 
 
 . 1,293,702 
 
 4,505,265 = 5,798,967 
 
 20,792,018 5,212,453 = 26,004,471 
 Scotland . . 2,938,801 122,450 = 3,061,251 
 
 Total. . 23,730,819 5,334,903 = 29,065,722 
 Classification of Benefices, 1834 and 1861 ^. 
 
 Havinj 
 
 no membei 
 
 • of the Established 
 
 1834. 
 Number. 
 
 Number. 
 
 1861. 
 Sus- 
 pended. 
 
 Not 
 suspended 
 
 urch . 
 
 . 
 
 
 41 
 
 20 
 
 19 
 
 1 
 
 1 and not i 
 
 nore 
 
 than 20 
 
 99 
 
 137 
 
 44 
 
 93 
 
 20 
 
 J 
 
 
 50 
 
 124 
 
 161 
 
 
 
 50 
 
 J 
 
 
 100 
 
 161 
 
 214 
 
 
 
 100 
 
 J 
 
 
 200 
 
 224 
 
 220 
 
 
 
 200 
 
 5 
 
 
 500 
 
 286 
 
 286 
 
 
 
 500 
 
 
 
 1,000 
 
 210 
 
 160 
 
 
 
 1,000 
 2,000 
 5,000 and 
 
 55 
 
 Dver 
 
 
 2,000 
 5,000 
 
 139 
 91 
 12 
 
 107 
 56 
 11 
 
 
 
 1,387 1,372 
 
 The Ecclesiastical Commissioners return the number of benefices at 1510, 
 but they include 138 Perpetual Curacies. In the Census of 1861, the Com- 
 missioners took no notice of Perpetual Curacies, or district parishes. 
 
 ^ These returns are taken from the Roma7i Catholic Directory for 1866. 
 
 " It is too often forgotten that the disestablishment of the Irish Church is an 
 Imperial question, which intimately concerns the whole of the United Kingdom. 
 Disendow the EstabHshcd Church in Ireland, and on what principle can the Esta- 
 blishment in Scotland be maintained ? 
 
 ^ Great misapprehension seems to prevail in some quarters respecting the number 
 of benefices in Ireland in which the Church population is less than 50. The Pall 
 Mall Gazette of Dec. 21, 1867, in a leading article, stated that in 1834 there were 
 860 benefices with fewer than 50 Protestants, and suggested " there are probably 
 now close on 1000." The real number in 1834 was 264, and in 1861, 224 (not 
 including the suspended parishes). If these are included, the number is 318, leaving 
 1192 benefices out of the 1510, with a Church population of more than 50.
 
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 The IRISH CHURCH QUESTION : Letter to the Right 
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