650,7531. was the actual revenue of the Established Church of Ireland. That he thought all parties would take as a sound estimate "." 8 We have recently seen the following statement which is represented as "perfectly correct." Archbishoprics and Bishoprics Tithe composition L S. d. 151,127 12 4 There is some difference between these estimates and those of Sir Robert Peel and Lord Stanley, who assert positively, that the Irish Church has not an income of 450,000l. We shall endeavour to show on conclusive evidence, that the latter statement is correct. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners, in 1835, reported to the House of Commons, that the whole amount of ecclesiastical tithes in Ireland was 555,000l., of which 43,500l. belonged to the archbishops, bishops, and capitular bodies with their lessees". The sum left therefore for the support of the parochial clergy was 511,500. In 1838, the Tithe Act reduced the income of the clergy 25 per cent., which it gave to the Irish landlords. The provision for the clergy was, therefore, by this Act, fixed at 383,6257. From this income must be deducted the per centage payable to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners by the Church Temporalities Act, which Lord Grey estimated at 20,000l. per annum'; and the value of sixty-six benefices which are expected to be suppressed under the Church Temporalities Acts 2, and which may be estimated at 13,2007. These deductions leave the income of the clergy derived from tithes not more than 350,4257. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners add that the glebe lands are worth 81,972/., and that Minister's money, as it is called, is paid to the amount of 9270%. The whole income of the parochial clergy of Ireland therefore is, 2 This was Lord Grey's estimate in 1833. See Hansard, vol. xix. p. 751. 3 Parliamentary Papers, ubi supra. This bears out most fully the assertion of Sir Robert Peel and Lord Stanley, as regards the extent of the revenues possessed by the Irish clergy. Now there are about 1400 benefices in Ireland; for although several benefices have been suppressed under the "Church Temporalities" Act, many divisions of parishes have taken place under the same Act, and new churches have been founded in various places. We may, therefore, fairly assume, that the number of benefices has not diminished since 1835, when Sir Robert Peel stated it at about 1400. There are also about 600 curates. The revenues, then, of the parochial clergy of Ireland provide, on an average, an income of about 2207. for each clergyman, and about 3107. for each benefice; and we think that such incomes will not in any way justify the opinion, that the Irish Church is too richly endowed. We have already shown that about 600 benefices in Ireland have less than 2007. per annum, each, and these require augmentation, as Lord Grey distinctly admitted on the introduction of the "Church Temporalities "Act". The incomes of the Presbyterian ministers in Scotland have been estimated to amount to about 2607. on an average. The English benefices present an average of 2857. per annum; but then it is a matter of notoriety that the Church revenues in England are miserably inadequate; and that many thousands of the clergy would be unable to subsist if they were not possessed of private means; while thousands more are compelled to support themselves by private tuition or by superintending schools. The Irish benefices are somewhat better endowed; but we really think that no reasonable man could say that an income of 300%., or even of 4007., or 500l., would be an extravagant income to place in the hands of a well educated, a zealous, and a charitable parish priest. The Romish priesthood in Ireland being unmarried men, have fewer demands upon them than the clergy; and yet we were assured by Dr. Doyle, that the average income of the priesthood in his diocese (and there is not the least reason to suppose that the case is different elsewhere) amounted to 3007. per annum. We cannot imagine it possible that any honest man who will contemplate such facts as these, will continue to believe that the Irish clergy, as a body, are too amply provided for o. 5 Hansard, 1833, vol. xix. p. 748. 4 Hansard, 1835, vol. xxvii. p. 743. • We have not thought it necessary to include in our estimate the revenues of deans and chapters in Ireland, which amount to about 22,000l. per annum; because the whole of this income, with the exception of about 2000%., is expended in repairs of cathedrals, and in payments to their choristers, &c. The revenues of the bishoprics in Ireland are, according to the Commissioners' Report in 1835, 49,5871. 6s. 4d. (Parliamentary Papers, vol. xlvii. no. 169.) Some items, however, not being included, it is probable that they somewhat exceed 50,000l. The remainder of the episcopal We are fully aware that a distinction may here be made; and that it may be asserted, that although the clergy are not too largely paid, still the Church Establishment itself is on too large a scale: the number of clergy is too great for the wants of the Protestant population. It is, we know, alleged, that in many parts of Ireland the number of Churchmen is small in proportion to the number of clergymen employed in parochial duties. It has been stated, that there are some benefices in Ireland in which there are no members of the Church'; others in which there are very few. If this be so,-and we do not wish to deny or conceal the fact there are sinecures in Ireland as there are in England; and we are far from wishing that such anomalies should remain. -If this be so, then we say, let proper measures be taken to remove any defects which may exist in such matters. If there are benefices without any duties annexed, we have no particular affection for any such application of ecclesiastical revenues: let them be applied to the augmentation of poorly endowed benefices where there are duties, pressing, perhaps, heavily on the impoverished incumbents. Let them be applied to the payment of additional curates where they are wanted. Let them furnish means for providing new churches and glebe-houses. Let them, in short, be applied, in honesty and sincerity, to the uses of the Church, and we shall not be disposed to complain: we may even be ready to applaud. But until it has been shown by experience that the sinecure livings in Ireland will do more than this; till it has been proved that they will provide 60,000l. per annum for the augmentation of poor benefices; that they will meet the pressing wants of the Church for curates, and churches, and glebe-houses; and leave a large surplus; do not, in the name of justice, and national faith, and religion, and sound policy, confiscate the property of your own Church-a Church, which in these days of religious isolation, preserves its Christian communion with the property to the extent of 70,000l. per annum has been alienated from the suppressed and placed in the hands of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to meet the defalcation caused by the extinction of church-rates. sees, 7 It has been said that there are forty-one sinecures of this kind. We do not of course for a moment admit the hack nied sophism of "895 parishes with less than fifty members of the Established Church" in each. These parishes have from time immemorial been united with other parishes in benefices; and thus, though a parish may contain very few Protestants, the benefice (which would perhaps be wholly inadequate to support a clergyman without this union,) may contain a very large number. If, however, there were any such parishes which could be separated from benefices, leaving a reasonable income for their incumbents, there could be no material objection to apply their revenues, after making due provision for the religious instruction of the Protestant parishioners, to other purposes strictly ecclesiastical. This principle has been sanctioned in England by the heads of the Church, in the case of episcopal and chapter revenues; and it is, as we conceive, in accordance with the doctrines of the canon law of the Church. Church of England—a Church which has suffered, and is suffering persecution, and which is rapidly and steadily improving. We are no advocates of abuses of any kind, but we trust that the mere existence of some anomalies and defects is not to be made a pretext for spoliation and plunder. The Church of England has its sinecures, its richly-endowed benefices, its poor curates, as well as the Irish Church. If one or two benefices may be pointed out in Ireland which possess an income of perhaps 20007., what is to be said to English benefices with 4000Z., 50007., and 12,000l. a-year *? Of course these are things which we do not wish to see; but the obvious remedy is, not to despoil the Church of her revenues, which are very inadequate to her wants, but to remove such anomalies. But while we admit that it might be possible to improve the present arrangement of ecclesiastical property in Ireland, we must protest against the notion of suppressing all benefices in which there may happen to be a small number of Protestants at present. Assuredly it would be an act of the extremest injustice and cruelty to deprive those members of the Church, few though they may be in some cases, of the spiritual privileges which they and their forefathers have always enjoyed-to close their churches -to provide no means for celebrating Divine service on every Sunday at least to leave them without the power of obtaining the consolations of religion in sickness. Now if the justice of this principle be admitted, it necessarily follows that the proportion of clergy to the population must be very much larger in some parts of Ireland than in others. In the provinces of Leinster, Munster, and Connaught, the members of the Church are dispersed here and there in comparatively small numbers; and generally speaking, the existing benefices are so extensive, and the members of the Church are at such distances from their parish churches, that it would be scarcely possible to diminish in any degree the numbers of the parochial clergy in those provinces, without virtually depriving churchmen of the opportunity of attending public worship. As it is, there are benefices which contain no great number of Protestants, and which are fifteen or twenty miles long, or even more extensive. The gentry can of course travel considerable distances to attend public worship, but the poorer Protestants would in many cases be excluded altogether from Divine service, if the existing number of the clergy, large as it is in some cases in comparison with the population which they have to attend, should be diminished. These con 8 We have heard that the tithes of Doddington, in the Isle of Ely, were compounded for recently at the above amount. 9 siderations, we think, will go far to show the unfairness of that objection which has been sometimes made to the employment of what, at first sight, appears an unnecessarily large number of clergy in the Irish Church. Doubtless, if a comparison be instituted between the proportion borne by the clergy in these provinces of Ireland to the numbers of their Protestant parishioners, and that borne by the English clergy to the numbers of their parishioners, it must seem that either the clergy in Ireland are too numerous, or else the English clergy are vastly too few '; but then such a comparison would be most unfair, for the cases are wholly dissimilar. In the one case we have a population very much condensed; in the other we have one widely scattered and dispersed. It is obvious, therefore, that the ecclesiastical arrangements which would be fitting in the one case would be wholly inapplicable in the other. It is a fact which should not be lost sight of, that each Irish parochial benefice covers about four times as much ground as an English benefice. The area of England and Wales is computed to be about 58,000 square miles, that of Ireland to be about 32,000. There are about 11,000 parochial benefices in the former country, and about 1400 in the latter; and a comparison of these numbers will show, that while the area of each English benefice is a little more than five square miles, the area of each Irish benefice is about twentythree square miles! It is obvious, that the great extent of these benefices renders the duty of the clergy in every way much more laborious, than would be the case, if all their Protestant parishioners were, as in England, within moderate distances of the parish churches. But besides this, it should not be altogether left out of view, that the Church has duties in reference to the population which unhappily dissents from her doctrines. We are of course aware, that what we are now about to urge will have no weight with mere politicians, or with those who prefer the doctrines of the Church of Rome to those of the Reformation-the "mediæval system" to the system of Primitive Catholic Christianity. But to all who feel that the truths which are enshrined in the formularies of the English Church are matters of high and sacred 9 It has been computed, and we believe that the general correctness of the computation has not been denied, that there is at this moment a deficiency of at least 6000 clergy in England and Wales! London alone requires 1400 additional clergy-i. e. as many clergy as there are benefices in the whole of Ireland. In fact, the spiritual destitution of England is the most frightful evil of the times, and we fear that it is continually increasing; for the existing means of Church extension seem to be inadequate even to meet the annual increase of population, which is about 200,000. We hope that Sir R. Inglis will not permit this most important subject to remain any longer in abeyance. |