which however innocent in itself, had been supported by very dangerous doctrines on the part of the member for Dublin. Lord Althorp felt anxious to state in a single sentence the grounds on which the question ought to be decided. The simple question was, whether a repeal of the union would be, at present, beneficial to Ireland or to the empire at large. Now the increased value of land proved that agriculture had advanced since the union. The single circumstance of sixteen millions of funded property having been transferred to Ireland since the union, proved that the measure had been highly beneficial. Repeal would lead either to total separation, or to the utter degradation of the legislature of Ireland. He should, therefore, support the amendment, which declared, that, while the imperial parliament had already given much attention to the affairs of Ireland, it was still prepared to do all that was necessary for promoting the interests of that country. The amendment was carried by a majority of 485-there being 523 votes for the amendment, and 38 for the original motion. The minority, with one exception, consisted entirely of Irish members. Mr. Mullins moved an amendment, "that it is the opinion of this House that an address to his majesty, having for its object the suppression of any question consistent with the principles of the free constitution of the British empire, without a previous inquiry into, and report upon its merits, by a committee of this House, would furnish a precedent highly prejudicial to the interests of any portion of his majesty's subjects respectfully seeking for redress of grievances, and at variance with those principles which this House, as representing the great body of the people, is called upon to support," but this amendment was immediately withdrawn. On the 30th of April, the Commons, in a conference, communicated to the Lords the address which they had voted. The address was the following,-a blank having been left, which the peers filled up with the words "Lords Spiritual and Temporal." "We, your majesty's most duti ful and loyal subjects, the Commons in parliament assembled, feel it our duty humbly to approach your majesty's throne, to record in the most solemn manner our fixed determination to maintain unimpaired and undisturbed the legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland, which we consider to be essential to the strength and stability of the empire, to the continuance of the connexion between the two countries, and to the peace, security, and happiness of all classes of your majesty's subjects. "We feel this our determination to be as much justified by our views of the general interests of the State, as by our conviction that to no other portion of your majesty's subjects is the maintenance of the legislative union more important than to the inhabitants of Ireland themselves. "We humbly represent to your majesty, that the Imperial parliament have taken the affairs of Ireland into their most serious consideration, and that various salutary laws have been enacted since the union for the advancement of the most important interests of Ireland, and of the empire at large. "In expressing to your majesty our resolution to maintain the legislative union inviolate, we humbly beg leave to assure your majesty, that we shall persevere in applying our best attention to the removal of all just causes of complaint, and to the promotion of all well-considered measures of improvement." The peers, after a few observations from earl Grey, the lord Chancellor, the duke of Wellington, the marquesses of Londonderry and Westmeath, all in one spirit, unanimously concurred in it. It was then presented to the king as the joint address of both Houses, and his majesty returned the following answer : "It is with the greatest satisfaction that I have received this solemn and united expression of the determination of both houses of parliament to maintain inviolate the legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland, which I en tirely agree with you in considering as essential to the preservation of the integrity and safety of the British empire. "You may rely, therefore, upon my discharging with fidelity and fearlessness the sacred duty which I owe to my subjects, in exercising those powers which are invested in me for their protection against attempts, which, if successful, must necessarily produce a separation of my dominions. "In thus expressing my concurrence in the determination which you have so justly stated, I look back with satisfaction to those salutary laws which since the Union have been passed for the advantage of the interests of Ireland, and I shall at all times be most anxious to afford my best assistance in removing all just causes of complaint, and in sanctioning all well-considered measures of improvement." CHAP. II. State of the Cabinet on Irish Ecclesiastical questions-Mr. Ward's Motion for a Reduction of the Irish Church Establishment-Schism in the Ministry on the subject of the appropriation_of_Church Revenues Resignation of Mr. Stanley, Sir James Graham, the Duke of Richmond, and Earl of Ripon -The King's Declaration in favour of the Church—Commission issued to inquire into the Irish Church-Debate on Mr. Ward's Motion-Discussion in the House of Lords regarding the Issuing of the Commission-Resolutions by Government concerning Tithes in Ireland, proposed-Opposition of the Agitators-Bill founded on the Resolutions brought in-Debate on the Second Reading-Alterations made in the Bill to conciliate the Irish Opposition-Debate on Motion, by Mr. O'Connell, to appropriate Church Revenues to purposes of Public Utility-Farther Alterations introduced into the Bill-Debate on the New Resolution proposed by Government. IN N opposing an open and determined resistance to the demand of the Irish agitators for a repeal of the union, ministers carried along with them the sense and feeling of the people; that was a question on which no man differed from the government, except O'Connell and his followers. The questions connected with the Irish church stood in a different situation. The agitators supported the repeal of the union, not more as being a measure which would tend to perpetuate their own domination, than as one which would secure the downfal of the Protestant establishment. Many, likewise, who resisted repeal, demanded changes and curtailments in that establishment, which they considered to be the principal cause of all the turbulence and misery that disfigured Ireland. Others, who disliked it, not because it was a protestant, but because it was a religious establishment, inveighed against what they termed the unhallowed connexion between church and state, and the practical injustice of compelling men of one belief to contribute to the support of the institutions of a different creed ; and they were ready to attack the revenues, or even the existence, of the church of Ireland, as the first step towards assailing the churches of England and Scotland. Union in the cabinet, with an honest resolution not to be driven farther than they would themselves have been inclined to go, would have rendered the ministry sufficiently strong to resist successfully these destroying reformers; but the cabinet unfortunately was, on this question at least, amongst them were more ready the chosen abode of dissension. When ministers introduced, in to concede than to originate. the preceding session, the bill for regulating the church of Ireland, which passed into a law, they had not announced any intention of following it up, within a few months, by a measure founded on a different and a fatal principle, which would confiscate the property of the church, or part of its property, to other than Protestant ecclesiastical purposes. From that very bill they had withdrawn a clause which bore this character; and, by doing so, they had incurred the reproaches of the heterogeneous mass of church reformers. One portion, and numerically the strongest portion, of the ministry, now seemed inclined to yield the contested ground, and admit the principle, that the revenues of the Irish church should be pared down to a proportion approaching more nearly to that which its members bore in numbers to those of the church of Rome. The minority, on the other hand, however willing they might be to remove striking and useless inequalities in the distribution of that revenue, or to adopt measures which would prevent irritating collisions in its collection, resisted, on principle, any appropriation of it to other purposes, and above all, refused to acquiesce in any proposal for making the efficiency of the Protestant establishment depend on the comparative strength or weakness of the opposing church. This discordance of opinion, and the impropriety of so soon impugning the settlement of last session, would have prevented ministers from voluntarily starting the question, Even the majority They would not of themselves have headed the march against the church, though they might be disposed to fall into the ranks, in order to secure the countenance of a numerous and noisy party, who made up in fury and zeal for their infinite deficiencies in knowledge and discretion, and who objected to them, moreover, that, in attempting to shield the Irish church, they were apostatizing from the great principles of reform. That party, however, forced the question upon them. On the 27th of May, Mr. Ward, one of the members for St. Alban's, moved a resolution declaratory of the justice and necessity of immediately depriving the church of Ireland of part of its temporalities. In supporting his proposition, he contended, that vital and extensive changes in the church of Ireland had now become unavoidable on grounds of mere expediency. The tithe system was the source of all the disorganization that prevailed in Ireland. Resistance to it had become almost universal, extending from the north to the south, comprehending Protestants as well as Catholics, and threatening a determined opposition to all legal dues. Mere commutation would effect no good: nothing less than a new appropriation of church property would produce even a momentary calm. The great grievance consisted in the levying of tithes on a Catholic population for the support of a Protestant church; and this could not be cured by any change merely in the manner of collecting the impost. The system too, of ad vances and repayments had been tried only to fail. The crown had assumed the character of creditor; but it had found the debtors no less impracticable than when the demand was made by the clergyman. It had been able to collect only 12,000l. at an expense of 26,000l.; combined and violent resistance had continued ; and government had been compelled, in the preceding session, to purchase a truce by granting another million. That truce would expire on the 1st of November, when the clergy must either return to the old system, or again become a burthen on the resources of the country. Military force and civil process had proved equally ineffectual. Between 1825 and 1832, the military force maintained in Ireland had varied from 19,000 to 23,000, being as nearly as possible the same amount of force that was required for the whole of our Indian empire, and within one-third of the force required to occupy all our colonies in the other three quarters of the world. This army had cost the country, during the last year, upwards of a million of money, besides the annually increasing expense of a police force, amounting to nearly 300,000l. Civil process had not been more effectual, though it appeared, from a return ordered in 1822, that during the five preceding years, 17,981 tithe causes had been heard annually in ecclesiastical courts, or at quarter sessions before the assistant barristers. Large sums, likewise, had been granted to schools and institutions which had Protestant proselytism for their main object; but the religion of the people of Ireland seemed to be rendered dearer to them, not more by every attempt to shake its hold on their affections, than by the flagrant abuses of the established church itself, of which none was more striking than the disproportion between its wealth and numbers, and the small fraction of the population which profited by this oppression of the whole. By the census of 1831, continued Mr. Ward, the population of Ireland was 7,767,404; it might now be taken, in round numbers, at eight millions. Not one-fourteenth of that number adhered to the communion of the established church. He had returns from the different counties, taken, he said, without the slightest regard to party, furnished by persons of whom he had endeavoured to ascertain that their accuracy might be relied on. These returns comprehended 70 parishes, which comprised a population of 329,000 Catholics, and only 14,057 Protestants. The average of Protestants to Catholics in all the parishes was 1 to 23; in some it was 1 to 40; in others, 1 to 95, and even 1 to 134. He therefore felt justified in assuming, that Episcopal Protestants did not exceed one-fourteenth of the whole population; and consequently the magnificent establishment of the Irish church was kept up to supply the religious wants of only 600,000 persons. It was kept up, too, at an expense of nearly 1,000,000l.; for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he stated all the ecclesiastical revenue last session at about 600,000l., should have added more than one half on account of the glebe lands. The true estimate stood thus: |