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left uninstructed in that "more excellent way," which bears the most authentic impress of the Christian revelation.

For this great purpose, (which combines considerations of moral duty with those of state necessity,) it is right that a provision should be made to which all classes may contribute, even as they contribute to the accomplishment of any other object which may be judged expedient for the well-being of the community. And an individual could no more plead dissent in bar to the tax which might thus be imposed upon him for the support of an Establishment, than he could plead a leaning towards republicanism in bar to the tax which might be imposed upon him for the support of the monarchy. In both cases, provided dissent proceed not to the extent of an open attempt to subvert the Establishment, it may be tolerated; and provided a leaning towards republicanism proceed not to manifest itself by any overt act of hostility against the monarchy, it may be endured. But in neither case should either the one or the other be permitted to disturb the settled arrangements of society, much less to tamper with the foundations of social order. With opinion, as such, the state will not meddle, as long as it does not meddle with the state; but the very moment the laws are resisted, or force or violence is employed for the purpose of defeating their provisions, that moment it becomes necessary to take the most effectual measures that such force or violence shall not be successful.

would be effected by a well-chosen and a wisely administered Church Establishment. But we forbear. The government of America has as yet scarcely witnessed two generations. The cup of the Amorites is not yet full. And events are already hastening forward, which admonish us, that before a third generation elapses, many, by whom the pernicious mispolicy of America, in neglecting the important concern of religion, is at present but too fondly admired, will point to it as a warning, and not as an example.

But the absence of a religious Establishment, in a country that has never had one, is a very different thing from its removal in a country where it had long subsisted. In the former case, necessity will have given rise to many expedients, by which its absence may be, in some imperfect manner, supplied. The moral appetite will not be altogether repressed, although it may not be naturally or healthily exercised. Just as in individuals who are born with imperfectly formed lungs, the liver sometimes performs some of the offices of the defective organ; so there may arise, and there will arise in such a community, some mode, however imperfect or inadequate, of discharging the function of an Established Church. But in the latter case, where a Church Establishment had long subsisted, and where its influence was suddenly suspended, without any compensatory provision having been made to remedy the great derangement which must thus arise in the moral and the social system, we recognise one of those instances of sudden and fatal injury to a mortal part-a plucking out, as it were, or a laceration of the lungs-from which scarcely any thing less than the dissolution of the body politic is to be apprehended.

But America, it will be said-look to America! and we say, look to America. In arguing with competent judges, we would be content to rest the whole question upon the practical evidence of the necessity of a state religion which the very condition, both moral and political, of America affords. We might refer, in illustration of this, to numberless instances, in which the moral appetite has been either starved or pampered -either unduly or viciously excited, or injuriously or mischievously repelled; and all for the want of that steady and fostering guidance which might educate piety and repress extravagance-that sober,benignant matriculation of the community, which

Now, such must be precisely the effect of any violence by which the Established Church in these countries may be overthrown. It is coeval with the monarchy. It has grown with its growth, and strengthened with its strength. Its ministers constitute one of the estates of the realm; and its property is held by a tenure more ancient and more venerable than that of any other property in the land. A sudden violence to such

Tithes.

1833.]

an establishment must give a shock to society which it could not easily recover, even independently of the serious moral loss which must attend the suspension of its holy and benignant ministrations.

of truth," the stewards, to whom the
care of their secular concerns had
give them
been committed, would “
their meat in due season.'

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"But are not these holy and benignant ministrations sometimes suspended, or worse than suspended, by the unhappy collisions upon money matters which take place between the clergy and their flocks?" Here, again, we are willing to meet the objectors half way, and to acknowledge the beneficial consequences that would flow from an arrangement, by which the clergy, in what regarded their own maintenance, might be separated altogether from The diffisecular considerations. culty has been, to combine security of property, with that privilege of exemption from the cares and anxieties of worldly business, which it is so desirable, for many reasons, that the clergy should enjoy, so that effectual care might be taken, that, while their whole time might be devoted to the great business of their calling, the patrimony of the Church should not be wasted. Now, this difficulty is, we think, most satisfactorily obviated, in the plan which Dr Whately, the Archbishop of Dublin, lately submitted to the Committee of the House of Lords, before whom he was examined upon the state of Ireland. He proposes, that parishes should be congregated into unions, and as many as could be conveniently managed, placed under the superintendence of some experienced and responsible individual in all matters relating to the incomes of the incumbents-his duty and authority being somewhat similar to that which is at present discharged and exercised by the bursars of our Universities. Thus, the property of the Church would be as well secured as the property of our colleges; and, while the clergy were undistracted in the blessed occupation of "rightly dividing the word

Here, then, is a plan by which the objection above stated, may be fairly and fully met. But are the No. Why? objectors satisfied? Simply because their allegation was a pretext for the destruction of the Church, and was not urged with any view to the remedying of a defect, or the removal of an inconvenience. Mr O'Connell now complains more loudly of the remedy than he ever before complained of the disease; and this, and all other objections which he and his faction may urge, will be cherished with as much more lingering obstinacy as a knavish mendicant cherishes his sores, which are more offensive to the eye, than injurious to the health, and more profitable in the exhibition, than painful in the endurance.

It was not our intention to have travelled into any matter not strictly referable to the economical consideration of the question of tithe. Our space does not permit us to enlarge upon the peculiar claim of the English and Irish Church Establishments to a liberal and independent provision;-but we trust enough has been already said to evince the unreasonableness and the futility of the cavils which have been raised against the mode in which they are at present supported.

It has been shewn that tithe does not fall upon the consumer; that he does not pay more for raw produce than he should pay if tithe were removed. For, though it be granted that the imposition of tithe checks production, it must also be admitted, that the limitation of production checks population; so that the supply will still bear the same relation to the demand, and the consumer, after tithe has been abolished, will have precisely the same and no greater facilities for procuring corn than he had before.*

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* Colonel Thomson calculates, upon grounds which appear to us solid, that the loss arising out of prevention of production caused by tithes, supposing them to be universal, may be estimated at less than the hundred and twelfth part. He then proceeds to estimate what the loss would be, supposing the clergy paid by an impost on manufactures.

"The value," he says, "of the whole annual produce of the agriculture in Great

It has been shewn that tithe does not fall upon the landlord; that is, that the individual commonly so called is not deprived of any thing which he could truly call his own, in consequence of the imposition of tithe; which should be considered as a pre-existing and paramount claim upon the land, the satisfaction of which should precede any accumulation for the benefit of the landlord.

are not obliged to residence, neither is the performance of any duty compulsory upon them. Can it, therefore, be the interest of the cultivators to diminish the fund appropriated to the first, when the only effect of such diminution must be to increase the fund appropriated to the second? No, surely; unless it be their interest to increase wages while they diminish service-a paradox which, although it might qualify economists for depriving of their hire the useful labourers in the Church, would disentitle them to object against the sinecure clergy.

It is also to be considered, that the first class, or the ecclesiastical landlords, as they may be called, hold

The true mode of considering the matter would be to suppose that there are two kinds of landlords. One kind are obliged to reside upon the land, and to perform various duties, which have an important bearing upon the well-being of the cultivators of the soil. The other kind

Britain, compared with that of manufactures, has been estimated as being one to three. If, then, the support of the clergy were to be raised by a tax on the produce of manufactures instead of agriculture, the tax must be a third of a tithe, or 3 per cent. And the consequence of this would be, in addition to the tax being paid by the consumer, to cause a gratuitous loss, or prevention of production, which, if ten per cent may be assumed as the average rate of manufacturing profits, would be equal to ten-elevenths of 3 per cent on the whole amount of goods manufactured. And the value of this would be to the value of the hundred and twelfth part of the agricultural produce, which is what is supposed to be kept out of existence by the system of tithe, as #61 1 × 1 × ×3 to 1 divided by 112, or as to, or something more than 10 to 1;-an inequality not to be got over by any conceivable inaccuracies in the numerical assumption. In which it is remarkable, that the result is independent of the comparative values of agricultural and manufactured produce, and will be the same, whatever is their proportion. The explanation of which is, that if the manufactured produce is less, a greater portion of it must be taken.

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"Hence, the real state of the charge against tithes is, first, that the tax, with the exception of a trifling reaction, is paid by the landlords, instead of being paid by the consumers, as would have been the case if it had been levied upon manufactures; and, secondly, that there is a saving of more than nine-tenths of the loss or prevention of production, which would have taken place by the other mode. When tithes are asserted to be a peculiarly pernicious and impolitic mode of taxation, these facts are always kept out of sight. The proof of the assertion falls to the ground upon examination, like the proof of many other popular outcries. As the woodpecker, the rook, and the goatsucker, have been persecuted time out of mind for imaginary injuries, so the ecclesiastical rook has been charged with collecting his subsistence in a manner peculiarly injurious to the public, through clear ignorance or concealment of the nature of the process. Some species of commutation might, possibly, be better still. But it is plain that the extended outcry has been made; either through ignorance, or a desire to direct the hostility of the community to a particular quarter by misrepre

sentation.

"If a third part of the land is tithe free, (as is understood to be the case in England,) one-third must be deducted from the estimate of the effect of tithes. And the effect of the abolition of the other two-thirds would be, that the produce of the country would be increased by two-thirds of a hundred and twelftb, or; which, if it took place all at once, would cause the price of corn to fall by a quantity which, on account of the comparative smallness of the increase, must be, at all events, not very remote from the ratio of the increase; or, if corn is supposed at 56s. and fourpence a quarter. But this fall of price (being, in fact, the small reaction mentioned under the heads of tithes and taxes on the produce of land, and to which, in those places also, the same observation may be applied) will be only temporary. And the reason of this is, the certainty that any given permanent alteration in the quantity of corn, will ultimately produce a corresponding alteration in the population that is to consume it, and so bring back corn to the old price.

whatever they possess in virtue of qualifications which may be possessed by any other individuals in the community. Is it an evil, that the humblest individual may entertain the hope that his son or his son-in-law may, at some future time, be a Bishop of Winchester, or an Archbishop of Canterbury? What interest can he have in diminishing the chances of such an event, by confiscating the fixed estates of the clergy, or contributing to connect them with a species of property, to the enjoyment of which neither he nor any one belonging to him can establish any claim? Is it any grievance to him that all the landed property of the country is not locked up in entail,but that some portion of it is thrown open to enlightened competition, and made attainable by means of moral and intellectual qualifications? It has been shewn, that the outcry against Irish tithes, whether paid by the landlord, or paid by the consumer, is altogether unfounded. It is not true that the Roman Catholics of Ireland are burdened with the support of the Protestant establishment. If tithe be paid by the consumer, as the demagogues contend, the people of England are saddled with that tax; and not only with that, but also with the stipend, whatever it is, by which the Popish peasant maintains his own clergy. If it be paid out of the fund denominated rent, it is merely handed over by the land proprietors, who are, generally speaking, Protestants, to those for whom it has been received in trust, namely, the Established clergy. It is also to be held in mind, that this fund is chiefly created by English competition for Irish produce; and, therefore, in reality, falls much more upon the land in England than the land in Ireland.

The case, therefore, is clear. The only question is, will the Government so consider it, or will they surrender the Irish Church to the demands of the Irish demagogues, and the fierce hostility of the Irish

insurgents? There are many reasons which render it most important to the Irish insurgents, that their demands should be complied with; and not the least material of these is the persuasion under which they labour, that the very instant the Church is abandoned, the Union may be considered as repealed. Will this operate as a motive with our governors, to enter into a bond of sleeping partnership with the midday assassins and the midnight incendiaries, by whom the Irish clergy have been plundered and proscribed? Or, are the laws to have their course; and is injured innocence to be protected, and outraged justice to be vindicated? Are the unoffending pastors of an unoffending people to be outlawed, and hunted from their homes; or, are the murderers to be arrested in their career of blood, and made to feel that there is at length a limit to forbearance, and that atrocities may no longer be perpetrated with impunity, because the objects of them are distinguished by the evangelical virtues? These are questions which we will not prejudge. We have joined issue upon them with the disturbers of the public tranquillity; and the case is at present before the Reformed Parliament. But we can have no hesitation in saying, that the decision to which they may come upon it will determine the fate of the empire.

For our parts, we have done our duty. We have stated our case with freedom, and without partiality. We are not conscious of having courted popularity, or of having truckled to power. We have done our best to examine the question at issue, with minds unbiassed by favour or prejudice ;-and if those before whom it must shortly come for a final hearing, can only say as much, we have no fears for the result;-if it should be otherwise, (which may Heaven avert!) upon their heads be the guilt and the misery which must necessarily flow from their mispolicy and injustice.

IRELAND.

No. III.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.

THE time is fast approaching, when the state of Ireland will force itself on the consideration of the most reluctant legislature. For a quarter of a century past it has been a subject to which the attention of Government has been constantly directed, and on which unnumbered reports have been made by Parliament, but which, from its complication, its difficulty, and its apparent hopelessness, has never led to any important measures. Constantly enquiring about Ireland, they have never done any thing effective, and the country has gone on from bad to worse, under the system of concession, first recommended by the Whigs, since acted upon by the Tories, and at length carried to an extravagant extent by Ministers, till at last all semblance of order has disappeared, and society has reached a degree of anarchy unparalleled in any Christian state.

It is earnestly to be hoped that Ireland will no longer be considered as a subject of party contention. It has been so much too long, both among its own fervid inhabitants, and the great parties who divide Great Britain. The extravagance to which faction has risen in that unhappy land, is one great cause of the total absence of any great legislative measures, or any firm steps for the tranquillization of its inhabitants; and until it is looked to in a cool dispassionate strain, by the English legislature, and all the enlightened classes in this country, no efficient measures for its relief ever will be adopted. It is a remarkable but melancholy fact, that while the Irish are continually complaining of the oppressive nature of the English government, and the vast injury they have sustained from the ascendency of the Protestant party, they have never been able to point out any specific or intelligible plan for the relief of the prevailing suffering. The lower orders of the peasantry seem to have only one plan on all

occasions, which is, to shoot every man who attempts any practical improvement in the country, and burn any witnesses who depone against them in a court of justice, while the better classes of the Catholics content themselves with eternal declamations on English injustice, without proposing any thing whatever for the removal of the evils of which they complain. O'Connell, indeed, and the Repealers, have a clear remedy for all these grievances, which is to repeal the Union, and subject Ireland to a separate legislature. But without stopping to dwell on the impossibility of such a measure being carried, fraught as it obviously is with the immediate dismemberment of the empire, the establishment of French influence in the sister island, and a bellum ad internecionem between the two countries, it is sufficient to observe, that our sprightly neighbours do not as yet possess within themselves the elements requisite to form a useful legislature.

They forget, when they make this demand, that the experiment has been tried for many hundred years, and totally failed. Till the Union in 1800, Ireland was governed by a local legislature; and yet the country, on their own shewing, was all along in the most miserable state; and certainly the degraded habits and redundant numbers of the poor, sufficiently demonstrate that no measures for their practical improvement ever were adopted by their Irish rulers. Arthur Young observes, that the Parliament of Ireland, in one of those fits of insanity, to which they were occasionally subject, once passed a resolution, that any lawyer who lent his aid to any process for the recovery of tithes, should be debarred from practising in the courts of law; and such, in truth, was too frequently the character of their legislature. Like all rude and uncivilized but impassioned nations, their measures were characterised by vehe

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