THE

MONTHLY REVIEW.

AUGUST, 1831.

ART. I.-1. First Fruits, Ireland.-Return to an Order of the Honourable House of Commons, dated 8th December, 1830;-for a Return prepared by the Remembrancer of First Fruits, containing a List of the several Dignities, Benefices, and Parishes in Ireland; Arranged in the order of Dioceses and Counties, with the names of the several Dignitaries and Incumbents in 1812; adding thereto, an Account of all Promotions and Alterations made and returned into the First Fruits Office, from the month of August, 1812, to the present time; stating the name and time of admission of each Dignitary and Incumbent so promoted and removed, and distinguishing Livings, taxed to and paying First Fruits, from those Exempt by Statute, and those not taxed; with the estimated annual value of every Dignity, as far as the same can be ascertained, and of every Benefice and Parish, as specified in the Returns made under the Tithe Composition Act. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 30th March, 1831. 2. The Institution and Abuse of Ecclesiastical Property. By the Rev. Edward Hull, M.A., 8vo. pp. 214. London: Cadell. 1831.

3. The English and Jewish Tithe Systems compared in their Origin, their Principles, and their Moral and Social tendencies. By Thomas Stratten. 12mo. pp. 280. London Holdsworth and Ball. :

1831.

THE time is fast approaching, when the whole system of the church established by the authority of law in England and Ireland, must of necessity undergo a thorough revision, and submit, perhaps, from the same imperative cause, to more than one fundamental alteration. Men do not often begin to write and publish their thoughts upon a subject of great importance, in which the whole community is directly or indirectly interested, until they find that it has been very generally discussed in many of the private circles of which that community is composed. The grievance is first felt, one neighbour speaks of it to another, they find that their ideas run pretty much in the same channel. The topic is mentioned with greater confidence, it is frequently introduced into conversation, it is much dwelt upon in all its bearings, it VOL. 11. (1831.) No. IV.

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seizes the attention of the more cultivated minds, and is made the theme of letters in the newspapers, of pamphlets, and finally of elaborate works, drawn up with great care, in which arguments are derived from theology, history, law, and every other source which can be made to bear upon the question. These works give rise to controversy, the matter becomes the subject of public opinion one way or the other, and finally the legislature is obliged to take it up, and deal with it in a manner that may be most conformable to the general interests.

Much, but as yet not all, of this, has already taken place with regard to the church, which the authority of parliament, not the power of persuasion, has planted in this country and in Ireland. The people of Scotland had the courage to defend and to preserve, against the attempted interference of the legislature, that form of worship to which they gave the preference. The people of Ireland were not equally fortunate in their resistance; they could not prevent the English government from seizing upon their cathedrals and other sacred edifices, and bestowing enormous endowments upon the Lutheran form of religion; but they never accepted it, never conformed to it as a people. It long has been, and still is among, but not of them, an isolated institution, which is every day losing a portion of its comparatively few disciples, and very likely soon to crumble into ruins.

Nor would there be any thing in such a consummation as this, as indeed a high authority has intimated, which would be calculated to affect the union now subsisting between the three kingdoms; even if we suppose the people of England to remain attached to the religion which is now established amongst them. When we recollect that they have so long been united with the Scotch, who differ from them upon many essential points of religion, there is no reason to apprehend that they might not continue in the same bonds of harmony with the Irish, (from whom, indeed, they have also differed hitherto almost as much as from the Scotch,) although the Anglican church in Ireland should be shorn of its unmerited splendour. Nay, we should go farther and express our firm conviction, that if the Catholic church, the church of so large a majority of the people of Ireland, should be established in that country, this circumstance would rather strengthen than impair the political union which connects it with Great Britain; it would make the Irish feel that their rights were respected, and that they were upon terms of just equality with the Scotch and English portions of the imperial federation; it would have a reciprocal effect upon the people of England, who would be thus taught to honour the fidelity and constancy of a nation, which no wars of extermination and persecution, no instruments of tyranny or torture of law, could turn aside, even for a moment, from the path of religion in which their forefathers, acting on the example of hundreds of generations, had placed them..

Of this, however, another time. At present our attention is forcibly directed to the striking picture which the parliamentary return, relating to the payment of First Fruits in Ireland, exhibits of the actual condition of the established church in that country. The "First Fruits" in Ireland mean a certain proportion of the first year's profits of the spiritual preferments, according to a recorded valuation, which proportion originally formed part of the revenues of the crown, but has been since, by various acts of parliament, vested in a board for the purpose of building churches and glebe houses, and augmenting small livings. It is no part of our object to inquire into the reasons why some dignities and benefices have been taxed for this impost, while others have been exonerated from it, or whether the sums which it has produced ought to have been larger, or whether they have been properly applied. We use the return as an account, imperfect though it be in many respects, of the enormous and unjustifiable opulence of the established church in Ireland; we shall collect from it, as far as it goes, the number of acres of land which are actually appropriated to that church, and the amount of money income which it enjoys; and we shail moreover be enabled by it just to glance at the precious system of ecclesiastical patronage that flourishes in that country, whereby favoured individuals hold, not two, but ten, and sometimes twelve and fifteen benefices, if not more, at one and the same time.

The reader should know that, proceeding upon the basis of the ancient hierarchy, the modern church has divided Ireland into four provinces, Armagh, Dublin, Cashel, and Tuam, in each of which it has placed an archbishop and a certain number of bishops. The return commences with the diocess of Armagh, in the province of that name, which diocess, including the archbishopric, contains seventy-nine ecclesiastical benefices, and counts, in glebe and see lands, no fewer than seventy-eight thousand two hundred and thirty-six acres. The number of pluralists amongst the incumbents clearly demonstrates the very limited labours which they undergo, for when we find one man holding four or five parishes, the natural conclusion is that there are few Lutherans in the district, otherwise he could not attend by possibility to their spiritual necessities. Thus, for instance, the Rev. Elias Thackeray was, in 1820, vicar of five different parishes; William Henry Foster, in 1822, vicar of three and rector of one; James Edward Jackson, in 1823, vicar of five parishes and rector of one; Charles Le Poer Trench, in the same year, rector and vicar of six parishes; Arthur Ellis, in 1826, rector of one and vicar of five; not to mention many other pluralists upon a minor scale. It was the desire of the House of Commons that the value of the benefices, universally, should have been included in the return; but this has seldom been done, as the parties, for reasons which they best understand, have omitted to give certificates to that effect in almost every case of importance. Of the six parishes enjoyed by Le Poer Trench, we have here the valuation of only three, amounting to about 8007. per annum.

Of

Jackson's five parishes we have the value only of one, at 2001. per annum; of Ellis's five parishes we have the value only of one, at the same amount; and, by a strange coincidence, of Thackeray's five parishes only one has been singled out for valuation, at precisely the same amount of 2007. Of the archbishopric held by Lord G. Beresford, there is no valuation at all! It appears, however, that the number of acres returned as belonging to the see of Armagh, is 51,880 of arable land, and 11,390 of mountain and bog, a principality in itself, which ought not to be the property of the minister of any religion. Of the ninety-eight parishes which are included in the return, only fifty-six are taxed for the first fruits, and of the fourteen dignities comprehended in it, we find that only three are called upon to contribute for the same purpose; thus exhibiting a system of inequality, to say the least of it, which looks exceedingly suspicious.

We next come to the diocess of Clogher, (in the province of Armagh,) which, including the bishopric, contains forty-five ecclesiastical benefices. In glebe and see lands it contains altogether 88,011 acres, of which no fewer than 81,210 are estimated as belonging to the see alone! Of the parishes in general, which are pretty well divided, few valuations are given, the money value of the bishopric is subsequently stated at the annual sum of 9,000l., late currency! One vicarage is as low as 837.; but none of the parishes valued in the return are under 1007., while many are at 3007., 4007., 5007., and more than one at 8007., and upwards. Of the thirty-nine promotions included in the return, comprehending twelve dignities, and thirty-six parishes, only seven of the former and twenty-three of the latter appear to have been taxed to the first fruits.

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The diocess of Meath (province of Armagh) offers to the clergy some exceedingly snug berths; it contains, with the bishopric, 102 ecclesiastical benefices; in glebe and see lands it counts 21,854 acres, of which 18,374 have been sliced off for the see. plemental paper we have a money valuation of the bishopric at 5,8151. 14s. 5d. annually: of the parishes and other benefices, amounting in number to 89, the valuations are pretty generally given; few of them are under 1007., while many of them exceed 2007.; but upon the whole they are not so much disproportioned to each other as in other dioceses. Many of them, however, are held by pluralists. Robert King was, in 1814, vicar of six parishes; Joseph Turner, in the same year, of four; the Hon. Henry Pakenham, in 1818, vicar of one parish, and rector of five others; Robert Norman, in 1820, rector and vicar of eight parishes; seven different benefices were held, in 1821, by George Leslie Greson; George Brabazon was, in the same year, vicar of one parish, and rector of three others; Brabazon William Disney was in 1823 and 1828, vicar of two parishes, and rector of six others; George Hardman was, in 1828, rector of one parish, vicar of two, and rector and vicar of two others; and Richard Radcliffe, Joseph Stevenson and Joseph