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king; and that they were on the watch for the first. favourable opportunity of renewing their treasonable attempts. It is not, then, very surprising that the measures adopted to counteract their designs were such as nothing but absolute necessity could justify; and were continued so long as that necessity appeared to require. Meanwhile, the inevitable effect was to deepen the mutual animosity of parties and of creeds; and to render yet more hopeless the prospect of reclaiming the mass of the people to a hearty allegiance to the British Government, or to the communion of their ancient national Church.

51. The decayed and feeble condition of that Church has already been referred to. Now, however, much energy was displayed by her authorities in endeavouring to restore her waste places. The two Primates especially-Marsh of Armagh, and King of Dublinshewed an example of zeal and liberality in promoting the rebuilding of churches, and making provision for the poorer clergy which was very generally followed throughout the kingdom. Under their auspices, likewise, many useful Acts were passed in the Irish Parliament calculated to increase the efficiency of the Church; and to their representations was owing the temporary revival of the Irish Convocation. This body, which, as before related, had been called into existence in the reign of James I., had met at irregular intervals till the year 1661; but from that period its action

t On this occasion it had accepted the English Prayer-book as remodelled at the Savoy Conference, with the addition of prayers for the Lord Lieutenant, and a service for the 23rd of October, in commemoration of the deliverance from the Great Rebellion of 1641. These, with the forms for the Visitation of Prisoners, added in 1711, as mentioned in the text, form the only distinction between the Irish and English offices.

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had been wholly suspended. It was now, however, permitted to meet under the licence of Queen Anne, and held successive sessions in the years 1703, 1705, 1709, and 1711; but of its deliberations no result remains to the Church beyond the passing of a few Canons (chiefly referring to the business of the ecclesiastical courts) and the adoption of certain forms. of prayer for the visitation of prisoners. A far more important subject had indeed been under its consideration, namely, the instruction and conversion of the native Irish through the medium of their own language. The principle had already been recognised in the Canons of 1634 (Canons VIII. and XCIV.); but it is altogether uncertain how far these directions. were, or could be, complied with. It was now, however, proposed that both the Bible and Prayer-book should be printed, a suitable exposition of the Church Catechism prepared, and persons appointed to preach and catechize in Irish. The matter was at first warmly taken up both in Convocation and Parliament as well as in other quarters; but a strong and influential party, adverse to the encouragement of the Irish tongue, and bent on reducing the natives to civilization and religion by spreading among them the English language and customs, threw so many obstacles in the way of the project, that it fell to the ground for that time. Nor did the opportunity for considering it in Convocation ever return; for, the proceedings connected with the Bangorian controversy having soon after occasioned the suspension of the English Convocation, the same course was adopted as regarded the Irish body also; the only difference being that, as the meetings of the latter had not been stated, but only occasional, it was not thought necessary, with

regard to it, to enact the solemn annual farce of convening it, without allowing it to proceed to business.

52. But the Irish Church owes to Anne another and more lasting benefit than the revival of Convocation, namely, the concession of the first-fruits and twentieth parts. These two imposts (comprising the entire income of each benefice for the first year of possession, and the twentieth of the same in every succeeding year) were originally exacted by the Pope, and after the overthrow of the Papal Supremacy were claimed by the King. They were now, however, by the bounty of Anne (who had previously made a similar grant to the Church in England), resigned altogether; the twentieth parts being remitted to the clergy individually, and the first-fruits made over to trustees for the purchase of glebe lands, the building of glebe houses, and the increase of small benefices. This trust continued to be exercised for the benefit of the Church till the passing of the Temporalities Act in 1836, under which the payment of first-fruits was entirely abolished.

53. The death of Queen Anne in 1714 made way for the accession of the Hanoverian dynasty in the person of George I. For some time previously, an impression had prevailed that the Queen was favourable to the succession of the deposed family; and hopes were confidently expressed by the Jacobites, both in England and Ireland, that this would now be accomplished. Considerable anxiety was consequently felt by the supporters of the new dynasty; and a more watchful jealousy than ever was exhibited towards those who were in any way suspected of antagonism, or even lukewarmness to the English Government. To oppose or disapprove of any mea

sure emanating from it, was sufficient proof of disloyalty to make the offender an object of distrust, and to exclude him from all favour and preferment. This narrow and suspicious policy was for many years productive of the worst effects on the Irish Church. Promotion was henceforward to be looked for as the reward, not of professional merit, but of political usefulness or compliance. Clergymen were sent over from England to fill the highest offices in the Church of Ireland" for the advancement, not of religion but of "the English interest ;" and an Irish preferment became too often the recompense of one whose promotion would not be tolerated in England. It was, moreover, at that period, customary to send a new chief governor to Ireland, on an average, every three or four years. Each of these governors was sure to bring with him an English chaplain. Each of these chaplains was equally sure to claim and to receive the first Irish bishopric that happened to fall vacant; and scarcely less sure, when he had obtained it, to bring over some two or three English friends or relatives to place in Irish benefices in his gift. Such wholesale importations were of course viewed with indignation by the native clergy; and soon resulted in the establishing of what had, so often before and in so many different forms, been evoked-an English and an Irish party in the Church, mutually jealous of each other, and therefore incapable of united or harmonious ac

" From the year 1703 to 1822 no Irishman filled the office of Irish Primate. During the same period, the archbishopric of Dublin was held by six English and four Irish prelates, and the bishopric of Derry (the next in value) by nine English and three Irish. (On this subject see more in Stephens' "Introduction to Irish Prayer-book," vol. iii. p. 127.)

tion. Another evil connected with this system was, that those who were thus placed in posts of authority and responsibility, being in general strangers to Irish habits, feelings, and character, as well as to the peculiar circumstances of the country, were (though in many cases sincere, zealous, and able) but little calculated to attract to themselves the confidence of the clergy, or to forward the work of evangelization among the people. They fell, too often, into the error which seems generally to have pervaded the policy of our English rulers and philanthropists, from the earliest period of the connection between the two countries, namely, that of trying to turn Irishmen into Englishmen, instead of helping them to become Irishmen of the best quality. It was, doubtless, owing in a great measure to the prevalence of this feeling, that we find the various proposals which during the early part of this century had been set on foot for instructing the native Irish through the medium of their own language, laid aside for the more imposing, but mistaken, and finally unsuccessful scheme, for which a society was incorporated in the year 1733, viz., the establishment, on a large scale, of "Charter Schools" for the instruction of Irish children in the English tongue, and in the Protestant faith. Exotics as they were in their whole constitution and structure-these schools,

* It would be unjust to pass by without merited encomium the names of Pococke, Nicholson, and Newcome, eminent for their learning; of Marsh, and Mann for their labours; of Boulter, Robinson, and Evans for their munificence to the Church. Primate Boulter, besides other charities, bequeathed over £30,000, and Primate Robinson a less but considerable sum, towards the augmentation of small benefices-bequests which are still available, and of the greatest advantage.

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