tion and continuance of this status was acknowledged as an essential part of the Union itself. It is difficult to understand how the intention of the legislature could be more clearly and forcibly expressed; or how so solemn a compact could, with any show of justice, honour, or good faith, be evacuated.

59. Arrived now at the present century, and touching therefore on contemporary history, our notice of its events may be brief. The first quarter was marked by no occurrence of special moment to the Church; but the commencement of the second ushered in several important changes. The passing of the Roman Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829 abolished the last remnant of those disabilities under which the professors of that Creed had laboured since the beginning of the eighteenth century. This point was not indeed gained without a severe struggle; nor without many misgivings as to the use which might be made of their newly-acquired powers as legislators, to the disturbance of the existing institutions in Church and State. Such suspicions were, however, earnestly deprecated by the claimants and their advocates, who in the most emphatic language "disclaimed all intention of subverting the existing Church establishment for the purpose of substituting a Catholic establishment in its stead; or of exercising any privilege to which they might become entitled to disturb or weaken the Protestant religion or the Protestant Government in Ireland "." How far the forebodings of the one side,

Oaths signed by Roman Catholic archbishops and bishops as given in Dr. Doyle's "Essay on the Catholic Claims," p. 302. To the like effect is Dr. Murray's (Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin) "Evidence before the House of Commons, 1825;” “There is no wish on the part of the Roman Catholic clergy to disturb

or the assurances of the other, have been or are likely to be justified, every one can judge for himself. We are certainly becoming accustomed to very different sentiments now-a-days from Roman Catholic orators and writers both clerical and lay o.

60. Almost contemporaneously with the agitation respecting what were called "the Catholic claims," arose another cause of excitement, with reference to the tithes payable to the clergy of the Established Church and others. Tithes, though Scriptural in their origin, and common in the Christian Church from the earliest ages, were scarcely known in Ireland till the twelfth century; previous to which time the clergy were supported by voluntary offerings, and by grants of land. At the synod of Cashel, however (as already stated) a decree was enacted, and subsequently confirmed by Henry II., that the faithful should henceforth pay to their parish church the tithe of "animals, fruits, and other increase." How far this decree had the force of law as against the then proprietors we need not enquire: but it is conclusive as against their successors in later times; since there is not a single existing tenure of land in Ireland that does not date long subsequently to it, and that was not granted or purchased subject to the reservation

the present establishment, or to partake of any part of the wealth it enjoys; and they have not the least objection to give the most full and entire assurance on this subject by any declaration that might be required of them."

C

"We demand the disendowment of the Established Church in Ireland, as a condition without which social peace and stability, general respect for the laws, and unity of sentiment and action for national objects, can never prevail in Ireland."-Resolution of Meeting in Dublin, Dec. 29, 1864, at which seven Roman Catholic bishops were present.

in question. Tithes are, therefore, the most ancient rents in Ireland, and the most indefeasible in their title; but being a rent in kind, not in money, they were at all times difficult to collect, and precarious in their amount. After the Reformation, many circumstances concurred to aggravate these difficulties and disadvantages. In the first place, a large proportion of the population, having become alienated from the Church, were very reluctant payers of a charge which, for the most part, went to support what they were taught to look upon as heresy. Then, again, the violent and illegal abolition of the tithe of agistment, exempting, to a great extent, the richer classes of gentlemen farmers and graziers, threw the titheowner altogether on the tillage farmers and cottiers of a low class; while, later still, the introduction of the "forty shilling freeholders"-leading to the almost infinitesimal division of the land, and pauperization of the immediate occupiers, from whom the tithe was taken-made its collection to the last degree difficult and revolting to the clergy. The necessary consequence was, the farming out of the tithes to proctorsfor the most part a hard and unscrupulous class, who not unfrequently defrauded their principals while they ground down and tyrannized over the payers—a state of things which led to many scenes of heartless cruelty on the one side, and desperate outrage on the other.

It was therefore a mutual relief when, in the year 1823, an act was passed authorizing the establishment of a money composition in lieu of tithes, which another act, soon after, made permanent and compulsory. This change was, in most cases, a decided gain to the payer: while the loss to the owner was balanced by his being able to dispense with the

proctor, and all his unpopular associations. So far, however, was it from having a pacifying effect, that the agitation increased tenfold after it became law; the concession thus made appearing to be only considered as a ground for increased efforts to abolish the payment altogether. The most formidable and violent opposition was set on foot. Crops seized for non-payment of tithes were forcibly rescued by armed bands; bailiffs were murdered or beaten; and several clergymen assassinated: while the whole body was reduced, by the determined withholding of their incomes, to the utmost distress-in some cases to the verge of starvation. Large sums were collected in England and elsewhere for their relief; and presents even of food, or cast clothing, were in many instances most acceptable. At length, in the year 1833, the evil had become so crying that Government was constrained to come to the aid of the sufferers by a loan from the treasury of a million sterling; which loan was subsequently turned into a gift-a gift, however, not so much to the defrauded tithe-owner as to the defrauding payer, inasmuch as it involved the wiping out of all arrears. After this, it was of course impossible that payment could be enforced on the former footing; and accordingly in the year 1838, a fresh enactment was made, by which the tithe composition, heretofore chargeable on the occupier, was converted into a rent-charge payable by the owner, who was henceforth to receive the amount from his tenant in the shape of an addition to the rent; while the titheowner was obliged to compound, by the sacrifice of one-fourth of his income, for the peaceable and regu

d It should be observed that this relief was not confined to the clergy only, but embraced all owners of tithe.

lar receipt of the remaining three-fourths. Heavy, however, as was the price exacted, the measure was, on the whole, received by the clergy as a boon. Whatever their income might now be, they were likely to receive it; and they would no longer be brought into direct collision with the small occupiers, grudgingly and tardily handing forth the half-crown or shilling at which they were assessed. The result has, for the most part, realized these favourable expectations; and although, in its various transmutations, the tithe has shrunk by degrees from its original tenth, till, in the shape of rent-charge, it now scarcely equals the hundredth part of the annual produce of the soil, it is at least something gained that this remnant is satisfactorily paid; and that (as far as the mass of the people is concerned) it has ceased to be even an apparent burden or hardship.

61. During this gradual process of tithe-conversion, a measure of scarcely less importance in the history of the Irish Church became law, namely, the Church Temporalities Act of 1834. Heretofore (as in England) the churches had been kept in repair, the church officers paid, and requisites provided, by a parochial rate levied on all householders of whatever denomination. But of late years this assessment was so strenuously opposed, that almost every vestry meeting, especially in the towns, became the scene of strife and uproar; while, from the difficulty of carrying even the most moderate rate, the buildings and their

• It may be added that nine-tenths of the present proprietors, (by whom the tithe rent-charge is payable) are Protestants; while of the remaining tenth, a very large proportion have purchased under the Landed Estates Court, subject to this payment, aud of course at a proportionately reduced price.