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CHAPTER XVIII.

THE TWO CHURCHES MILITANT IN CONNAUGHT.

THE last Protestant Archbishop of Tuam, from the time of his appointment in 1819, identified himself with the Evangelical Missionary Movement, which began about that time. He presided regularly at one or more of the anniversary meetings in the Rotunda, Dublin; and when all the other bishops had retired from the societies, because they fostered Calvinism' or 'Methodism,' which with them, as Mr. Simeon remarked, was but another name for vital religion, Archbishop Trench remained at his post, observing that as the bishops did not give their reasons, and he could see none, he declined to follow their example. In his own diocese he devoted all his energies and resources to the work of proselytising the Roman Catholic population, which, according to his theory of an establishment, were an integral part of his flock. His benevolence, however, was so great that he was for a long time exceedingly popular, and the Irish Church Mission to Roman Catholics' was attended with great apparent success.

The career of this prelate would form a most interesting chapter in the history of the Irish Church. Being the brother of Lord Clancarty, he was promoted at an early age to the see of Waterford. From that important city he was translated to Elphin, then considered one of the richest bishoprics in Ireland. The place had a wretched population, without a market and without business of any kind, and no one to care for the poor. The new bishop became very active as a country gentleman and a magistrate, reforming abuses in gaols, and protecting the poor from oppression, while largely ministering to their temporal wants. In 1819 the Prince Regent, on account of his 'singular piety and integrity,' made him Archbishop of Tuam, vacant by the death of Dr. Beresford. His benevolence had

already made him so popular that when he entered the town bonfires were blazing in the streets, and his carriage could scarcely move through the crowds of people-nearly all Roman Catholics -who cheered and blessed him. This Catholic applause of a heretic bishop was not confined to the laity. The Rev. Mr. Gill, a Galway priest, spoke of him in the following terms: 'I call on them to co-operate with the wise appropriation already begun in favour of the distressed, by his Grace of Tuam, with that piety and zeal, with that ardent and indefatigable industry, that ever characterised his efforts and breathed on his actions an unearthly lustre.'

Then, referring to British liberality during the famine of 1822, this priest, with all the fervid and florid eloquence of his race, exclaimed: Oh we shall fondly entwine the loved shamrock of our valley with the fostering rose; they shall grow lovingly together. Their fragrance shall mingle like the incense of love. The dew-drops that will glisten on their leaves shall be like the tears of some celestial sympathy. We shall plant them in the sunniest beds of our gardens, as a grateful memorial of this generous people. Religious and political differences no longer remembered, our misfortunes have at length providentially accomplished what our brighter hours could never effect. No longer eying each other with distrust, the Irishman shall strain his English neighbour to his heart. Both may not kneel at the same shrine, yet both shall worship at the same burning altar of charity.'

The Rev. Dr. Ffrench, Catholic Warden of Galway, addressed the Protestant Archbishop in a similar strain of eulogy. What more could a Galway priest say to his own metropolitan than this:- More glorious by your actions than even by your exalted station, you proceeded in the exercise of your sacred ministry, and with a singular devotion you interposed between the victims of contagion and the grave. You have fulfilled your holy task; and having reached the highest point of genuine glory, you now return to your home hailed by the benedictions of a grateful, affectionate, and applauding people.'

This was the language of the Distress Committee for the town and county of Galway, in September 1822. During this

famine application was made to the absentee landlords, who drew from the county rents amounting to 83,000l. a year; and the total amount of their contributions, according to Bishop Jebb, was 837.! While those absentees thus shamefully neglected the duties of property, when their tenants were suffering under a terrible calamity, it pleased Providence, said Bishop Jebb in the House of Lords, to raise up a diffusive instrument for good, and that instrument a Churchman. If the London Distress Committee, if the honourable and worthy chairman, were asked who at that period stood foremost in every act of beneficence and labour of love, they would with one voice pronounce the Archbishop of Tuam; from morning to night, from extremity to extremity of his province, at once the mainspring, the regulator, the minute-hand, of the whole charitable system. As distress deepened and spread abroad, he multiplied himself with a sort of moral ubiquity.'

The Metropolitan of Connaught had certainly ample means for the exercise of his benevolence. Ardagh, as well as Killala and Achonry, were held by him, in commendam, till the passing of the Church Temporalities Act. The archbishopric was indeed a sort of principality; and as a prince of the Church Dr. Trench ruled it for a period of about forty years. He might with such revenues have enjoyed life splendidly in London or on the Continent, like some of his brethren, especially at a time when the public were not so exacting as they are now, and when the clergy were apt to regard the incomes derived from the Church as much their own property as any private estate. Though Archbishop Trench held this opinion, he did not act upon it, but seemed evidently conscious that he was a trustee, bound to reside, to labour and to spend, in the midst of the population in which he was placed. The benefit of his local expenditure was so highly appreciated that when he thought of removing from Tuam to the palace at Killala, a public meeting was convened by the Sovereign as chairman, and by two hundred of the principal inhabitants, nearly all Roman Catholics, imploring him not to leave their town. When he gave his final answer to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, on the 11th of June, 1834, stating that he felt it his duty to continue his residence at Tuam for the rest of his

life, the population of that town broke out into manifestations of tumultuous joy. Large bonfires blazed in the streets, and the houses were brilliantly illuminated.

There was a recurrence of very severe destitution in the diocese in the year 1831. In the county of Mayo, of a population of 293,000 souls, no less than 226,532, or more than twothirds of the whole people, had been placed on the charity list. The sufferers were, of course, nearly all Roman Catholics, so that out of an allotation of 203 tons of meal, made by the Central Committee at Galway, a single ton was set apart, with this entry: To the poor Protestants, one ton.' The effect, however, of this wide-spread distribution of relief was, as usual, grossly demoralising. Many of the recipients were in fact in affluent circumstances. At the head of the list was a farmer who had a large stock of cattle and plenty of oatmeal for sale, while he had deposited some hundreds of pounds for safe keeping with the churchwardens. Places which were not at all destitute received large grants. The cry was, 'As the provision is going, why should not this parish and that parish get its share.' In a word, as the Archbishop said, Starvation has become a trade, and provisions were sent in abundance where no calamity had occurred. There was not one tenant on a large estate who was not returned destitute. My means would not last a day if I had not most conscientiously and justly drawn the line where I did.' His Grace received altogether for distribution on this occasion the sum of 5,6677., of which he returned 2,8397. as not being required.

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The feudal spirit still remained in full force beyond the Shannon, and many of the resident landlords had imbibed the missionary zeal of their archbishop, and warmly co-operated with him in the propagation of Evangelism. His own brother was one of the greatest and most influential of the old aristocratic houses of the province—a fact which in such a rank-worshipping community must have given his Grace an immense prestige, that a prelate sprung from the people-such as Elrington, Mant, or Magee-could not hope to acquire. The clergy, too, of the united dioceses were most zealous in prosecuting the missionary work. Some of them learned to preach in the Irish language; they were

aided by a host of Scripture-readers, and by schoolmasters, supported by funds contributed in England. If these missionary efforts had been felt by the people to be purely spiritual in their object, they would no doubt have been much more effectual; but they were identified with the maintenance of a political system which excluded from the Legislature all persons holding the creed of the mass of the population. For two or three years preceding Catholic emancipation, the Protestant clergy were most active in agitating against that measure, and in their efforts to prove that Roman Catholics could not be bound by the most solemn oaths when the interests of their Church were concerned. As already remarked, the meetings of the Hibernian Bible Society, held throughout the country, were converted into a sort of political propagandism. It was the same with all other Protestant societies which appealed to the public for support. In October 1824 the Archbishop was announced to take the chair, at Loughrea, county Galway, when the leading Roman Catholic inhabitants received this circular: You are kindly invited to attend the annual meeting of the county Galway branch of the Hibernian Bible Society.' The Archbishop and his friends found the Courthouse crowded to excess with Roman Catholics, including a number of priests. It was quite evident that they had packed the house, and meant to carry everything their own way. So when the report was read, and the chairman rose to propose its adoption, he was interrupted by Father Daly, of Galway, who claimed to be heard, on the ground that he was included in the invitation. It was in vain the priests were told that an arrangement for discussion could be afterwards made; they insisted on speaking, then and there, and were about to appoint another chairman. But the Archbishop-a man of rare personal courage and firmness-said: I shall not leave this chair, Mr. Daly, until the business of this day is gone through, unless I am forced out of it.' This emphatic declaration disconcerted the leaders; but the mob, whose starving kinsmen his bounty so often had fed, now made frantic by religious bigotry, exclaimed, Turn him out! turn him out!' The late Dr. Urwick, one of the deputation, describing the scene, wrote: If demoniac rage was ever depicted in human countenances, it was in the mass before us

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