THE SUPREMACY OF PUBLIC OPINION. 289 



her condition ; we can only glance at a few of the more important 

 questions connected with Ireland, which must so engross public 

 attention, and in reference to which some decided measures must 

 speedily be adopted.* The moral features of Ireland are disfigured 

 by one plague-spell, to which every eye is now directed, and to 

 which every finger points, and our readers have already anticipated 

 us when we name the Church Establishment. If it is yet possible 

 that a Protestant Church Establishment may be permitted to exist in 

 Ireland, it is certain that the present one must be extensively and 

 practically reformed in all its branches before the public opinion, 

 either of England or Ireland, will submit to have a single tax raised 

 in its behalf, or a single word uttered in its defence. Tithes must 

 be extinguished, not in name, but in reality, and we must no longer 

 witness those odious scenes which are a disgrace to the name of re- 

 ligion, and which are every day renewed by the enforcement of the 

 late Tithe Act. We should, however, grossly deceive ourselves, if 

 we imagined that even the entire destruction of the church, or any 

 other specific measure, would do much for the immediate removal of 

 those evils which affect Ireland : it is a truth which ought never to be 

 lost sight of, that the peace arid prosperity of that country can only 

 be restored by many years of good government, and by the physical, 

 moral, and intellectual improvement of the great body of the people. 

 It cannot, we think, be justly denied, that the question of church 

 reform is surrounded with many difficulties, and that the complicated 

 interests of property and patronage, connected with it, must tend 

 considerably to embarrass the proceedings of any government which 

 is sincerely desirous to carry into effect those ecclesiastical changes 

 which are indispensably necessary before the people of Ireland can 

 tolerate, far less support and respect, the established church. No great 

 changes can take place in a state without being productive of great 

 individual injury and suffering, and therefore while those who un- 

 dertake the reformation of the church ought tenderly to respect 

 private interests and vested rights, this must not be carried too far, 

 so as to interfere with those measures which are necessary for the 

 general welfare of the community. 



Appendix. 



Since the foregoing observations were penned we have witnessed the as- 

 sembling of the reformed parliament, and the development of the ministerial 

 measures for the future government of Ireland. The speech from the throne 

 was principally directed to the requisition of fresh powers of coercion, and 

 with a presentiment of the military measures which, have been since com- 

 menced. The remedial measures which ministers have proposed are, we 

 fear, of a character little suited to the spirit of the times, and little cal- 

 culated to heal the long ulcerated wounds of the Irish nation. The bill for 

 the reduction of the temporalities of the church is founded undoubtedly 

 upon a wise and liberal principle ; but being only prospective in its opera- 

 tion, dependant upon the lapse of years, and the demise of the present pos- 

 sessors of the enormously overpaid sees of the protestarit church, we fear 



.. ...... * This paper was in ty lie before Parliament met. ... ~ 



M. M. No. 87. 2 G 



