672 Noies ofthH Month on [Dkc. 



troversy on Irish Church affairs, with the Bishop of Perns ; which has 

 exhibited the chief points of the question in a strong light. His lay 

 lordship writes well, and is fully impressed with his own view of the 

 subject ; but he has had the misfortune to entangle himself in those 

 knotty details from which nothing can extricate a controversialist but 

 death. The bishop accordingly darts with great delight into all the 

 complicated tale of " Unions," separations of parishes, glebes, and other 

 technical stuff, in which the lay lord is naturally left at fault. But the 

 true questions are — What has the establishment done for Protestantism 

 in Ireland, during the last hundred years ? This question is to be 

 answered by Bishop Magee's declaration three years ago : " That the 

 Protestant reformation was but then beginning ;" the Protestant esta- 

 blishment having been in action for nearly three centuries before. 

 This extraordinary uselessness has not arisen from the nature of the 

 establishment, which is, perhaps, one of the noblest monuments of 

 human wisdom, and which has preserved Christianity in England 

 in the midst of the follies of contending sects, the violences of revolu- 

 tions, and the commercial and political corruptions of the multitude. 

 The fault is not in the bishops as such : but in the govei'nment which 

 most sacreligiously made the church patronage a tool, and crowded 

 its ranks with men who had no other qualification than a vote, or some 

 base parliamentary connexion. 



Dr. Yates, from an examination of the returns of the value of all 

 livings not exceeding 150/., made by the Archbishops to the King in 

 Council, about ten years ago, states that there are 3,589 parochial 

 benefices not exceeding 98/. a year : 4,809 without habitations fit for 

 the residence of incumbents ; more than 1,000 livings under 60/. a year ; 

 and 422 under 30/. 



Mr, Thackeray, in 1822, estimated, from documents, the whole eccle- 

 siastical revenue at 2,290,000/. He calculates two millions as the aggre- 

 gate income of ten thousand benefices, which would give each incumbent 

 but 200/. a year. 



It is to be observed, with respect to Dr. Yates's statement, that though 

 correct at tlie time, it is greatly above the value now ; almost the whole 

 of the benefices having fallen in income : some even so much as half 

 within these few years. Livings which were worth thirteen hundred 

 pounds a year, ten years ago, not being now worth six. 



The Church, in England, is poor, too poor for the due exercise of its 

 functions, or the fair remuneration for the common expences of educa- 

 tion. No man can enter the Church under an expense of at least one 

 thousand pounds, including his school and college expences ; yet he may 

 be a curate on 70/. a y ear for his life, and his living at last, can be little 

 more, on the average of the multitude. Some large livings there are, 

 and some large bishoprics, but the multitude must look only to the 

 average, and that is 200/. a year. There is no trade in England in 

 which a capital of 1,000/., will not produce, in the hands of a man of 

 common diligence, five times the amount after the first ten years. The 

 livings in Ireland are also but 200/. a year, on the average, with the 

 most extreme difficulty in the collection, and the chance of being shot at 

 one's own door. But the subject is too extensive for us now. Reform 

 is wanted, — but it is in the distribution of the patronage. Let the 

 government choose disinterested bishops, and they will make good 

 clergy. 



