DISESTABLISHMENT AND DISENDOWMENT 237 



composed may have life-interests; and the case of the 

 Irish Church should be a warning to us to look far enough 

 ahead, and prepare for the inevitable change so much in 

 advance of any immediate political necessity for it that we 

 may allow all individual vested interests to expire naturally, 

 and so have no need to make special compensation for 

 them. In Ireland every kind of vested interest was 

 brought forward, and it was even claimed that, as every 

 clergyman had a chance of obtaining a better living, or 

 of becoming a bishop, he should be compensated ac- 

 cordingly ; and that every member of the Church had 

 an actual vested interest in its maintenance during his 

 life. It was because all legislation had been put off till it 

 could no longer be delayed, that these interests had to be 

 considered, and the result was, that a sectarian Church 

 was permanently endowed with a large amount of national 

 property. But any such necessity of compensation for 

 vested interests of individuals may be obviated by a little 

 foresight, and by legislating sufficiently early to allow 

 everyone to retain his rights and privileges in the Church 

 during his lifetime. All individual vested rights would 

 thus be satisfied, and it is probable that they would not 

 interfere with the complete establishment of a new system 

 at a comparatively early period, because a transition state 

 is always an unsatisfactory and an unpleasant one, and 

 long before half the individual lives had expired, and 

 perhaps in the course of a very few years, the change 

 might be voluntarily effected. 



While legislation was proceeding in the case of the 

 Irish Church, it was made sufficiently clear that it is 

 almost impossible suddenly to abolish any such great 

 national institution, and to find any suitable mode of 

 applying the surplus property without grievous waste, or 

 so as to be really beneficial to the community ; and it was 

 almost felt to be a means of getting out of a difficulty that 

 every shadow of a vested interest should be fully compen- 

 sated, and the inconveniently large amount to be disposed 

 of reduced to manageable proportions. I believe, however, 

 that in the case of England no such difficulty exists, and 

 that the whole of the Church revenues may be applied in 



