ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



19 



The most notable event in the year's history 

 of the Anglican Church was the enactment of 

 the law for the disestablishment and disendow- 

 ment of the Irish Church. The bill was intro- 

 duced by Mr. Gladstone on the 1st of March, 

 when it was read a first time. It passed a sec- 

 ond reading, after a long and excited debate, on 

 the 24th of the same month, by a vote of 368 to 

 250, showing a majority, in favor of the pas- 

 sage, of 118. The bill, which contained sixty 

 clauses, was entitled " A bill to put an end to 

 the establishment of the Church of Ireland, 

 and to make provision in respect to the tem- 

 poralities thereof, and in respect to the Royal 

 College of Maynooth." The disestablishment 

 was to be total, but was not to take place until 

 the first of January, 1870, when the ecclesias- 

 tical courts were to be abolished, the ecclesias- 

 tical laws to cease to have any authority, the 

 bishops to be no longer peers of Parliament, 

 and all ecclesiastical corporations in the coun- 

 try to be dissolved. The disendowment was 

 technically and legally to be total and immedi- 

 ate. Provision was made for winding up the ec- 

 clesiastical commission, and the constitution of 

 a new commission composed often members, in 

 which the whole property of the Irish Church 

 was to be vested from the day the measure 

 received the royal assent. A distinction was 

 made between public endowments (valued at 

 15,500,000) including every thing in the na- 

 ture of a state grant or revenue, which were 

 to be resumed by the state, and private en- 

 dowments (valued at 500,000), which were 

 defined as money contributed from private 

 sources since 1660, which were to be restored to 

 the disestablished church. Provision was made 

 for compensation to vested interests, including 

 those connected with Maynooth College, and 

 the Presbyterians, who were in receipt of the 

 regium donum. Among these interests, the 

 largest in the aggregate were those of incum- 

 bents, to each of whom was secured during 

 his life, provided he continued to discharge 

 the duties of his benefice, the amount to which 

 he was entitled, deducting the amount he might 

 have paid for curates ; or the interest might, 

 under certain circumstances, be commuted, 

 upon his application for a life-annuity. Other 

 personal interests provided for were those of 

 curates, permanent and temporary, and lay 

 compensations, including claims of parish 

 clerks and sextons. The amount of the May- 

 nooth grant and the regium donum was to be 

 valued at fourteen years' purchase, and a capi- 

 tal sum equal to it handed over to the respec- 

 tive representatives of the Presbyterians and 

 of the Roman Catholics. The aggregate of the 

 payments would amount to about 8,000,000, 

 leaving about 7,500,000, giving an annual in- 

 come of about 30,000 at the disposal of Parlia- 

 ment. This was to be appropriated "mainly to 

 the relief of unavoidable calamity and suffer- 

 ing," but in such a way as not to interfere 

 with the obligation imposed upon property by 

 the poor-laws. "When the affairs of the estab- 



lished Church shall have been wound up, the 

 commissioners were to report to the Queen 

 that the objects immediately contemplated by 

 the act have all been provided for, and to re'- 

 port the amount of surplus available for char- 

 itable purposes. The bill presumed that, im- 

 mediately after the disestablishment, the bish- 

 ops, clergy, and laity would proceed to con- 

 stitute something in the nature of a governing 

 body, which the Queen would be empowered, 

 not to create, but to recognize, to constitute 

 the disestablished Church, and come in pos- 

 session of the private endowments. 



The bill was introduced into the House of 

 Lords in almost the same shape in which it 

 was introduced in the Commons, and was 

 carried to a second reading, on the 19th of 

 June, by a majority of 33, in a House of 300 

 members, and about 30 pairs. Vigorous efforts 

 were afterward made to attack the principles 

 of the bill, and save something of the estab- 

 lishment in committee. Among other provi- 

 sions, the Lords sought to allot 3,000,000 to 

 the disestablished Church. Their amendments 

 were nearly all rejected, or remodelled in form 

 or expression. This treatment was received 

 with great indignation by the Lords, so that 

 the farther progress of the bill was stopped, 

 and its withdrawal was looked for. A com- 

 promise was effected, however, in Cabinet 

 council, by which the clergy who commute 

 their incomes are to be allowed 12 per cent, 

 over the value of ordinary lives, while the dis- 

 posal of the surplus of the public endowments, 

 instead of being left to the discretion of the 

 Government, was placed under the direct con- 

 trol of Parliament. With these amendments, 

 and a few unimportant alterations supported 

 by the Lords, the bill was adopted by both 

 Houses, with very little opposition, and re- 

 ceived the royal assent on the 26th of July. 



Among the amendments which were urged 

 in the House of Lords was a scheme of " con- 

 current endowment," proposing to give a par- 

 sonage-house and ten acres of land to each 

 clergyman in the Roman Catholic and Presby- 

 terian as well as in the Episcopal bodies. It 

 commanded a small but earnest majority in 

 the Lords, but was rejected in the Commons 

 without debate. 



The separation thus accomplished between 

 the Anglican Church in Ireland and the State 

 Government compelled the former to under- 

 take a reconstruction upon a voluntary basis. 

 The General Synod of the Irish Church, a 

 union of the two Provincial Synods of Dublin 

 and Armagh, met on September 14th, at Dub- 

 lin. It was the first Synod held in Ireland 

 since 1713. The Provincial Synod of Armagh 

 had met a few days previously, but that of 

 Dublin had to be formally constituted, prior to 

 the union of the two into one General Synod. 

 In the Upper House, the Primate (the Arch- 

 bishop of Armagh) presided ; the Lower 

 House elected the Rev. Dr. West, Dean of St. 

 Patrick's and Christ Church, its prolocutor. A 



