696 



HUITAIN. 



1816, declared a victory of the rich ovrr the poor; 

 tlie consequences of which were now developed. Ry 

 this victory, all personal estate, the revenue from 

 capital and from the colonial possessions were ex- 

 empted from taxation ; in consequence of which, the 

 burden fell almost entirely upon the working class, 

 and on the consumption of the necessaries of life. 

 The assertions of the opposition, that the distress of 

 the country was the consequence of the excessive 

 taxes, were indeed not without foundation; but all 

 the possible means of saving, particularly the abolition 

 of sinecures, including clerical ones, could have af- 

 forded no real remedy, which was to be looked for in 

 a more equal division of taxes, a measure as disa- 

 greeable to the opposition as to the ministerial party. 

 No one even dared to propose the obvious measure, 

 of the reduction of rents, in proportion to the rise in 

 value of the paper, consequent upon the resumption 

 of specie payments by the bank. This increase in 

 value amounted to 15 per cent. : and the rents should 

 have been reduced in proportion. Some proprietors, 

 indeed, did reduce the rents of their tenantry 10, 15, 

 and even 30 per cent ; but we cannot say what pro- 

 portion they bore to those who did not. The landed 

 aristocracy sought to throw the loss upon the other 

 great division of the people, the manufacturers, by 

 keeping up the price of corn, through the means of 

 prohibitory duties upon the import of foreign com. 



A source of relief, to which some persons looked, 

 was the reduction of the income of the clergy, which 

 in England must be regarded as excessive, in Ireland 

 as a useless burden upon the people. In England, 

 the revenue of the Episcopal church is too great, 

 compared with the number of the people, and its dis- 

 tribution, likewise, is very unequal and unjust. The 

 whole amount has been reckoned at 7,600,000. 

 (Cove on the Revenues of t fie Church of England, with 

 an Inquiry into the Necessity, Justice, end Policy of an 

 Abolition or Commutation of Tithes (3d edit., London, 

 1823) ; and Remarks on the Consumption of Public 

 Wealth by the Clergy of every Christian Nation, etc. 

 London, 1823.) See, also, the article Ecclesiastical 

 Establishments.) This income is divided among 2 

 archbishops, 25 bishops, and 10,500 other clergymen ; 

 among whom are 5098 rectors, and 3C87 vicars. 

 Many of the appointments in the church do not require 

 the performance of actual service, but are held, as the 

 French abbeys were formerly, as pensions and sine- 

 cures. The number of the churches amounts to 

 10,192 ; the number of the families belonging to the 

 clergy, to 16 18,000. The clergy doing actual ser- 

 vice are miserably paid. In 1814, there were 1657, 

 among 4406, whose salaries did not amount to 60 

 each. All that is paid to the parish priests, of the 

 7,600,000 belonging to the Episcopal church, is 

 aljout 500,000, or one fifteenth of the whole revenue ; 

 and they have been, therefore, chiefly supported by 

 the voluntary contributions of their parishioners ; so 

 tliat the members of the richest church in the world 

 are compelled to live upon the bounty of others. The 

 good of the people, and of the lower clergy, would be 

 greatly promoted by a diminution of the total amount 

 of the church revenue, and a more equal division of 

 the reduced amount. The tithes should be abolished. 

 Then, if the smallest country parish had attached to 

 it a salary of -250, a deanery one of 1000, a bishop- 

 ric one of 3000, an archbishopric one of 8000, a 

 little over 2,000,000 would be required ; and thus 

 5,000,000 would be saved yearly. In Ireland, the 

 case is still worse. In that country, there are 4 Pro- 

 testant- archbishops, 22 bishops, and a multitude of 

 richly-endowed deaneries, rectories, &c. All these 

 are merely sinecures; as, among 7,000,000 people, 

 there are hardly 400,000 who belong to the church 

 of England. Nevertheless, this body of ecclesiastics 



receive an income of 1,300,000, while they do 

 nothing for church or state; and the people of this 

 country, who live in great poverty, arc obliged, be- 

 sides paying the above amount, to maintain their own 

 Catholic clergy, which they do with strict honour.. 

 This revenue of the useless Protestant clergy might 

 afford the means of great improvements in the condi- 

 tion of the indigent Irish, if the aristocracy of the 

 landed proprietors had not monopolized it. They 

 consider these places as their own property ; as pro- 

 visions for their younger sons ; and the bishops, arch- 

 bishops, and deans, are almost all brotliers ami cousins 

 of the nobility. 



Great Britain was neutral during the French inva- 

 sion of Spain, in 1823; allowed her subjects to :.iil 

 the cause of Greece, and acknowledged the Greek 

 insurgents' right of blockade. She concluded a treaty 

 of trade and alliance with the new American repub- 

 lics, which she formally acknowledged in 1825. A 

 bill for the removal of the Catholic disabilities was 

 brought forward in this session, and passed the house 

 of commons, but was lost in the house of lords ; and 

 the disorders in Ireland continued. Early in the au- 

 tumn of this year, the king prohibited any of his sub- 

 jects from taking part in the war between Greece and 

 Turkey, by fitting out ships, or exporting munitions 

 of war for the assistance of Greece. 



In 1825 and 1826, great commercial difficulties 

 took place, in consequence of a mania for speculation 

 in foreign loans, and in costly undertakings, con- 

 ducted by joint stock companies, together with an 

 overloading of foreign markets with British manufac- 

 tures. Numerous bankruptcies took place, and credit 

 experienced a great shock. The distress soon sub- 

 sided in London, but in the country its effects were 

 longer felt, and fell upon persons less able to bear 

 loss. Numerous private bankers, many with little or 

 no capital, had engrossed the circulation of their re- 

 spective districts, and bank after bank became insol- 

 vent, involving the labouring classes in their ruin. 

 Thus the entire currency of the country was deranged. 

 The misery was so general, as to call for the imme- 

 diate aid of the government. Bullion happened to be 

 lower than the mint price, and the. officers of the mint 

 were ordered to coin sovereigns with all possible des- 

 patch. They were coined at the rate of 100,000 a 

 day, and for one week at the rate of 150,000, and 

 sent off in every direction. Besides this, however, the 

 bank of England was obliged to make temporary is- 

 sues of one and two pound notes ; and thus the pro- 

 gress of the evil was averted. Ministers availed 

 themselves of this opportunity to mitigate the strict- 

 ness of the corn laws, and to protect the manufactur- 

 ers against the monopoly of the great landed proprie- 

 tors. 



Great Britain reconciled Portugal with Brazil, and 

 supported the cause of the constitution and regency 

 of the former power, her ancient ally, by sending 

 troops to her assistance, at the close of 1826, and pre- 

 vented Spain from forcibly interfering in her affairs. 

 Canning himself had previously been in Paris, to take 

 measures with the French cabinet for the peace of the 

 Peninsula ; and the three great powers, Austria, 

 Russia, and Prussia, left to the British and French 

 cabinets the conduct of this business. At the same 

 time, Britain united with Russia (April 4, 1826), at 

 St Petersburg, to induce, and, if necessary, to compel, 

 the Porte to Discontinue hostilities against the Greeks. 

 January 5, 1827, the duke of York died, in the 64th 

 year of his age. February 17, lord Liverpool, the 

 prime minister, was taken alarmingly ill. The bill 

 for the emancipation of the Catholics wa* brought for- 

 ward in March, and, on the 7th instant, was lost in 

 the house of commons, the vote being 272 for, and 

 276 against it. April 1 3, Mr Canning was announced 



