384 Extortion of an Irish Proctor. 



forwardness. I am sensible that the cursory 

 information obtained by persons like ourselves, 

 passing hastily through a country, ought always 

 to be received with great caution ; and I would 

 willingly hope, that an account detailed by a 

 stranger, who joined us on the road, was much 

 exaggerated. He stated that in the neighbour- 

 hood of Newcastle, forty shillings for tithes had 

 been exacted for an acre of potatoes by a 

 proctor, who rented the tithes from the rector, 

 on very reasonable terms, which made the 

 hardship on the poor cottier so much the 

 greater. The blame of extortion is seldom 

 found with justice imputable to the clergy ; 

 the abuse is created by those who act under 

 their authority, whose greediness and want of 

 feeling for those whom they oppress know no 

 bounds. 



The less duty incumbent on the ministers of 

 the church of England, for promoting the 

 spiritual interests, the more scrupulous ought 

 those members be, to take care that the 

 temporal concerns of their parishioners do not 

 suffer by a delegation of their powers to unfit 

 persons. The Bishop of Elphin's remark, I 

 mean the late Dr. Law, is worthy of being re- 

 corded in the heart of every protestant clergy- 1 

 man. On observing, that as he had no chance 



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