68 Scandalous Traffic in Church Livings. 



by the bishops. This will not only stimulate 

 the protestant to a discharge of his religious 

 duties, but will remove from the divines of the 

 established church the reproach of attending to 

 nothing but their temporal concerns. The 

 commutation for their tithes will be assessed by 

 themselves, and much of the oppression, which 

 is at present exercised, by those to whom this 

 power is delegated, will be avoided. The placing 

 of the parochial clergy on a respectable footing, 

 and the requiring of their residence among their 

 parishioners, have given general satisfaction, and 

 reflect great credit on the minister, who was 

 the proposer of measures so fraught with ad- 

 vantages to the lower orders of the people. 



If common report is to be credited, the most 

 scandalous traffic in church preferment has 

 been carried on in this country, not less degrad- 

 ing to the church, and injurious to the cause of 

 religion, than it is derogatory to the assumed 

 pretensions of individuals of the Irish govern- 

 ment, from which it is to be lamented this 

 patronage was not wrested at the time of the 

 union. In England, the selection of fit persons 

 to fill the first situations in the church, and 

 execute the first offices of the law, has in few 

 instances been subjected to animadversion. It 

 would be a most happy circumstance for Ire- 



