THE IRISH DISESTABLISHED CHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 111, 12 June 1875, Page 11

THE IRISH DISESTABLISHED CHURCH.

There may be many of our readers who are not aware of the conditions upon .which the Disestablishment of the Irish Church was effected, and for the information of such persons we extract the following facts from a return recently presented to the Imperial Parliament upon the su,bject. When the Bill became law, and the voice of the country had proclaimed that the monstrous injustice towards the Irish people should be for ever swept away, provision was made wnereby the Irish Protestant bishops and other ecclesiastics were allowed to rate their life interests in their respective holdings ; that is to say, they were permitted to name a bulk sum as compensation for the loss of their future yearly stipends. This arrangement became applicable to all members of the Church, from the Archbishop of Aemagh down to the lowest curate. In carrying out tne process of commutation it is a somewhat notable fact from the very large demands put forth, either that the contemplated change greatly enhanced the value of the livings, or that their possessors were making provision for extreme longevity. During the existence of the State Church in Ireland, it was a generally supposed fact that its curates were anything but a well paid class ; statistics, however, bear out the fact that many of those gentlemen who were supposed to have been living on miserable pittances, appeared to be in possession of most respectable incomes, judging from their assessment of loss when asked to commute. It will be thus seen that the dignitaries and clergy of the Church of England, who were in possession at the passage of the Bill had but little cause for complaint, no portion of the burden falling upon their shoulders, but on the contrary, a very liberal provision being secured for the remainder of their day's. Under those circumstances, it is scarcely surprising to learn that being thus provided for, and the extent of their duties in manyinstances being now, as heretofore, absolutely none, numbers have left the scenes of their former "labors," there being no further need for their enforced residence. In noticing this exodus, an English organ says: "The bubble has burst, and the Establishment is down. Its clerical supporters have in crowds fled from the land, but not like the Israelites of old, for they have taken some little flesh- | pots with them to help them while passing through the desert of life." Many of those reverend gentlemen, for the support and maintenance of whom the unhappy peasantry were heavily taxed, were in the condition of Dean Swift, who, preaching one day in a church where the congregation was solely represented by his veneTable clerk, dropped the " brethren," and addressed it as "My dear Eogeb." The following statement of the remuneration granted to a few of the Episcopacy will be read with interest. The Archbishop of Armagh, who is also the Primate of Ireland, estimated the loss to his purse by the carriage of the measure to the extent of £90,000. Considering that the venerable prelate was eighty years of age when the claim was put forward, and his yearly stipend amounted to £11,000, it must be confessed that his Lordship seemed determined to make provision for, and enjoy, a good old age. In addition to that sum the clergy in his diocese have voted themselves half a million as compensation. His Lordship of Derby would appear to have secured the lion's share, no less a sum than £111,000 falling to his lot, while the clergy under his charge were apportioned £360,000. | Dr. Trench, Archbishop of Dublin, had to satisfied with £93,000, his subordinates having the sum of £500,000 distributed amongst them. His Lordship of Ttjam was cut down to £65,000, and quarter of a million for those within his jurisdiction ; the Bishop of Meath obtained £47,000,

and £250,000 for his clergy ; whilst the Bishop of Killaloe was allotted £45,000 ; and the Bishop of Limerick d850,4>00. These are but a few of the amounts set aside by the Crown as a solatium to the episcopacy and clergy of the Disestablished Church, and when it is remembered that the immense tracts of land bestowed upon its colleges and other institutions, which yield enormous annual revenues, still remained intact, the robbery and spoliation has not been exactly to the extent imagined by some. Indeed, taking a calm retrospect of the past, and bearing in mind the fact that the incident related with regard to Dean Swift could with truth be applied in numberless instances, it is a matter for wonder how such a monstrous injustice was allowed to exist, and millions be forced to support views held by an atom of the community. And it is also a matter of wonder tow a great people could be brought to sanction such a transparent trick for enriching the disestablished church at the expense of the nation. The English Church in. Ireland is now disestablished and disendowed, but fully two-thirds of its former possessions, the property of the Irish people, have by a turn of the thimble been jbestowed upon half a million of Protestants, to the exclusion of the remaining five millions of Irishmen.