Reports of 1821* it appears, that in 15 out of the 34 dioceses in Ireland, contributions were made of the sum of 451. bishops contributing on an average five pounds, and the incumbents 107. to each establishment! In nineteen dioceses the obligation of the statute appears to have been totally disregarded.

In 1823, one additional school was established, making the total number 16; and the income contributed to all the diocesan schools by the whole of the Irish Church was raised to 5007.! being 2001. less than the subscriptions of the city of London corporations to the single school of Derry! Such is the condition of these establishments, and such the performance of these duties by the richest and most idle clergy in Europe! The number of free scholars educated does not exceed nineteen! We are, however, bound to notice one exception to the preceding observations; we allude to the Bishop of Derry, whose subscription is equal to the contributions of any other ten of his brother prelates.

Another subject of still greater extent and importance must now be considered. So early as in the 28th year of the reign of Henry VIII., an act was passed in Ireland, providing for the establishment of parochial schools for teaching English. In this, as in the former case, the agency of the Church was relied on. The intentions of the legislature are explained in a quaint and curious preamble, reciting, "that nothing doth more conferre to the induction of rude and barbarous people, than a good instruction in God's holy laws, and a coincidence, conformitie, and familiaritie in language, tongue, manners, order, and apparel, with them that be civil people." This statute enacts, that every parent shall cause his children to be instructed in the English tongue, order, and condition. To provide the means for carrying this law into effect, it further directs, that every archbishop and bishop shall, at the time of admitting any person into holy orders, administer an oath that he will keep, or cause to be kept, within the place or paroch where he shall have rule, benefice, or promotion, a schoole for to learne Englische, if any of the children of his paroch come to him to learn the same, taking for the keeping of the said schoole such convenient stipend or salarie as in the said land is accustomelly used to be taken." In pursuance of this act, every clergyman now inducted into a living takes an oath in the words following :

"I do solemnly swear, that I will teach, or cause to be taught, an English school within the rectory or vicarage of- as the laws in that case requires. So help me God."

It will be found, that, notwithstanding this oath, the statute has not been generally observed, nor have the schools in many cases been kept. A commission having issued in 1788, the following was the result of the inquiry:†

In 1810, matters had considerably improved; and the Report of the last Commissioners gives us the following statement: ‡

Sessional Papers, 1821, No. 553.

Eleventh Report of Education Commissioners, p. 2, 3. Reprinted, 1813.

Pag: 9.

This report is incomplete; and it is to be regretted that the papers, presented to Parliament from the several bishops, in 1823, are not much more satisfactory. They exhibit,

With respect to the nature and extent of the contribution given, a custom is stated to have prevailed of paying 27. annually as a salary to the master; and whenever this small stipend, justly considered by the commissioners to be "utterly inadequate," is given, this is held to be a discharge of the duties imposed on the clergy by the Act of Henry VIII. In pecuniary contributions, this does not appear to have exceeded, in 1822, the sum of

12227.

The returns made in the Session of 1824 are most curious documents. Many more schools are, it is true, returned; but they are returned under peculiar, and rather unaccountable circumstances. In parishes where the existence of parochial schools have been negatived by the papers produced in the former year, flourishing schools are now stated to have existed, to which the incumbents regularly contribute. In some dioceses, credit seems to be taken for the number of parochial schools kept; in others, the necessity and obligation of keeping them is altogether disclaimed. The whole of the papers are as confused and unsatisfactory as if they were intended to impede rather than to satisfy inquiry. Still, even on the face of these returns, the imperfect manner in which the duties of education are discharged by the clergy is manifest, as will appear from the following abstract : ‡

Thus, in twelve dioceses, parochial schools are kept in 152 benefices out of 365; and in the remaining 213 cases, notwithstanding the public notice taken of this matter in 1788, in 1809, and during the three last years, no parish schools have been established, by an order of men sworn to maintain them!

It may possibly be thought, that this extraordinary disregard of a serious obligation arises from the utter inability of the parties concerned to perform * Papers on Schools, Session 1823. Fourteenth Report, p. 4.

+ Papers relating to Schools and Education, Session 1824

their duty; and, to be sure, extreme poverty would go far to account for this neglect, though it could not justify it. This excuse, however, will scarcely be pleaded by the Irish Church, poverty not being one of the vows which it has taken. The average incomes of the clergy of the dioceses last named, who have lately obtained help for building glebe-houses from the Board of First Fruits, exceeds 3007.* In the diocese of Ossory the average is 4457., and in Cloyne above 8007. As we may hope that the funds of the Board of First Fruits are not portioned out among the most opulent of the clergy, the general average of clerical income must considerably exceed these sums. But it is plain, that the least of these incomes would be fully adequate to afford the means of keeping a school, according to the spirit and meaning of the statute and of the oath.

Our readers will naturally ask, how the clergy excuse themselves from the charge thus brought and proved against them: and the apologies are most curious. They are tissues of sophisms and inconsistencies. One of the prelates, in a discourse delivered before the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, † stigmatizes the statute of Henry VIII. as "impracticable and oppressive." Another suggests that as mention is made in the statute of "telling the beads," the whole of the enactment may now be disregarded. A third suggestion is, that as the oath administered is not in the precise words of the statute, it cannot be considered as binding. A fourth interpretation, made by one who had himself both taken and administered the oath, is, that the whole may be rejected as obsolete and in desuetude. And a fifth explanation makes a demand from the poor for instruction, a condition precedent to the establishment of any school! We cannot but consider this as miserable special pleading, unworthy of the persons by whom it is used, and the duties to which it refers. Independently of the obligation of the oath, and the force of the law, we very earnestly recommend it to the Irish clergy, as an act of policy and prudence, to bind themselves as closely as possible to their country by the decent discharge of their moral and civil duties. If the unfortunate religious divisions of Ireland limit their sphere of exertion as ecclesiastics, let them employ their abilities, and prove their usefulness, by improving the condition and promoting the education of their parishioners. The obligation thus conferred will give real security to the Irish Church. It will raise its character and add to its stability more than all the pamphlets and speeches written and delivered during the last century. Let the clergy imitate the conduct of some of its own body; for even in these papers, otherwise so unsatisfactory, evidence is contained of individual exertion, benevolence, and liberality, deserving every commendation.

The real causes of the neglect we have described is a participation in the offence by those who should have controlled the offenders. How could a bishop, himself negligent of the diocesan school, condemn his clergy for not establishing schools in their respective parishes. Quis tulerit Gracchos de seditione querentes?

This question of the contribution of the clergy is one of so much importance, that we trust we shall be excused in tracing it back to its origin. It appears to us to have existed long prior to the Act of Henry VIII. In the more ancient days of the church, it is admitted that ecclesiastical property was far from being considered as vested absolutely in the clergy. On * Papers respecting First Fruit Fund, Session 1824. Serinon by the Bishop of Clonfert, Dublin, 1807.

the contrary, the fourfold division of tithes is distinctly recognized, and the fourfold appropriation, to the bishop, the parish minister, the repairs of the church, and the purposes of charity and benevolence. The quarta pars Episcopalis existed throughout the entire province of Connaught till the government of Lord Stafford. In the diocese of Tuam, a most extraordinary deception, amounting to positive swindling, having been practised by the archbishops, the commutation of the quarta pars took place in the last century only; and by the Bishop of Clonfert the quarta pars is continued to be received to the present day. The history of these proceedings, as detailed by the historian Ware, is most curious: greater subtlety and selfishness were never displayed than by the successful efforts made by the Archbishop to obtain payment twice over for the same property. The fourth part originally intended for works of charity was soon swallowed up by the church itself. In England the poor laws have supplied its place; but in Ireland, no equivalent has been provided. The repairs of churches again have been thrown on the parishes; and the bishoprics being endowed with immense estates, the whole of the tithes fell into the possession of the clergy.

Further, and upon a separate ground, if we consider the early decrees and canons, the duty and the charge of Education will be found to have been imposed on the church. By a degree of the Council of Lateran, it was ordained that a benefice should be provided in every cathedral for the support of a teacher, whose duty should be to instruct the clerks and other poor gratis.” At a further general council, provision was in like manner made for a lecturer in divinity, when the church was a cathedral, and in other cases a schoolmaster was directed to be provided, empowered to collect a stipend from the rich, but bound to the gratuitous "instruction of the clerks and other poor persons." The Council of Trent enforced the same principle (Sessio v. c. 1. tit. de Institut. Sac. Scrip. et liberalium artium), and where a sufficient maintenance for teachers in cathedrals could not be procured by the gift of a prebend, still the Bishop had a power of laying his clergy under contribution. Even in the poorer parishes a schoolmaster was ordered to be provided, lest that necessary work of piety should be neglected." That such arrangements were made in England and Ireland, as well as on the Continent, is well known to those who have looked into ecclesiastical history and law. The schools which still subsist in conjunction with our cathedrals and chapters are evidence of the fact. Swift alludes to a school attached to the chapter of St. Patrick; and we believe that the foundation is still supported. After Henry VIII. had remodelled the Irish Church, the principles of the existing ecclesiastical law seem to have been embodied in the Acts of Parliament referred to. The cathedral lectureships reappear in the shape of the diocesan classical schools, and the more popular rural establishments are continued in the parish schools.

66

We have gone into this detail, because upon this point we consider the late Report as most unsatisfactory and inconclusive, and because we trust that we have shown, even to those who maintain, with the greatest strictness, the inviolability of all church property, that the incomes of the Irish clergy are held subject to the duty of educating the people; and that Parliament may enforce a liberal and efficient performance of this duty, without entitling any party to raise the cry of spoliation, so often and so injudiciously applied. Suggestions to this effect have repeatedly been given, and by individuals whom the clergy have no right to consider as their enemics. In

the 14th Report of the Commissioners of Education, it is stated by Archbishops and Bishops, "that it would be highly expedient that the contributions of the clergy should be paid with greater regularity, and to a greater extent than usual. It might not be unreasonable that they should be rated at a sum not exceeding 24 per cent. of their respective incomes." We perhaps might think it not very unreasonable to carry this contribution considerably further. In 1811, Mr. Wellesley Pole, the chief secretary for Ireland, stated, † “that he had no hesitation in saying, that he would look to the oath of the Protestant clergyman, and see whether they ought not, to a certain degree, to bear the expense of the establishment.” From that time to the present, however, no step has been taken to carry these recommendations into effect; and it is singular that these parochial schools, the subject of so inuch animadversion, were specially exempted from the control of the Board of Education of 1813. It is also worthy of observation, and particularly at the present time, that the commissioners then appointed were some of the ecclesiastical authorities, whose conduct had sanctioned, if it had not produced, the evils complained of.

With respect to the property of the Bishops, we are inclined to think that their incomes might equally bear a regulated contribution for the diocesan schools. During the last session, one of their own body averaged their incomes at 50007.; but as that learned and most respectable prelate spoke from conjecture, we may venture to form another estimate. In the latest returns made to Parliament, the See of Armagh is stated to be possessed of 51,880 acres of arable and pasture land; that of Derry, of 41,804 acres : Tuam, of 31,375; Cork, of 24,417; Elphin, of 22,776; and Dublin, of 18,058. We are aware of one renewal fine received by a bishop in Ireland of 50,0007. for a single lease! a sum equal to the present contribution of the whole Irish Church towards the diocesan schools,-if continued for an entire century! computing the 1125 benefices in Ireland at only 3007. each, a sum, we are convinced, very greatly below their actual receipts: and if, on similar principles, an average of 60007. is taken for twenty-two bishoprics, it will be found that the annual revenue of this Church far exceeds, on the lowest estimate, half a million annually. The original quarta pars payable by the parochial clergy would, upon these incomes, have exceeded 90,0007. But without reverting to so ancient a principle, a contribution of ten per cent. would, on the entire sum, produce 50,0007. applicable to the purposes of Education.

Nor let this be considered an extravagant or unreasonable proposition. It should be remembered that, since the Union, there has been added to the real estates of the church 171,7437.; and to the ecclesiastical personal property 637,2967.,-and all this paid out of the taxes of the country.** Wo are not sure that John Bull is exactly aware of these facts; he never dreams that the tax laid on his porter and ale is partly appropriated to giving additional wealth to a church whose emoluments are better husbanded than its duties are performed. We doubt the popularity of this Holy Alliance between Mcux's entire and the Sees of Armagh and Derry; and are inclined to think, that the people of Great Britain would accept a reduction of the assessed taxes, even though Irish deans and chapters were obliged to repair • Fourteenth Report, p. 3, Appendix C.

Parliamentary Debates, vol. xx. p. 150.

Speech of the Earl of Limerick on the Tithe Bill.

§ Trish Church Sessional Papers, 1824

**Acts relating to Church Sessional Papers, 1823, No. 125.