ON THE BILL

FOR THE CLERGY RESIDING ON THEIR LIVINGS.

THOSE gentlemen who have been promoted to bishoprics in this kingdom for several years past are of two sorts: first, certain private clergymen from England, who, by the force of friends, industry, solicitation, or other means and merits to me unknown, have been raised to that character by the mero motu of the crown.

Of the other sort are some clergymen born in this kingdom, who have most distinguished themselves by their warmth against popery, their great indulgence to dissenters and all true loyal Protestants; by their zeal for the house of Hanover, abhorrence of the pretender, and an implicit readiness to fall into any measures that will make the government easy to those who represent his majesty's person.

Some of the former kind are such as are said to have enjoyed tolerable preferments in England; and it is therefore much to their commendation, that they have condescended to leave their native country, and come over hither to be bishops, merely to promote Christianity among us; and therefore, in my opinion, both their lordships and the many defenders they bring over may justly claim the merit of missionaries sent to convert a nation from heresy and heathenism.

Before I proceed further it may be proper to relate some particulars wherein the circumstances of the English clergy differ from those of Ireland.

The districts of parishes throughout England continue much the same as they were before the Reformation; and most of the churches are of the gothic architecture, built some hundred years ago; but the tithes of great numbers of churches having been applied by the pope's pretended authority to several abbeys, and even before the Reformation bestowed by that sacrilegious tyrant Henry VIII. on his ravenous favorites, the maintenance of an incumbent in most parts of the kingdom is contemptibly small: and yet a vicar there of 407. a-year can live with more comfort than one of three times the nominal value with us. For his 407. are duly paid him, because there is not one farmer in a hundred who is not worth five times the rent he pays to his landlord, and fifty times the sum demanded

purchasers of debentures forfeited in 1641 were all of English birth, but those after the Restoration, and many who came hither even since the Revolution, are looked upon as perfect Irish; directly contrary to the practice of all wise nations, and particularly of the Greeks and Romans, in establishing their colonies, by which name Ireland is very absurdly called.

Under these distractions the conquerors always seized what lands they could with little ceremony, whether they belonged to the church or not thus the glebes were almost universally exposed to the first seizers, and could never be recovered, although the grants, with the particular denominations, are manifest and still in being. The whole lands of the see of Waterford were wholly taken by one family; the like is reported of other bishoprics.

King James I., who deserves more of the church of Ireland than all other princes put together, having the forfeitures of vast tracts of land in the northern parts, (I think commonly called the escheated counties,) having granted some hundred thousand acres of these lands to certain Scotch and English favorites, was prevailed on by some great prelates to grant to some sees in the north, and to many parishes there, certain parcels of land for the augmentation of poor bishoprics, did likewise endow many parishes with glebes for the incumbents, whereof a good number escaped the depredations of 1641 and 1688. These lands, when they were granted by king James, consisted mostly of woody ground, wherewith those parts of this island were then overrun. This is well known, universally allowed, and by some in part remembered; the rest being, in some places, not stubbed out to this day. And the value of the lands was consequently very inconsiderable till Scotch colonies came over in swarms upon great encouragement to make them habitable, at least for such a race of strong-bodied people, who came hither from their own bleak barren highlands, as it were into a paradise; who soon were able to get straw for their bedding, instead of a bundle of heath spread on the ground and sprinkled with water. Here by degrees they acquired some degree of politeness and civility from such neighboring Irish as were still left after Tyrone's last rebellion, and are since grown almost entire possessors of the north. Thus, at length, the woods being rooted up, the land was brought in and tilled, and the glebes, which could not before yield two-pence an acre, are equal to the best, sometimes affording the minister a good demesne, and some land to let.

These wars and desolations in their natural consequences were

likewise the cause of another effect, I mean that of uniting several parishes under one incumbent. For, as the lands were of little value by the want of inhabitants to cultivate them, and many of the churches levelled to the ground, particularly by the fanatic zeal of those rebellious saints who murdered their king, destroyed the church, and overthrew monarchy; (for all which there is a humiliation-day appointed by law, and soon approaching;) so, in order to give a tolerable maintenance to a minister, and the country being too poor, as well as devotion too low, to think of building new churches, it was found necessary to repair some one church which had least suffered, and join sometimes three or more, enough for a bare support to some clergyman who knew not where to provide himself better. This was a case of absolute necessity, to prevent heathenism, as well as popery, from overrunning the nation. The consequence of these unions was very different in different parts; for, in the north, by the Scotch settlement, their numbers daily increasing by new additions from their own country, and their prolific quality peculiar to northern people; and, lastly, by their universally feeding upon oats, (which grain, under its several preparations and denominations, is the only natural luxury of that hardy people,) the value of tithes increased so prodigiously, that at this day, I confess, several united parishes ought to be divided, taking in so great a compass that it is almost impossible for the people to travel timely to their own parish church, or their little churches to contain half their number, though the revenue would be sufficient to maintain two, or perhaps three, worthy clergymen with decency; provided the times mend, or that they were honestly dealt with, which I confess is seldom the case. I shall name only one, and it is the deanery of Derry; the revenue whereof, if the dean could get his dues, exceeding that of some bishoprics, both by the compass and fertility of the soil, the number as well as industry of the inhabitants, the conveniency of exporting their corn to Dublin and foreign parts; and, lastly, by the accidental discovery of marl in many places of the several parishes. Yet all this revenue is wholly founded upon corn, for I am told there is hardly an acre of glebe for the dean to plant and build on.

I am therefore of opinion that a real undefalcated revenue of 6007. a-year is a sufficient income for a country dean in this kingdom; and since the rents consist wholly of tithes, two parishes, to the amount of that value, should be united, and the dean reside as minister in that of Down, and the remaining parishes be divided.

among worthy clergymen to about 3007. a-year to each. The deanery of Derry, which is a large city, might be left worth 8007. a-year, and Raphoe according as it shall be thought proper. These three are the only opulent deaneries in the whole kingdom, and, as I am informed, consist all of tithes, which was an unhappy expedient in the church, occasioned by the sacrilegious robberies during the several times of confusion and war; insomuch that at this day there is hardly any remainder left of dean and chapter lands in Ireland, that delicious morsel swallowed so greedily in England under the fanatic usurpations.

As to the present scheme of a bill for obliging the clergy to residence, now or lately in the privy council, I know no more of the particulars than what has been told me by several clergymen of distinction, who say that a petition in the name of them all has been presented to the lord-lieutenant and council, that they might be heard by their council against the bill, and that the petition was rejected, with some reasons why it was rejected; for the bishops are supposed to know best what is proper for the clergy. It seems the bill consists of two parts: first, a power in the bishops, with consent of the archbishop and the patron, to take off from any parish whatever it is worth above 3007. a-year; and this to be done without the incumbent's consent, which before was necessary in all divisions. The other part of the bill obliges all clergymen, from 401. a-year and upwards, to reside and build a house in his parish. But those of 407. are remitted till they shall receive 1007. out of the revenue of first-fruits granted by her late majesty.

CONSIDERATIONS UPON TWO BILLS,

SENT DOWN FROM THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE HOUSE OF LORDS TO THE HONORABLE THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN IRELAND RELATING TO THE CLERGY.

Dublin, Feb. 23, 1731-2.

I HAVE often, for above a month past, desired some few clergymen who are pleased to visit me, that they would procure an extract of two BILLS brought into the council by some of the bishops, and both of them since passed in the house of lords: but I could never obtain what I desired, whether by the forgetfulness or negligence