been manufactured by twelve Episcopalians, who met for that purpose in the Savoy, and who, having kicked the twelve Presbyters out of the room, created our episcopalian religion, which was confirmed by the clergy on the 20th of December, 1661, and by a Parliament in March, 1662, constituting what is called the religion by Law established.

4th. The amount of the produce of tythes originally, when our population did not amount to one tenth of the present number, and of which only one fourth was appropriated to the maintenance of the parish priests, the parishes being then, as at present, 9991 in number.

1

5th. The annual value now claimed as rightfully belonging to the 9991 parish priests amounting, as appears by a recent publication issued under the sanction of the Bishop of Lincoln, if in money, to £27,352,835 per year, or if in land to 3333 acres out of every 1000 acres of freehold, besides glebes and other church endowments.

6th. That by a table inserted in that work from authentic returns made from EVERY COUNTY IN ENGLAND, it is manifest the farmers cannot afford to pay above one fifth of their produce in RENT; if therefore the clergy be entitled to one tenth of the whole produce, they are demonstrably entitled to half the rental of all England; if the farmers raise four rents, the tythes are eight shillings in the pound on the rental; if they only raise three rents, the tythes are six shillings in the pound.

7th. That this claim, thus monstrous, when clearly defined, varies in payment, not only in every County, but almost in every parish in England; for instance, taking the returns of two counties: Lord De Dunstanville says in Cornwall the rent of 100 acres is £150, Produce £779, Tythes, £15, whilst Col. Leatham for Yorkshire, says, the rent of 100 acres is £150, produce £718, tythes £66.

8th That a legislature must be composed of maniacs who could believe it

possible, that agriculture could permanently flourish in any country, subject to a tax varying from two to sixteen shillings in the pound upon the rent of land, and where the ratio increases exactly as capital and industry are employed.

9th. That the clergy having contrived to get rid of the building of churches, of the maintenance of the Poor, of paying the expenses of Bishops and Church Government out of the tythes, and having also kept their number stationary as the parishes into which the kingdom was divided

whilst the population has increased tenfold, are now actually in the receipt of forty times their original proportion, inasmuch as the 9991 parsons claim the WHOLE TYTHE of a produce which is grown for the support of 10 millions of people, when originally they were entitled only to one fourth of that which supported one million.

10th. That a rival capital has also sprung up, exceeding in amount the whole value of all the Lands in England, manufactured out of paper, by a scheme which Mr. Pitt denominated a gigantic system of swindling, and which yields an interest, without any beneficial application, either to Agriculture or Commerce, far beyond that of Landed Property. 11th. That whilst the Farmers of a rental of £25,000,000 in land are charged with £8,000,000 of Poor-rates, which ought to have been defrayed out of the produce of the Tythes, originally appropriated to that object, the income of £40,000,000 of Funded Property is exonerated from all charge in aid of the Poor.

12th. That therefore, for the permanent interest of Agriculture, it was evidently necessary, a public national investigation of the state of the tythes should take place.

The Publication was given at the time to one of the Representatives of my native County, with a request that it should be handed to the prime Minis

ter.

I received a flattering answer, with regard to the ability with which the subject was treated, and was informed that Lord Liverpool had placed the pamphlet in the hands of a Gentleman more conversant with the subject, to report upon; in whose care, I presume, it died a natural death.

It is true, at that time, I had not devoted much leisure to an inquiry into the interior construction of the House of Commons; I had indulged in a theoretic calculation of the independence, power, and influence of the Landed Interest, as it was termed, in that House; and I had concluded that it was only necessary to shew the real state of the temporalities belonging to the Church, and its operation upon Agriculture, to obtain investigation, as a prelude to the correction of the system. Vain hope!-not a single Member could be found to bring the question forward.

Thus disappointed, I remained without hope of exciting the attention of Parliament, until the complaints of the incapacity of the Farmers to pay their rents, induced the House last year to go into a Committee of inquiry as to

the causes, when I applied to my County Member for an introduction 10 Mr. Gooch, the Chairman, that I might be allowed to tender my evidence upon this important subject.

To this application it was replied, that it was no favor to be examined before the Committee; that I had only to send my name to the Chairman, and state my wishes.

Accordingly I wrote to the Chairman, and stated my anxious wish to tender my evidence, remarking at the same time, that it would be principally confined to the operation of the funded debt; the baneful system of a paper currency not convertible into bullion; the existing system of tythes, and the mode of providing for the Poor; but the honourable Chairman had not the good manners even to answer my letter.

It may be said, having failed in prevailing upon Parliament to entertain the question upon English Tythes, what possible hope could be indulged that it would go into the consideration of Tythes in Ireland? to this I answer, that I was prevailed upon by the flattering assurance that I received, that at length a Member presented himself, who expressed the greatest anxiety to become qualified to bring the subject fully before the House. I now proceed to the developement of the state of the present Protestant Church of Ireland.

Ireland contains 11,943,100 acres of land, equal to 18,767,338 English acres, of which 909,090 acres pay nothing to the Church; 4,321,110 pay probably from endowments about one third of their tythes, and the remaining 13,537,136 are liable to pay full tythes.

It is divided in 22 Dioceses, which are appended to these preliminary remarks, in which every Incumbent throughout the kingdom is arranged in alphabetical order, for the convenience of more readily ascertaining the extent of Patronage, by a reference to family names, such as Beresford, Knox, Foster, &c. &c.

In the Parliamentary Returns from which these schedules have been carefully compiled, it will be found, that no less than 808 benefices out of 1270 have been sent without any quantities being specified, and indeed but one Diocese, out of twenty-two, contains the number of acres included in each benefice.

In this Diocese, of Elphin, the number of parishes is 91, which have been compressed into 37 benefices, or livings; of the 37 Incumbents who ought to reside, 19 are resident, and 18 absent.

The Bishop observes, that the returns of the quantity of land in each living

have been made from the Church applotment, without any of the bog or mountain land belonging to the same: from which it appears that these 37 livings contain 266,928 acres of tythable land, valued by Mr. Wakefield at the rate of 35 shillings per acre, or about 22 shillings per English acre to rent.

If the Farmer of this Diocese raise five times the amount of rent in produce, the whole tythes would amount to 233,5621. or 6,3121. for each living. four times the produce, 186,8491. or 5,0501. for each living. If only three times the rent be grown, 140,1371. or 3,7871. for each living.

The County of Roscommon, in which the Diocese is situate, contains 346,650 acres, and in 1792 the Protestant population was 215 families of 1075 persons; the Catholics 16,985 families of 84,925 persons; the Protestants in 1766 were 1,300 families of 6,500 persons; the Catholics 13,268 families of 66,340 persons.

Now then let us pause a moment on the threshold, whilst we contemplate this single column, in the stupendous National Fabric of the Irish Protestant Church.

Here we have a county of 346,650 acres of land, yielding a population of 86,000 persons, of which 266,928 acres are tythable; containing a population of 166 Protestant families only, reckoning 5 to a family, and the value of the tythes of which amount to 233,5621. per year, independent of glebe lands and houses, if the lands yield five rents in produce; which sum is at the incredible ratio of one thousand four hundred and seven pounds per year for administering Church of England rites to every individual Protestant family in the whole Diocese: but it may be said the tythes are not exacted to the utmost value in every instance, and therefore this account is overstated, let us then put it in another shape :

The Bishop says the tythes of 266,928 acres of cultivated land are appropriated for the Protestant rites of 166 families; this therefore gives the tenth of the produce of 1,608 acres of land for each family; and is there an acre of the fruitful level corn county of Roscommon, that yields less than six pounds produce per English acre? for it must be observed, that the 1,608 acres are Irish measure, and equal to 2,604 English acres. the whole produce of 260 English acres of the best corn land, being appropriated for reading our church service once in a week to ONE individual family; or which amounts to the same thing, the whole produce of the 2,604 English. acres, for religious rites to every 10 Protestant families! Lest this view

Think, then, of

also of the subject should not be intelligible, let us place it in another light in the debate on the 15th of May, 1818, Lord Liverpool, after a very elabo rate speech, came to a conclusion that Protestant Churches should be constructed to hold about one fourth of the population, after deducting children, old people, and those entrusted to take charge of the house, hence his Lordship thought, that a church to hold 1000 persons, would be all that was necessary in a population of 4000 Protestants.

The whole Diocese of Elphin, therefore, might be accommodated in one fifth part of a single church, as to numbers, for which service one tenth of the produce of 266,928 acres of land is annually paid, or the whole produce of 26,692 Irish acres, equal to 43,154 English acres, and which, reckoning only 3 quarters of Wheat to the acre, at the present price of 50 shillings per quarter, amounts to 323,6551. a year, for church service performed to one fifth part of an English congregation.

It is not for me to inquire into the justice or the policy of appropriating one tenth of the produce of such a county to such a purpose; for justice and policy, like religion and law, are of late become too sublime for ordinary writers; but facts may perhaps be allowed to have some weight, and if the object be to promote Protestantism by these means, then will it be confessed that the means have nearly attained its extirpation.

In the year 1766, in this diocese, the Protestants were 6,500 persons, and the Catholics 66,340, being about ten times the number of Protestants; in the year 1792 the Protestants were only 1075, whilst the Catholics had increased to 84,925, nearly eighty times the number!! It is a known and published fact, that the sum apportioned for administering Protestant rites to 166 families in this diocese, exceeds in amount the sums paid either in Russia, Austria or France for church service for 5,000,000 of Christians; being the whole population of Ireland; and in short, that the value of the tenth of the produce of the County of Roscommon alone, would amply pay the working Clergy for the whole Kingdom of Ireland, botli Catholic and Protestant.

Let it not be said that I have singled out one diocese for the purpose of bringing its monstrous features into notice; the inspection of the other dioceses will at once confute such an assertion; I have taken Elphin because it is the ONLY ONE which the Bishops have returned COMPLETE; and I have confined myself to general calculations, because I would not be thought to cast partial reflections upon any particular diocese. The observations upon