"The second reflection is, that a proposal made to Rome by the Government, acting in concert with the Irish Catholic Clergy and people, would not only be irresistible, if well conducted, but would, at the same time, operate most beneficially on the public mind and feeling at home, and ensure a favourable reception to an arrangement, which if entered into under suspected circumstances, might be looked upon with indignation or treated with contempt.

"I have said thus much upon securities, not because I consider them necessary, for danger to the Constitution is as likely to proceed from Mecca as from the Vatican; but because I think an arrangement such as I have mentioned would be useful to Ireland, and would serve to allay the apprehensions of those whom your Grace is, perhaps, obliged to satisfy. Were I a Minister of the King, I would say to His Majesty' Sire, if you govern Ireland justly, and give to your Catholic subjects the full benefit of equal law, they will be contented, faithful, and loyal, and among the foremost to resist all encroachments on the constitution of the country, or the prerogatives of the crown. But should they act otherwise; should they become forgetful of their allegiance-regardless of their oaths and interests -traitors to their King and country, which I deem impossible, then your Majesty can earn the applause of mankind, and the approbation of your own conscience, by restraining and punishing them-even as much as you now do, by not extending to them all the constitutional blessings to which they aspire.'

"To my colleagues in office, I would say-The Papal influence which is feared, may be considered as it has been found to operate since the gradual but general, and now universally acknowledged, extinction of that power in the

civil concerns of the European states. If, then, in the first place, this power were to continue such as it now is, and such as the present notions of mankind doom it to be hereafter, no security beyond those which we possess is at all necessary. For a disposition to revive a power which would not be respected, but condemned, cannot exist on the part of the Pope, unless he be totally destitute of common sense; and to suppose that the Catholic bishops in Ireland would be induced, by such a Pope, to violate their oaths, and become hostile to a government and country which cherishes and protects them, is to suppose them not only capable of the most atrocious crimes, but equally destitute as the Pope himself of common sense and common prudence.'

be

"The other light in which this papal power may considered is-by supposing that Europe may retrograde to that state of feudalism and barbarity from which she has been advancing for the last four hundred years. Supposing that this may happen, and that the temporal power of the Pope may advance even more rapidly than it has declined, and that, in its progress, it may attempt to influence the Irish Catholic clergy to become disaffected to the state; we ought to reflect that, in this country, the Pope can have no means of exercising this influence, unless such as are purely spiritual; and is it credible that, with such auxiliaries, he can persuade any body of intelligent men to adopt his interpretation about the two swords of Peter, or persuade them that the kingdom of Christ is other than the Redeemer has described it? But, admitting the worst that can be imagined, is this nation and government to be also blindfolded, and the legislature rendered incapable of providing for the safety of the state

-endangered, as you suppose it may be, by those ecclesiastical traitors, and their fanatical adherents?

"I have done, my Lord Duke, with this subject-at least for the present; I should not have noticed it, but for the purpose of proclaiming that, as far as my sentiments prevail, there is, in the Catholic body, combined with the most firm determination to persevere in their constitutional pursuits, a disposition to concur, earnestly and zealously, with the King's government, in settling this great national question, on the basis of preserving and securing every existing institution, whether Catholic or Protestant, in all their integrity. I have the honour to be, my Lord Duke,

"Your Grace's most obedient, humble servant, "Carlow, June 19, 1828.

+ J. DOYLE."

APPENDIX.-No. VIII.

ON THE IRISH TITHE SYSTEM, FROM "LETTERS ON THE ACTUAL STATE OF IRELAND."

LETTER IV.—“ MY DEAR

I approach the subject of this letter with a feeling of reluctance amounting to disgust. The Irish tithe system has long been the theme of reprobation to the most eloquent and enlightened members of the community; nor do I recollect that a palliation of its excesses has been attempted by any person distinguished for integrity or talents. But, although little has been said in defence of the tithe system, a great deal has been done of late to facilitate and strengthen the exercise of those oppressive powers with

which the clergy of the Established Church were already supplied in abundance. An annual exposition in Parliament of Irish tithe grievances, has now become a matter of course; and, amidst the general acquiescence in the severity of the hardship, some new law is introduced, to place the unfortunate tithe payer more securely within the grasp of his reverend oppressor. Such, for the most part, has been hitherto the result of imploring legislative attention to the vexations, the unfairness, and the ruinous policy of this mode of providing for the clergy of the Established Church in Ireland. At the very first step, the injustice is manifest, of compelling a people to support the ministers of a religion differing from their own, and from whom, consequently, they cannot receive those spiritual services on which the only rational claim to that support must be founded. A Church living is not an inheritance; the embryo rector has no special grant from heaven of the unrequited toil of his fellow Christian. His right rests on the express understanding, that spiritual duties should be performed towards the tithe payer; and, where it is notorious that such duties cannot be in any way discharged, what other name than consecrated rapine, can we give to the exaction of tithes by an ecclesiastical sinecurist? The difficulty can be solved only by the good old adage

'For, Protestants still laws shall make,
And Papists still obey;

All gain and honour one shall take,
The other toil, and pay.'

The impious pretence of a divine right to tithes, has been abandoned of late years; but the legislative provisions, by which the wholesome conviction was wrought, were of that fostering and favourable nature, that left the advocates of the tithe system little to regret, in exchanging

the authority of Leviticus for that of King, Lords, and Commons. To say truth, there are certain passages of Holy Writ, touching the allotment of part of the tithes to the maintenance of the stranger, the widow, and the orphan, which make a reference to scriptural authority uncomfortable and injudicious.

“But, dismissing the question of the justice, or the injustice of the principle, as applied to Ireland,* there cannot be a second opinion as to the unfitness of this mode of provision for the clergy. A Christian pastor is supposed to be called by the immediate inspiration of the Divinity, to take on him the duties of his sacred office. His whole existence should be devoted to the worship of his Creator, and the welfare of his fellow-men. To cheer the afflicted, to counsel the inexperienced, to succour the distressed, to protect the weak, to reprove the wicked, are peculiarly his province; thus causing religion to be respected and loved, by the exemplification of its pure and amiable precepts in his own conduct. What a contrast to all this does the tithe-hunting Irish parson present! From the hour that he is nominated to the cure of souls,' his attention is incessantly occupied in watching the advance of industry, that he may seize on a proportionate increase of produce. He has scarce any intercourse with his flock, except what arises from pecuniary altercations.

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*"I utterly deny the assertion that the enormous sinecure temporalities of the Irish Church have any necessary connection with the establishment of the Church of England. For the cases to be at all similar, the majority of the English nation, being Protestants, should be compelled to build churches and pay tithes, for the benefit of the Roman Catholic minority. In England, the church property is enjoyed by priests who profess the religion of the payers; and if the latter, thinking themselves aggrieved, should claim redress at law, no one dreams of accusing them of radicalism, or of disaffection to the state."