ON THE

CLERGY'S RESIDING ON THEIR LIVINGS.

THE two following Tracts relate to a scheme brought into the Irish Parliament, for compelling the clergy to reside upon their livings, and obliging them for that purpose to build houses there, with some small aid from the first-fruits, to defray a part of the expence. It was also proposed to subdivide the larger livings into as many portions as the bishops should think fit, only leaving the original church, in each instance, 3001. clear income. These bills passed through the House of Lords, and were keenly opposed by Swift, whose zeal for the church at large was not attended with peculiar respect for the existing bishops, and who conceived that the consequence of the proposed scheme would be, to impoverish and degrade the inferior clergy, besides laying them completely at the mercy of their spiritual superiors. The first of these tracts contains the substantial argument, which is more formally detailed in that which follows. There is in both, but especially in the latter, a tone of aigreur, intimating deep dissatisfaction with late ecclesiastical preferments, which may perhaps be traced as much to personal disappointment as to any better cause.

The bills were thrown out in the House of Commons.