reconcile them to its injustice; and it is idle, and, as we think, unsafe, to place in the same category of title, and to claim an equal degree of sanctity for corporate property -condemned by a nation, and individual property respected by it.

The truth is that reasons of this kind have long ago ceased to possess influence. No living thinker or living statesman asserts that the Irish State Church is what any State Church should be, or denies that it is a cause of complaint and of hostility to our constitution and Government. Moral power has left the Irish Establishment; and, therefore, although it exists, sustained in part by a parliamentary majority, in part by the lazy conservatism which is characteristic of this generation, and in part because constitutional statesmen cannot move far in advance of the times, its dissolution, we think, is impending. When the moment arises, two schemes of policy are obviously possible as to its revenues. The State might disendow the State Church and apply its property to secular ends, thus asserting the voluntary principle in religion and leaving the different communions in Ireland to support as they please their own ministers ;- -or it might take the different sects into which Ireland is separated, and distribute the funds of the Church among them, according to a reasonable estimate, bearing in mind their distinctions, the number of their members, and other circumstances which in justice might vary the ratio of allotment, such as the celibacy of the Roman Catholic priesthood, and the opposite rule among the Protestant clergy. Of these two schemes we do not hesitate to declare our preference for the latter. The ecclesiastical property of Ireland is small compared with the wants of the nation; and we hold it to be unjust and impolitic to divert from its original object what only

suffices for pious uses. Besides, in a country like Ireland, divided into contending sects, exasperated by religious excitement, and in which Government is morally weak, we think it would be unwise in the extreme to encourage the tendency to fanaticism, and the extravagance of sectarian fervour, ever associated with the voluntary principle, and, at the same time, to deprive the State of all ecclesiastical authority whatever. We are, therefore, decidedly for the distribution of the property of the Church in Ireland among its different religious communions, according to an equitable standard; and this, probably, would be found to be about two thirds to the Roman Catholic priesthood, and one third to the clergy of the Anglican and other Protestant persuasions. Under this arrangement it would be probably necessary to recast completely the parochial organisation of the Established Church as it now exists and to extinguish several bishoprics and deaneries; and we hope that the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and the dignitaries of the Roman Catholic Church would obtain a legal recognition of the rank to which they really are entitled. In exchange this powerful body, we believe, would submit to some supervision by the State more readily than is commonly thought; though we trust the settlement would be made without any such indirect aim, and would be unfettered by obligations that might provoke distrust or jealousy.

From what we have said it will be seen that we object to a compromise on this subject suggested by more than one thinker. Admitting the moral and political mischief of the present settlement of the Church in Ireland, it is said that the Parliament of Great Britain will not disendow the Irish Establishment or consent to endow the Roman Catholic priesthood; but that, leaving the Irish Establish

ment intact, it would be expedient, and quite feasible, to provide for the Roman Catholic clergy a stipend from the public revenue, and subject to the control of Parliament to divide it in a reasonable proportion. By these means the great inequality of things as they are would be removed; the anomaly of the Irish Establishment would, to a certain extent, disappear; the Roman Catholic priesthood, tolerably well paid, would lose a principal cause of complaint; and the Irish Catholics would not have to endure what now is a palpable grievance. This scheme, substantially that of Mr. Pitt, was advocated strongly by Sydney Smith, and has been lately put forth in the Times in two letters of singular beauty, which bear the name of Mr. Aubrey De Vere. But it rests on assumptions we do not admit, nor do we think, if it were carried out, that it would accomplish the desired object. We have faith in the powers of reason and justice, and believe that, however Protestant it may be, or however beset by deeprooted prejudice, the Parliament which thirty years ago disendowed the Irish Establishment in part will ere long completely disendow it. Nor do we see why the Legislature which assented to the grant to Maynooth should not agree to make a provision for the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland out of the legitimate fund for the purpose, the ecclesiastical property of the country. We deny that the scheme we propose is hopeless, and think that the alternative urged would prove an unsatisfactory halfmeasure. To leave the Irish Establishment as it is would be to continue in Ireland still a monument of the ascendancy of a sect, and an institution essentially unjust, which the Irish Roman Catholic Church and people feel properly to be a wrong and a grievance. To pension the Irish priesthood on the Funds

would place them, perhaps, in comparative affluence, and relieve their flocks from a considerable burden; but it would not give them their ecclesiastical rank. It would subject them to coarse criticism repeatedly, and it would make them suspicious of State interference, and perhaps as irritable and jealous as ever. This policy, in Lord Russell's words, might have once succeeded, but it is now too late;' and we must not forget that it has been repudiated by the heads of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland.

In

The ecclesiastical settlement that we propose is, we think, therefore, the best for Ireland. It would gradually lessen her moral disorder; the natural supplement of Catholic emancipation, it would efface, in Church as well as in State, the miserable effects of sectarian ascendancy; it would go far to produce a concordat between the Irish Catholics and their priesthood and the constitution and laws of England. But the ills of Ireland are partly material, and, looking at them, we can collect the policy to be adopted on this subject. three of the provinces of Ireland, and even in Ulster, in some degree, notwithstanding the economic change which has taken place during the last twenty years, by far the greater part of the soil is still occupied by small agriculturists. In consequence of the extreme competition for land which still exists in a country devoid of commerce and manufactures, especially in Leinster, Munster, and Connaught, the rents of this class are exceedingly high, not, indeed, absolutely, but in relation to the state of the soil, the capital it attracts, and the general condition of Irish husbandry. For the same reason the tenure of this class, except in the province of Ulster, is almost always at the landlord's will; leases giving a lasting interest in

must be allowed to observe that it appears to us essentially unjust, and opposed to the true conception of property, and that we are convinced that were it carried out it would not produce the benefit supposed-one fatal objection occurs to it. Until the constitution of Great Britain shall have undergone a complete revolution, no parliament will ever countenance a measure at variance with all our existing notions respecting the system of landed property. At present it is idle to discuss a policy which is only a dream of the fu

ture.

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The other plan is based on the principle of not directly interfering with the dealings of the landed classes of Ireland-of allowing, for instance, the rent of land to be always regulated by competition, but, at the same time, of discouraging by law the whole system of precarious tenures, and of endeavouring to assure to the occupier the value of his contributions to the land, in the absence of custom, by legislation. We do not hesitate to that this principle appears to us both just and practicable, and that, if carried out, it would go a long way to reduce the evils of the landed system of Ireland, where they principally exist, and the mischievous consequences flowing from them. It would, no doubt, not mitigate directly, though it would in an indirect manner, the pressure of the exorbitant rents extracted sometimes from the Irish tenant; but this mischief, in our judgment, is beyond the reach of positive law; and, except under the tyranny of a Maximum, rent in Ireland must be regulated by competition, that competition being, however, liable to become a sound and useful competition, with the general improvement of the country. But it would remedy, to a great extent, the dependence of many of the Irish tenantry and the injustice to which they are

commonly exposed from the uncertainty of their interests in the soil, and the forcible confiscation to their landlords of the fruits of their capital and industry. The means of giving this principle effect, consistently with the fair claims of property, and considering the tone of opinion in Parliament, appear to us to be tolerably evident. We would, in the first place, directly discountenance the whole system of precarious tenures by depriving landlords in those instances of the modern means of recovering rent which have lately been conferred on them, especially the summary remedy of ejectment; and we would impose upon them a liability for all taxes charged upon the land in the case of every tenancy of this description. This change in the law would inevitably lead to the granting of leases all over Ireland; and the greatest facility should be afforded to the extension of this class of contracts, which would thus secure to the Irish farmers, for the first time almost for ages, something like the ownership of their native soil, with which, though enriched by their labour, they have never been firmly or fairly united. In the next place, we would simply provide that, in accordance with the liberal usages that have supplanted the common law in England, all improvements which have been made in land by its occupiers during the course of their tenure, and which were capable of being ascertained, should give a title to an equivalent, to be settled by a competent tribunal, and to be charged upon the estate of the landlord.

A measure of this kind would reduce the most palpable and iniquitous mischiefs in the whole of the landed system of Ireland, and we rejoice to see that a bill on the subject, which appears to us very fair and simple, has been brought forward by the Irish Chief Secretary.

Such is the general policy we

Question,' the difficulty' of prejudice, and timid Conservatism,-no insoluble problem to simple reason. Were it carried out, we feel assured that the moral and material disorders of Ireland would be considerably reduced, and possibly would gradually disappear altogether. Some supplemental measures should be added, on which we can say a few words only. The downfall of sectarian ascendancy should be accompanied by a reform of the University system of Ireland, which at present practically gives Protestantism almost a monopoly of the higher education. Trinity College, now in a peculiar degree the stronghold of the Established Church, and the mirror of the opinions of a sect, should be made a really national institution; it should, we think, be put under the State, and its fellowships, scholarships, and internal administration, be thrown open to all communions. We do not think the Queen's Colleges at all a substitute for a reform of the kind: they will never possess the prestige and renown of the alma mater of Burke and Berkeley; and probably they will continue for years the seminaries of an inferior order of students. Let us say, however, that we welcome the attempt of attracting Roman Catholics to their sphere which is now being made by the Government, and that we cordially approve of the principle of affiliating the Catholic University to them, and of changing the composition of their senate.

As regards those fiscal reforms for Ireland which some persons consider indispensable, we do not care to enter into the question whether Ireland is inequitably taxed. Great as was the fiscal injustice of England to Ireland in the last century, this has been redressed many years ago; and in any case we repudiate the claim of Ireland to remissions of taxation, since the exemption might

her full political justice. This does not, however, exclude the consideration of a liberal State expenditure in Ireland on public works of different kinds, which, we think, would gratify a popular demand; and we feel assured would, if well executed, be of great financial advantage to the empire. A system of arterial drainage-one of the chief agricultural needs of a country whose water-shed is remarkably low, whose rivers are sluggish and stopped by hills, and whose rainfall is exceedingly profuse-to be accomplished under the control of the State by loans ultimately payable from the land, is a measure, we think, not undeserving of the serious attention of the legislature.

Nor is positive legislation the only means of palliating and removing the discontent which pervades Ireland. Much may be done by a real effort on the part of our rulers to win the affections of a people, excitable and untamed perhaps, but singularly generous and warmhearted. We need not allude to the obvious propriety of the Sovereign or the heir-apparent repeatedly paying a visit to Ireland, and thereby attracting back to her some part of her absentee aristocracy; and above all, appealing directly to the loyalty of a sensitive race, like all Celts, with little sympathy with institutions and impalpable laws, but enthusiastic in personal allegiance. This step has been so frequently urged, that we shall not refer any more to it suffice it to say, that Ireland has just grounds to complain of the omission, regard being had especially to Scotland; and that the presence of one of the royal family would be, we believe, the most powerful of the indirect modes of doing good to Ireland. If the Lord Lieutenancy, and the separate administration of Ireland, is for a

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