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take would be in the way of adopting still more stringent measures in relation to the receivers of stolen goods. He differed from Lord Romilly's proposal that the State should take possession of the children of felons, who were by no means sure, he declared, to become felons themselves; although he believed a right scheme of education was the best expedient for the prevention of crime.

Lord Carnarvon defended the principle of supervision. It was not a novel principle, nor was it liable to the charge brought against it of cruelty. The central registry proposed by the Bill, and which he thought its keystone, would regulate and temper the supervision. A registry established at Liverpool had, he had himself ascertained, a very beneficial operation. He objected, however, to the central registry being placed under the control of the Chief Commissioner of Police. The head of such a department ought to be intermediate between the latter official and the convicts. He criticized, also, the provisions of the Bill as to penalties for repeated offences. He thought we did not inflict long enough terms of imprisonment, and that the term ought to be increased with each conviction. Imprisonment for life would often be the most advantageous to the country in the case of confirmed criminals, and even to the men themselves.

Observations on the provisions of the Bill were made by Lord Airlie, who desired that it should be extended to Scotland, and by Lord Houghton, who deprecated the extension of the principle of police supervision, already harsh, and always liable to be abused. If supervision would extirpate crime, he would acquiesce in such an infraction of the liberty of the subject; but he had no hope that this would be its effect. The Bill he considered was really not that of the Government, but of Sir Walter Crofton, and it had been framed after an Irish pattern, not adapted to the circumstances of England. He would have preferred to see parts of it at least referred to a Select Committee.

The Duke of Cleveland thought that a public discussion of the Bill was preferable, and made some criticisms on Lord Carnarvon's arguments.

Lord Kimberley explained, and maintained his statement, that convict labour had defrayed the prisoners' maintenance, on which some uncertainty seemed to exist out of doors. He defended the provisions of the Bill for police supervision, which he declared were the main features of the measure. He argued they were not open to Lord Shaftesbury's censures, and would be less likely than the present system of reporting to the police to hinder the retention of employment by licensed convicts. It would not, he thought, be practicable or right to adopt Lord Carnarvon's advice to increase the amount of punishment for every new offence.

The Bill was then read a second time, and subsequently underwent a full discussion in Committee.

CHAPTER II.

"THE DISESTABLISHMENT OF THE IRISH CHURCH "--Predominance of this question over all others during the Session-It forms the standing subject of discussion in Parliament and in the country-Time occupied from the introduction to the passing of the Bill-The Prime Minister moves for leave to bring in the Measure in Committee of the whole House on March 1-Elaborate and lucid statement of the plan of the Government made by him-Remarks of Mr. Disraeli - Great Debate on the Second Reading, which is continued for three nights by adjournment-Mr. Disraeli moves the rejection of the Bill-Summary of the leading Speeches on each side-Impression made by those of Sir Roundell Palmer, Mr. Bright, Dr. Ball, and Mr. Gathorne Hardy - Majority of 118 in favour of the Second Reading-Sensation caused by this result-Analysis of the Division-Contemporaneous Debates in the House of Lords on the Condition of Ireland, and on the Coronation Oath-Important Statement by Earl Granville on the latter subject-Adjournment of the two Houses for the Easter Recess-Discussion of the Irish Church Bill in Committee for many nights between Easter and Whitsuntide-Statement of the principal Amendments moved, and Divisions taken, during this stage of the Bill-Questions of Reservation of Glebes, Compensation to Curates, Redemption of Rent-charges, Terms of Compensation to Maynooth, and other points-Steady and Uniforin Support of the Government by the Liberal party-Some Concessions are made by Mr. Gladstone, but no material Amendments carried-The Bill is passed through Committee before Whitsuntide-Subsequent passage of the Measure-Debates on the Report, and on the Third Reading, which is carried by a Majority of 114-The Bill is sent to the House of Lords.

THE affairs of Ireland and the Irish Church formed the great occupation of Parliament during the Session of 1869. The importance of this question threw all others into comparative insignificance. From the 1st of March to the end of July the same engrossing topic engaged the thoughts and formed the standing topic of discussion among politicians of every class and grade, both within the walls of Parliament and without. The speeches, articles, and arguments to which this great controversy gave rise might fill volumes; the materials which it afforded for discussion, invective, and declamation appeared to be inexhaustible. We propose in this and the following chapter to make such a selection as our limits will allow from the very copious records of the Parliamentary debates, with the view of presenting to our readers a fair specimen of the arguments urged on either side in the controversy, and exhibiting the progress through all its prolonged stages of the great measure which, to the surprise of many, the Government found it possible to carry to its consummation within the ordinary limits of a Session. Before entering, however, upon the history of the disestablishment Bill, it will be proper to mention that the Government, presuming on the indications which appeared of a more tranquil and settled condition of the country, allowed the Act for the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act to expire. They also, in reply to questions which were addressed to them in both Houses respecting the Tenure of Land in Ireland, avowed their resolution

to grapple earnestly with that subject when the time should arrive, but firmly declined to enter upon the discussion, or give any intimation of their policy in regard to it until they had settled that which they considered the more pressing and paramount question -that of the Church Establishment.

On the 1st of March, in pursuance of the notice which has been already referred to, Mr. Gladstone rose in his place in an eager and crowded House, all the avenues of which were thronged with persons drawn towards that centre of attraction, and, having moved that the titles of the Acts relating to the Irish Church and to Maynooth College, and the Resolution of the House in 1868 be read, and that ceremony having been performed, the right hon. gentleman next moved that the House do immediately resolve itself into a Committee to consider the said Acts and Resolution. This being done, Mr. Gladstone proceeded to unfold his plan, prefacing it by an exordium in which he glanced rapidly at the previous history of the question, and answered by anticipation some of the principal objections to his policy. Recalling the pledges given by those who had undertaken the subject, he prescribed as essential conditions of the measure, that it should put an immediate end to the establishment and the public endowment of the Irish Church, that it should be thorough, yet at the same time liberal and indulgent, prompt in its operation, and final in every respect. He divided his description of the Bill into three parts-its immediate effect, its effect at a certain time fixed (but not unalterably), at January 1, 1871, and its operation when what he called " the process of winding-up" the affairs of the Irish Church was brought to a close. On the first head the Bill provided that the present Ecclesiastical Commission should be at once wound up, and a new Commission appointed for ten years, in which the property of the Irish Church, subject to life interests, would be vested from the time of the passing of the Bill. So that, technically and legally, there would be an immediate disendowment of the Irish Church. Disestablishment would be postponed until the 1st of January, 1871. At that date the union between the Churches of England and Ireland would be dissolved, all Ecclesiastical Corporations would be abolished, the Ecclesiastical Courts would cease, and the Ecclesiastical Laws would no longer be binding as laws; except that they would be understood to exist as the terms of the voluntary contract between clergy and laity, until they were altered by the governing body of the Disestablished Church. In the interval between the passing of the Act and this date of January 1, 1871, and during the reorganization of the Church, it was proposed that appointments should be made to spiritual offices, but that they should not carry with them. the freehold or confer vested interests. Appointments also would be made in the same provisional and temporary manner to vacant bishoprics, but only on the prayer of the bishops to consecrate a particular person to a vacancy; but these appointments, too, would carry with them no vested interests and no rights of peerage.

Crown livings also, in the interval between the two periods, would be filled up on the same principles. To assist in the reorganization of the Church, and to favour the creation of a body which could negotiate on behalf of the Church with the Commissioners, the Convention Act, which prevented the assembling of the clergy and laity of the Church, would be at once repealed; and power would be taken to the Queen in Council to recognize any governing body which the clergy and laity of the Disestablished Church might agree on, and which actually represented both; and that body would be incorporated. Assuming that by January 1, 1871, or some other date to be substituted in the Bill, this governing body would have been constituted, Mr. Gladstone spent more than an hour in explaining the complicated details of the arrangements for dealing with the Church and its property in its disestablished condition. And first he explained how vested interests would be met. A vested interest he defined to be the title of an incumbent (including in this term Bishops and dignitaries as well as beneficed clergy) to receive a certain annuity out of the property of the Church (fees, pew-rents, &c., being put out of the question) in consideration of the performance of a certain duty. The Commissioners would ascertain the amount of each incumbent's income, deducting what he paid for curates; and so long as he continued to discharge his duties, that income would be paid him; but he might apply to have this commuted into an annuity for life. It was not proposed to interfere compulsorily with the position of the incumbent in relation to his freehold or the incidents of his landlordship, with three exceptions that his title to the tithe rent-charge would be vested immediately in the Commissioners; that the freehold of churches wholly in ruins would be taken from the incumbent; and that the peerage rights of the Irish Bishops would cease at once. The compensation to curates would be of two kinds. What Mr. Gladstone called "transitory curates" would be dealt with on a principle borrowed from the Civil Service Superannuation Act, and would be dismissed with a gratuity; but permanent curates-i. e. those who have been employed in the same parish from January 1, 1869, to January 1, 1871, or have left their employment not from their own free will or misconduct-would be entitled to compensation on the same principle as the incumbents. Mr. Gladstone was also careful to point out that this would be paid by the incumbents. Private endowments would not be touched; and these Mr. Gladstone said would be the only "marketable property" conveyed to the Church. But he limited the term to money contributed from private sources since the year 1660, and pointed out that it would not include churches and glebe houses. As to churches, wherever the "governing body" made an application, accompanied by a declaration that they meant either to maintain the church for public worship, or to remove it to some more convenient position, it would be handed over to them; but in the case of St. Patrick's Cathedral, and about a dozen other churches partaking of the character of national

memorials, the Commissioners would be empowered to allot a moderate sum for their maintenance. Churches not in use, and not capable of being restored for purposes of worship, would be handed over to the Board of Works, with an allocation of funds sufficient for their maintenance. On the knotty point of glebe houses Mr. Gladstone said he had seen reason to modify his views of last year. They were not marketable property, for though an expenditure on them of 1,200,0007. could be traced distinctly, their annual value was only 18,6007., and there was a quarter of a million of building charges on them which the State would have to pay on coming into possession. It was therefore proposed to hand over the glebe houses to the governing body on their paying the building charges, and they would be allowed to purchase a certain amount of glebe land round the houses at a fair valuation. The burial grounds adjacent to churches would go with the churches, all existing rights being preserved, and other burial grounds would be handed over to the guardians of the poor. Passing to the mode in which he proposed to deal with the Regium Donum and the Maynooth Grant, amounting together to about 70,0007., Mr. Gladstone said that the Presbyterian ministers, recipients of the Regium Donum, would be compensated on the same principles as the incumbents of the Disestablished Church; and in regard both to the grant to Maynooth and the grants to Presbyterian Colleges-in order to give ample time for the necessary arrangements, and to avoid the sudden shock and disappointment to individuals-there would be a valuation of all the interests in these grants at 14 years' purchase of the capital amount annually voted. This portion of his speech he concluded by an elaborate explanation of a scheme for the final extinction of the tithe rent-charge in 45 years. Landlords would be allowed, if they chose, to purchase it at 22 years' purchase, and if they did not accept the offer they would come under another and a general operation. There would be a compulsale to them of the tithe rent-charge, at a rate which would yield 4 per cent. ; and, on the other side, they would be credited with a loan at 3 per cent., payable in instalments in 45 years. The power of purchase would remain in the hands of the tenants for three years after the passing of the Act, and it was also proposed that the tenants should have a right of pre-emption of all lands sold by the Commission, and that three-fourths of the purchase-money might be left on the security of the land. The financial results of these operations Mr. Gladstone stated thus:-The tithe rent-charge would yield 9,000,0007.; lands and perpetuity rents, 6,250,000l.; money, 750,000.-total, 16,000,000.; the present value of the property of the Irish Church. Of this the Bill would dispose of 8,650,0007., viz. :-Vested interests of incumbents, 4,900,000Z.; curates, 800,0007.; lay compensation, 900,000l.; private endowments, 500,000Z.; building charges, 250,000Z.; commutation of Maynooth Grant and the Regium Donum, 1,100,000l., and expenses of the Commission, 200,000l. Consequently, there would

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