IRISH CHURCH BILL.
WILLIAM IV. 1832-1833
While carrying on their measures for tranquillizing Ireland, ministers had uniformly admitted that grievances existed in Ireland which ought to be redressed. They had also declared their readiness to propose expedients for that purpose. At the head of these grievances, the Irish established church had always been placed, it standing in the peculiar predicament of possessing large revenues, whilst a majority of the people belonged to a faith, the clergy of which had once been the possessors of that opulence. The object of the repealers was to diminish these revenues, while they disclaimed any wish of seeing them bestowed on their own clergy. There were others, at the same time, and those not Irishmen, who, regarding every religious establishment as an evil, considered the property of the church as a fund which might be seized for what they denominated the purposes of the state. It was with this subject that government next dwelt, and in doing so they adopted a middle course—conceding much, but not conceding all that was required of them. The measures which they intended to pursue were unfolded in the commons by Lord Althorp, on the 12th of February. It appeared from his statement that the total revenues of the Irish church were found not to exceed £800,000 per annum. On these funds, he said, it was the intention of ministers, after abolishing first-fruits, to impose a tax varying from five to fifteen per cent. This tax, however, was not to be imposed on clergymen whose livings were under £200 per annum. The larger revenues of the primates, he said, were to be reduced respectively to the amounts of £10,000 and £8000 per annum. The sum thus collected was to be applied under commissioners to the abolition of church-cess; the augmentation of poor livings and building of glebe-houses; the division of unions, and the erection of churches. With respect to the offices of deans and chapters, it was proposed, wherever they were unconnected with the cure of souls, to abolish them altogether, or to unite them to such cure; and with regard to livings, where no duty had been done for the last three years, it was further proposed to suspend the appointment of ministers at the discretion of the commissioners. Ten bishoprics were to be abolished, and the vacated sees were to be annexed to those preserved. With reference to the lands attached to bishoprics the chancellor of the exchequer laid down this principle, namely, that if by the act of parliament to be introduced any new value was given to benefices, that new value not belonging properly to the church might be appropriated to the exigencies of the state. He believed, he said, that £500,000 per annum was the value of all Irish episcopal lands to the lessees or tenants, though the bishops did not receive more than £100,000. By a different mode of granting leases, his lordship showed that a sum of near £3,000,000 might be acquired for the state without any diminution of income to the bishops. His lordship concluded by moving for leave to bring in a bill to alter and amend the laws relating to the established church in Ireland. The plan thus unfolded by Lord Althorp was calculated to produce hostility from two opposite quarters,—from the conservative opposition, who thought its principles destructive to the Irish church; and from the economists, repealers, and radicals, who thought that it left too much of the church untouched. At the same time it was clear that these different kinds of opposition would not endanger the success of the bill in the commons, as ministers were sure of being joined by one of the parties in resisting any amendment proposed by the other. Moreover, most of the Irish members approved of tire plan so far as it went, although Mr. O’Connell denounced the estimate of the Irish church revenues as “a base delusion,” and the design of government as one which tended to “relieve no grievance except church-cess, not even suspending the war against the poor man’s pig and tenth potato.”
Leave was given to bring in the bill; but it was not brought in before the 1st of March. It was read a first time on the same evening; but the proposal to take the second reading on the 13th was successfully opposed by Sir Robert Peel, Sir R. Inglis, and others, ministers consenting to let it stand for the 14th. On the 14th, when the motion was made for reading the order of the day, Mr. C. Wynn objected that the bill was a tax-bill, and therefore could originate only in a committee of the whole house. This view was combated by Lord Althorp, Mr. Stanley, and the solicitor-general; and supported by Sir Robert Peel, and Messrs. Goulburn and others. The objection was so strong that Lord Althorp found himself under the necessity of discharging the order for the second reading; and, on the suggestion of Sir R. Peel, a select committee was appointed to search for precedents, and report its opinion whether the bill should, according to the rules and orders of the house, originate in a committee of the whole house. This committee reported that the bill was a tax-bill; and in consequence of this decision Lord Althorp, on the 1st of April, moved three resolutions with reference to the Irish church in a committee of the whole house. These resolutions having been agreed to, the bill relating thereto, which was a counterpart of the former, was read a first time. The second reading was fixed for the 6th of May, on which day Mr. Shaw met the motion with an amendment that it should be read that day six months. He opposed the bill, he said, because it would violate the rights of property, and because it tended to lower the character of the clergy. If property so fenced by acts of parliament, as church property was, could be assailed, he asked, what species of property could be safe? He admitted that it was desirable to change the system of church-cess; the Irish clergy themselves would not have objected to a proper remedy for this; but he would have sought a substitute for it in the reduction of the incomes of the bishops, and not in the diminution of their number. The amendment was seconded by Mr. Estcourt, one of the members for the University of Oxford, who thought that where the principles of the bill were not mischievous, as involving the first example of a confiscation of property, they were fallacious in the results which it was promised they would produce. Sir Robert Peel said that he approved of many parts of the bill—as that part which required that the spiritual duties of the clergy should be personally discharged, and of that which provided for the abolition of the church-cess. At the same time there were other parts of the bill, he said, which he disliked. Lord Althorp and Messrs. Stanley and Grant maintained that there was no ground for denying the right of parliament to interfere with the church property; and argued with regard to the diminution in the number of bishops, that the bill did not suppress bishoprics, but only consolidated them. The second reading of the bill was carried by three hundred and seventeen to seventy-eight. Before the house went into committee, Mr. Gillon moved an instruction to the committee, that the bill should contain certain provisions for resuming all the temporalities of the Irish church, and applying them after the demise of the present incumbents to purposes of general utility; but this motion was at once negatived. The reduction of the number of bishops was strongly opposed by the committee; but the clause was nevertheless carried. The most important discussion arose on that part of the measure which took £3,000,000 from the church to apply it to state purposes. Both the conservative and radical party were opposed to this; and though there could be no doubt that ministers would be able to carry the clause through the commons, they had ascertained that it would certainly be rejected by the lords. On these grounds, when the house came to that clause, Mr. Stanley moved that it should be omitted. He remarked:—“I am well aware that a strong feeling exists against the alienation of church property, and therefore I propose that the sum alluded to should be paid into, the hands of the ecclesiastical commissioners, to be applied to the same purposes as the other with which they are entrusted.” Mr. O’Connell immediately attacked government in a strain of unmeasured reproach. Many other members also contended that ministers, by relinquishing this cause, had degraded themselves in the eyes of the country, and that, if the house was to have tory measures, it ought to have them under a tory ministry. But although many of the supporters of the ministers deserted them from this cause, yet the omission of the clause was carried by a majority of two hundred and eighty against one hundred and forty-eight. In the committee, also, it was agreed that beneficed clergymen in present possession of their livings were to be exempted from the graduated tax: it was only to affect their successors. On the third reading of the bill, Mr. Shiel moved the insertion in the preamble of the following words:—“That whereas the property in the possession of the established church of Ireland is under the control of the legislature, and is applicable to such purposes as may be deemed most fitting for the best interests of the community at large, due regard being paid to the rights of all parties interested.” A long discussion took place on this motion, in which old arguments were repeated, and on a division it was rejected. The bill was read a third time on the 8th of July, by a majority of two hundred and ninety-seven against ninety-four.
It was in the upper house, however, that the bill was exposed to the greatest danger, since there existed among the peers a majority capable of defeating ministers on any occasion which they might consider expedient. It was read a first time in that house pro forma, and the second reading was fixed for the 17th of July. In the meantime, the commons, aware of the danger to which the bill was exposed, were on the alert. On the 15th of July Sir J. Wrottesly proposed a call of the house of commons, to promote its success as that of the reform bill had been ensured, namely, by putting the members under arms, as it were, at the critical point of its progress. Ministers deprecated the motion as tending to embarrass the administration, and defeat the very end for which it was proposed. At the same time they declared that their official existence would depend on the success of the bill. The motion was pressed to a division; but it was lost by a majority of one hundred and sixty to one hundred and twenty-five. The debate on the second reading of the bill in the upper house was continued by adjournment on the 17th, 18th, and 19th of July, it being strongly opposed by many of the bishops and peers. After an animated discussion, however, the second reading was carried by one hundred and fifty-seven votes against ninety-eight. In the committee it was proposed by the Duke of Wellington, that instead of all the three civil commissioners being named by the crown, one of them should be named by the head of the church, one by the primate of Ireland, and one by the archbishop of Dublin. Ministers conceded this point; but they successfully resisted another, moved by the Earl of Wicklow, to the effect that the appointment of the four bishops to the board of commissioners should be vested in the bench of Irish bishops. They also successfully resisted an amendment moved by Lord Gage, that the clause imposing the tax should be extended to lay-impropriators as well as clerical. A proposal was next made that the ten bishoprics should not be immediately abolished, but that as they became vacant the crown, if so minded, might grant them to be held in commendam with the see to which the bill proposed to unite them, while it should have power at the same time to grant their revenues to the commissioners. Earl Grey declared that if this amendment were carried it would be fatal to the bill; and it was lost, though only by a majority of fourteen, seventy-six voting for it, and ninety against it. Lord Wharncliffe then moved that the produce of tax imposed upon the clergy should be appropriated to the augmentation of small livings, and that the commissioners should not have power to apply it to other purposes for which parish cess was levied. This amendment was lost by a majority of twenty; but ministers were left in a minority of two, on the clause empowering the commissioners to suspend appointments to benefices in which divine service had not been performed during three years before the 1st of February, 1833. An amendment was agreed to, that in all such cases the bishop of the diocese in which the benefice might be situated, should be entitled to act as a member of the board; and that the revenues of the suspended benefice should be applied to the building or repairing of the church or glebe-house in such benefice; or if they should not require it, that then the revenues should be paid into the general fund, under the management of the commissioners. On this defeat Earl Grey adjourned the committee, in order to allow time for considering whether ministers ought not to throw up the bill and resign. On the next day, however, his lordship stated that they had resolved to proceed with the bill; the effect of the amendment would be far from an improvement to the bill, but he did not deem it such an alteration, affecting the general efficiency of the measure, as would justify him in abandoning the duty he had imposed upon himself of conducting it through the house. At the same time, he said, he would not disguise from their lordships that he laboured under deep sensations of difficulty and embarrassment in consequence of the vote; and he felt that if any further alterations of the like nature should be made, it would be for him to consider how far it would be possible for him, consistently with his duty to his sovereign and his country, to continue the conduct of the measure. Some further alterations were admitted on the bringing up of the report. One of these went to guard against the future contingency of the lord-chancellor and lord-chief-justice of Ireland, members of the board, being Catholics; and another placed at the disposal of the two archbishops ten livings, not exceeding £800 a-year each, connected with the suppressed bishoprics, for the purpose of being bestowed on the junior fellows of the University of Dublin. The bill was passed on the 30th of July, by a majority of one hundred and thirty-five against eighty-one; and on the 2nd of August the commons agreed to the amendments which had been made by the peers. Mr. O’Connell observed that the lords had not made the bill much worse than they found it, and protested against its being considered in any other light than as the first instalment of the debt due to Ireland.