It seems there is a provision in the bill, that no parish shall be cut into scraps, without the consent of several persons, who can be no sufferers in the matter; but I cannot find that the Clergy lay much weight on this caution, because they argue, that the very persons from whom these Bills took their rise, will have the greatest share in the decision.
I do not, by any means, conceive the crying sin of the Clergy in this kingdom, to be that of non-residence. I am sure, it is many degrees less so here than in England, unless the possession of pluralities may pass under that name; and if this be a fault, it is well known to whom it must be imputed: I believe, upon a fair inquiry (and I hear an inquiry is to be made) they will appear to be most pardonably few, especially considering how many parishes have not an inch of glebe, and how difficult it is upon any reasonable terms, to find a place of habitation. And, therefore, God knows, whether my lords the bishops will be soon able to convince the Clergy, or those who have any regard for that venerable body, that the chief motive in their lordships' minds, by procuring these bills, was to prevent the sin of non-residence, while the universal opinion of almost every clergyman in the kingdom, without distinction of party, taking in even those who are not likely to be sufferers, stands directly against them.
If some livings in the north may be justly thought too large a compass of land, which makes it inconvenient for the remotest inhabitant to attend the service of the Church, which in some instances may be true; no reasonable clergyman would oppose a proper remedy by particular acts of parliament.
Thus for instance, the deanery of Down, a country deanery, I think, without a cathedral, depending wholly upon an union of parishes joined together, in a time when the land lay waste and thinly inhabited; since those circumstances are so prodigiously changed for the better, may properly be lessened, leaving a decent competency to the dean, and placing rectories in the remaining churches, which are now served only by stipendiary curates.
The case may be probably the same in other parts: and such a proceeding discreetly managed would be truly for the good of the Church.
For it is to be observed, that the dean and chapter lands, which, in England were all seized under the fanatic usurpation, are things unknown in Ireland, having been long ravished from the Church, by a succession of confusions, and tithes applied in their stead, to support that ecclesiastical dignity.
The late Archbishop of Dublin[1] had a very different way of encouraging the clergy of his diocese to residence: When a lease had run out seven years or more, he stipulated with the tenant to resign up twenty or thirty acres to the minister of the parish where it lay convenient, without lessening his former rent; and with no great abatement of the fine; and this he did in the parts near Dublin, where land is at the highest rates, leaving a small chiefry for the minister to pay, hardly a sixth part of the value. I doubt not that almost every bishop in the kingdom may do the same generous act with less damage to their sees than his late Grace of Dublin; much of whose lands were out in fee-farms, or leases for lives, and I am sorry that the good example of that prelate hath not been followed.
[Footnote 1: The Right Rev. Dr. William King (see p. 241). [T. S.]
But a great majority of the Clergy's friends cannot hitherto reconcile themselves to this project, which they call a levelling principle, that must inevitably root out the seeds of all honest emulation, the legal parent of the greatest virtues, and most generous actions among men; but which, in the general opinion (for I do not pretend to offer my own,) will never more have room to exert itself in the breast of any clergyman whom this kingdom shall produce.
But, whether the consequences of these Bills may, by the virtues and frailties of future bishops, sent over hither to rule the Church, terminate in good or evil, I shall not presume to determine, since God can work the former out of the latter. But one thing I can venture to assert, that from the earliest ages of Christianity to the minute I am now writing, there never was a precedent of SUCH a proceeding, much less to be feared, hoped, or apprehended from such hands in any Christian country, and so it may pass for more than a phoenix, because it hath risen without any assistance from the ashes of its sire.