[296] Correspondence of Abraham Hayward, Q.C., Vol. II., p. 200.
[297] Ibid., p. 191.
[298] It may be well to summarise Mr. Gladstone’s financial statement:—
| Assets of the Church. | Charge on the Church Fund. | ||
| (1) Commuted Tithe Rent Charge | £9,000,000 | Commuted Life Interests of Bishops, Beneficed Clergy, &c. | £4,900,000 |
| (2) Land and Perpetuity Rents | 6,200,000 | Curates | 800,000 |
| (3) Money | 750,000 | Lay Compensations | 900,000 |
| Private Endowments to be Repaid | 500,000 | ||
| Presbyterians and Maynooth | 1,100,000 | ||
| Building Charges | 250,000 | ||
| College Expenses of Presbyterians and Catholics | 35,000 | ||
| £15,950,000 | £8,685,000 | ||
Thus there was a surplus fund for distribution of, say, £7,500,000, the interest on which, £311,000, Mr. Gladstone distributed as follows:—(1), Lunatic Asylums, £185,000; (2), Deaf and Dumb Institutions, £30,000; (3), Idiot Asylums, £20,000; (4), Nurses for the Poor, £15,000; (5), Reformatories and Industrial Schools, £10,000; (6), County Infirmaries, £51,000.
[299] It would seem that Dean Swift anticipated Mr. Gladstone’s notion. When Vicar of Laracor Swift presented the vicarage with nineteen acres of land. He had endowed it with certain tithes, which he left in trust for the established episcopal religion. But he stipulated that in case of Disestablishment the tithes should be administered “for the benefit of the poor.” Stella (Esther Johnson), in her will, dated 30th October, 1727, also anticipated Disestablishment. In leaving £1,000 to endow a chaplaincy in Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin, she provided that if the Church were disestablished the bequest should be null and void.
[300] Sir Roundell Palmer’s argument was the only one that disturbed the conscience of the majority. Indeed, the only conceivable answer to it was that local church endowments, which were really useful in doing good parochial work, were instituted not for local but for national reasons. For national reasons such as Mr. Gladstone adduced, they might be justly resumed by the State to be applied to national purposes.
[301] Mr. Disraeli’s argument was, that a church, to be established, must have a temporal Sovereign as its head. The Church of Rome was “established” in Ireland, because the Pope was a temporal Sovereign. On grounds of religious equality, said Mr. Disraeli, it was necessary to retain the Queen’s supremacy over the Irish Church, so that it might enjoy the same status as its Roman rival. His theory of Royal supremacy over Church discipline and doctrine horrified his High Church supporters.
[302] There was a majority of all orders for the Bill, except among Bishops and Viscounts. The vote of the new families was much more Conservative than that of the old ones.
[303] It is worth noting that the Roman Catholic Peers voted against all plans for concurrent endowment of Catholicism in any shape or form.