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    William III ., afforded no further scope for imprisonment , the martyr ' s flaming pile , or the bloody axe of the public executioner . It \ va 9 rapidly careering in a course of knowledge and civilization , which made men acquainted with their rights , and has eventually lifted this

    nation to the proudest position ever occupied by any people in the whole history of the world . The established clergy , therefore , had nothing to do but to secure the full enjoyment of their revenues , and that parochial influence with which they were invested ; and the consequence is that , in the noblest nation of the earth , they have become the richest body of priests and the most apathetic towards the people , from whom their wealth is drawn *— -pp . 196 , 197 . ' Chap . xvi . adverts to the Irish church , and the Ministerial plan for its reform . We scarcely need say that so principled and thorough-going a man els our author finds that plan very unsatisfactory .

    * One circumstance connected with Irish church reform is characteristic of its real nature and extent , as proposed by the present Ministers , and ought to have opened the eyes of all men . The bishopric of Derry , the most enormously endowed in Ireland , was vacant at the very moment of the organization of this plan of reform . If a number of bishoprics were to be reduced , why should this not have been one ? Or if it were not thought desirable to extinguish it , why should not the incumbent of one of those sees which were to be withdrawn be

    translated to this , and thus one at least have been instantly removed ? The surprise which the appointment of a bishop to this see , under these circumstances , created , was at once dissipated ; and gave place , in the public mind , to a higher surprise and a feeling of indignation , by the discovery that the bishop thus installed , was I 7 r . Poynton , the brother-in-law of Earl Grey ! This -was an assurance sufficiently

    intelligible . Will a man set himself heartily to cut down a tree in whose topmost branches he has placed his brother ? Will a man assay to sink a vessel in which he has embarked hig own family ? Will a general proceed cordially to blow up a fortress in which his near relative is commandant ? Then , will Earl Grey set himself heartily to work , to reform efficiently the Irish church !

    The abolition of this bishopric would have been a thing of the highest importance . Its revenue , according to the present return , is 13 , 000 / . ; and it is proposed to reduce it to 8 , OOO / . But what is the estimate of Mr . Wakefield of the value of this see ?—a most competent authority . He caieulates that the whole of its property , over and above the tenth part of the gross produce of the land , cannot be much

    shqrt of 3 , 000 , 000 / , ; and that the bishop ' s land , at a fair rate of rent , would produce an income of 130 , 000 / . a year . This , then , is the birth into which Earl Grey , in the face of a reformed Parliament , of his own professions of real reform , of suffering England , and starving Ireland , has comfortably put his brother-in-law , and proposes to satisfy the country by the abatement of 5 , OO 0 Z . a year out of this immense property . By the extinction of this bishopric alone , a saving to the country would have been made at once of 3 , 000 , 000 / . /—for the question in this case is , not what the bishop actually derives from the land , but what it is worth to the nation . * —pp . % OO—202 .

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    History of Prieitcrajl . 503

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1833, page 503, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2618/page/63/