human kind, than an indifference, or insensibility for other men's
sufferings, and a sudden forgetfulness of their own former humble state,
when they rise in the world. These two dispositions have not, I think,
anywhere so strongly exerted themselves, as in the order of bishops with
regard to the inferior clergy; for which I can find no reasons, but such
as naturally should seem to operate a quite contrary way. The
maintenance of the Clergy, throughout the kingdom, is precarious and
uncertain, collected from a most miserable race of beggarly farmers; at
whose mercy every minister lies to be defrauded: His office, as rector
or vicar, if it be duly executed, is very laborious. As soon as he is
promoted to a bishopric, the scene is entirely and happily changed; his
revenues are large, and as surely paid as those of the king; his whole
business is once a-year, to receive the attendance, the submission, and
the proxy-money of all his clergy, in whatever part of the diocese he
shall please to think most convenient for himself. Neither is his
personal presence necessary, for the business may be done by a
Vicar-General. The fatigue of ordination, is just what the bishops
please to make it, and as matters have been for some time, and may
probably remain, the fewer ordinations the better. The rest of their
visible office, consists in the honour of attending parliaments and
councils, and bestowing preferments in their own gift; in which last
employment, and in their spiritual and temporal courts, the labour falls
to their Vicars-General, Secretaries, Proctors, Apparitors, Seneschals,
and the like. Now, I say, in so quick a change, where their brethren in
a few days, are become their subjects, it would be reasonable, at least,
to hope, that the labour, confinement, and subjection from which they
have so lately escaped, like a bird out of the snare of the fowler,
might a little incline them to remember the condition of those, who were
but last week their equals, probably their companions or their friends,
and possibly, as reasonable expectants. There is a known story of
Colonel Tidcomb, who, while he continued a subaltern officer, was every
day complaining against the pride, oppression, and hard treatment of
colonels toward their officers; yet in a very few minutes after he had
received his commission for a regiment, walking with a friend on the
Mall, he confessed that the spirit of colonelship, was coming fast upon
him, which spirit is said to have daily increased to the hour of his
death.
It is true, the Clergy of this kingdom, who are promoted to bishoprics,
have always some great advantages; either that of rich deaneries,
opulent and multiplied rectories and dignities, strong alliances by
birth or marriage, fortified by a superlative degree of zeal and
loyalty; but, however, they were all at first no more than young
beginners; and before their great promotion, were known by their plain
Christian names, among their old companions, the middling rate of
clergymen; nor could, therefore, be strangers to their condition, or
with any good grace, forget it so soon as it hath sometimes happened.
I confess, I do not remember to have observed any body of men, acting
with so little concert as our clergy have done, in a point where their
opinions appeared to be unanimous: a point where their whole temporal
support was concerned, as well as their power of serving God and his
Church, in their spiritual functions. This hath been imputed to their
fear of disobliging, or hopes of further favours upon compliance;
because it was observed, that some who appeared at first with the
greatest zeal, thought fit suddenly to absent themselves from the usual
meetings; yet, we know what expert solicitors the Quakers, the
Dissenters, and even the Papists have sometimes found, to drive a point
of advantage, or present an impending evil.
I have not seen any extract from the two bills introduced into the Privy
Council by the bishops; where the Clergy, upon some failure in favour,
or through the timorousness of many among their brethren, were refused
to be heard by the Council. It seems these bills were both returned,
agreed to by the King and Council in England; and the House of Lords
hath, with great expedition, passed them both, and it is said they are
immediately to be sent down to the Commons for their consent.
The particulars, as they have been imperfectly reported to me, are as
follow:
By one of the bills, the bishops have power to oblige the country
clergy, to build a mansion-house upon whatever part of their glebes
their lordships shall command; and if the living be above £50 a-year,
the minister is bound to build, after three years, a house that shall
cost one year and a half's rent of his income. For instance, if a
clergyman with a wife and seven children gets a living of £55 per annum,
he must after three years, build a house that shall cost £77 10s., and
must support his family during the time the bishop shall appoint for the
building of it with the remainder. But, if the living be under £50
a-year, the minister shall be allowed an £100 out of the first-fruits.
But, there is said to be one circumstance a little extraordinary; that
if there be a single spot in the glebe more barren, more marshy, more
expos'd to winds, more distant from the church, or skeleton of a church,
or from any conveniency of building: the rector, or vicar may be obliged
by the caprice, or pique of the bishop, to build, under pain of
sequestration, (an office, which ever falls into the most knavish
hands,) upon whatever point his lordship shall command; although the
farmers have not paid one quarter of his due.
I believe, under the present distresses of the kingdom (which
inevitably, without a miracle, must increase for ever) there are not ten
country clergymen in Ireland reputed to possess a parish of £100 per
annum who, for some years past, have actually received £60, and that
with the utmost difficulty and vexation. I am, therefore, at a loss what
kind of valuators the bishops will make use of, and whether the starving
vicar, shall be forced to build his house with the money he never
received.
The other bill, which passed in two days after the former, is said to
concern the division of parishes into as many parcels as the bishop
shall think fit, only leaving £300 a-year to the Mother Church; which
£300 by another act passed some years ago, they can divide likewise, and
crumble as low as their will and pleasure will dispose them. So that
instead of 600 clergymen, which, I think, is the usual computation, we
may have, in a small compass of years, almost as many thousands to live
with decency and comfort, provide for their children, &c., be charitable
to the poor, and maintain hospitality.
But it is very reasonable to hope, and heartily to be wished by all
those who have the least regard to our holy religion, as hitherto
established, or to a learned, pious, diligent, conversible clergyman, or
even to common humanity; that the honourable House of Commons will in
their great wisdom, justice, and tenderness to innocent men, consider
these bills in another light. It is said, they well know this kingdom
not to be so over stocked with neighbouring gentry; but a discreet,
learned clergyman, with a competency fit for one of his education, may
be an entertaining, a useful, and sometimes a necessary companion. That
although such a clergyman may not be able constantly to find BEEF and
WINE for his own family, yet he may be allowed sometimes to afford both
to a neighbour, without distressing himself; and the rather, because he
may expect at least as good a return. It will probably be considered,
that in many desolate parts, there may not be always a sufficient number
of persons considerable enough to be trusted with commissions of the
peace, which several of the Clergy now supply much better, than a
little, hedge, contemptible, illiterate vicar from twenty to fifty
pounds a-year, the son of a weaver, pedlar, tailor, or miller, can be
presumed to do.
The landlords and farmers by this scheme can find no profit, but will
certainly be losers; for instance, if the large northern livings be
split into a dozen parishes, or more, it will be very necessary for the
little threadbare gownman, with his wife, his proctor and every child
who can crawl, to watch the fields at harvest time, for fear of losing a
single sheaf, which he could not afford under peril of a day's starving;
for according to the Scotch proverb, a hungry louse bites sore. This
would of necessity, breed an infinite number of brangles and litigious
suits in the spiritual courts, and put the wretched pastor at perpetual
variance with his whole parish. But, as they have hitherto stood, a
clergyman established in a competent living is not under the necessity
of being so sharp, vigilant, and exacting. On the contrary, it is well
known and allowed, that the Clergy round the kingdom think themselves
well treated, if they lose only one single third of their legal demands.
The honourable House may perhaps be inclined to conceive, that my lords
the bishops enjoy as ample a power, both spiritual and temporal, as will
fully suffice to answer every branch of their office; that they want no
laws to regulate the conduct of those clergymen, over whom they preside;
that if non-residence be a grievance, it is the patron's fault, who
makes not a better choice, or caused the plurality. That if the general
impartial character of persons chosen into the Church had been more
regarded, and the motive of party, alliance, kindred, flatterers, ill
judgment, or personal favour regarded less, there would be fewer
complaints of non-residence, neglect of care, blameable behaviour, or
any other part of misconduct, not to mention ignorance and stupidity.
I could name certain gentlemen of the gown, whose awkward, spruce, prim,
sneering, and smirking countenances, the very tone of their voices, and
an ungainly strut in their walk, without one single talent for any one
office, have contrived to get good preferment by the mere force of
flattery and cringing: for which two virtues (the only two virtues they
pretend to) they were, however, utterly unqualified. And whom, if I were
in power, although they were my nephews or had married my nieces, I
could never in point of good conscience or honour, have recommended to a
curacy in Connaught.
The honourable House of Commons may likewise perhaps consider, that the
gentry of this kingdom differ from all others upon earth, being less
capable of employments in their own country, than any others who come
from abroad, and that most of them have little expectation of providing
for their younger children, otherwise than by the Church, in which there
might be some hopes of getting a tolerable maintenance. For after the
patrons should have settled their sons, their nephews, their nieces,
their dependants, and their followers, invited over from t'other side,
there would still remain an overplus of smaller church preferments, to
be given to such clergy of the nation, who shall have their quantum of
whatever merit may be then in fashion. But by these bills, they will be
all as absolutely excluded, as if they had passed under the denomination
of Tories, unless they can be contented at the utmost with £50 a-year,
which by the difficulties of collecting tithes in Ireland, and the daily
increasing miseries of the people, will hardly rise to half the sum.
It is observed, that the divines sent over hither to govern this Church,
have not seemed to consider the difference between both kingdoms, with
respect to the inferior clergy. As to themselves, indeed, they find a
large revenue in lands let at one quarter value, which consequently must
be paid while there is a penny left among us; and, the public distress
so little affects their interests, that their fines are now higher than
ever, they content themselves to suppose that whatever a parish is said
to be worth, comes all into the parson's pocket.
The poverty of great numbers among the Clergy of England, hath been the
continual complaint of all men who wish well to the Church, and many
schemes have been thought on to redress it; yet an English vicar of £40
a-year, lives much more comfortably than one of double the value in
Ireland. His farmers generally speaking, are able and willing to pay him
his full dues. He hath a decent church of ancient standing, filled every
Lord's day with a large congregation of plain people, well clad, and
behaving themselves as if they believed in God and Christ. He hath a
house and barn in repair, a field or two to graze his cows, with a
garden and orchard. No guest expects more from him than a pot of ale; he
lives like an honest, plain farmer, as his wife is dressed but little
better than Goody. He is sometimes graciously invited by the squire,
where he sits at humble distance; if he gets the love of his people,
they often make him little useful presents; he is happy by being born to
no higher expectation, for he is usually the son of some ordinary
tradesman or middling farmer. His learning is much of a size with his
birth and education, no more of either than what a poor hungry servitor
can be expected to bring with him from his college. It would be tedious
to shew the reverse of all this in our distant poorer parishes, through
most parts of Ireland, wherein every reader may make the comparison.
Lastly, the honourable House of Commons may consider, whether the scheme
of multiplying beggarly clergymen through the whole kingdom who must all
have votes for choosing parliament men (provided they can prove their
freeholds to be worth 40s. per annum, _ultra reprisas_) may not, by
their numbers, have great influence upon elections, being entirely under
the dependance of their bishops. For by a moderate computation, after
all the divisions and subdivisions of parishes, that, my lords, the
bishops, have power to make by their new laws, there will, as soon as
the present set of clergy go off, be raised an army of ecclesiastical
militants, able enough for any kind of service, except that of the
altar.
I am, indeed, in some concern about a fund for building a thousand or
two churches, wherein these probationers may read their wall lectures,
and begin to doubt they must be contented with barns; which barns will
be one great advancing step towards an accommodation with our true
Protestant brethren, the Dissenters.
The scheme of encouraging clergymen to build houses by dividing a living
of £500 a-year into ten parts, is a contrivance, the meaning whereof
hath got on the wrong side of my comprehension; unless it may be argued,
that bishops build no houses, because they are so rich; and therefore,
the inferior clergy will certainly build, if you reduce them to beggary.
But I knew a very rich man of quality in England, who could never be
persuaded to keep a servant out of livery; because such servants would
be expensive, and apt, in time, to look like gentlemen; whereas the
others were ready to submit to the basest offices, and at a cheaper
pennyworth might increase his retinue.
I hear, it is the opinion of many wise men, that before these bills pass
both Houses, they should be sent back to England with the following
clauses inserted:
First, that whereas there may be about a dozen double bishoprics in
Ireland, those bishoprics should be split and given to different
persons; and those of a single denomination be also divided into two,
three, or four parts, as occasion shall require; otherwise there may be
a question started, whether twenty-two prelates can effectually extend
their paternal care and unlimited power, for the protection and
correction of so great a number of spiritual subjects. But this proposal
will meet with such furious objections, that I shall not insist upon it,
for I well remember to have read, what a terrible fright the frogs were
in, upon a report that the sun was going to marry.
Another clause should be, that none of these twenty, thirty, forty, or
fifty pounders may be suffered to marry, under the penalty of immediate
deprivation, their marriages declared null, and their children bastards;
for some desponding people, take the kingdom to be not in a condition of
encouraging so numerous a breed of beggars.
A third clause will be necessary, that these humble gentry should be
absolutely disqualified from giving votes in elections for parliament
men.
Others add a fourth, which is a clause of indulgence, that these reduced
divines may be permitted to follow any lawful ways of living, that will
not call them too often or too far from their spiritual offices (for
unless I misapprehend, they are supposed to have episcopal ordination).
For example, they may be lappers of linen, bailiffs of the manor, they
may let blood, or apply plasters, for three miles round; they may get a
dispensation to hold the clerkship and sextonship of their own parish
_in commendam_. Their wives and daughters may make shirts for the
neighbourhood, or if a barrack be near, for the soldiers. In linen
countries, they may card and spin, and keep a few looms in the house:
they may let lodgings, and sell a pot of ale without doors, but not at
home, unless to sober company, and at regular hours. It is by some
thought a little hard, that in an affair of the last consequence, to the
very being of the Clergy, in the points of liberty and property, as well
as in their abilities to perform their duty; this whole reverend body,
who are the established instructors of the nation in Christianity and
moral virtues, and are the only persons concerned, should be the sole
persons not consulted. Let any scholar shew the like precedent in
Christendom for twelve hundred years past. An act of parliament for
settling or selling an estate in a private family, is never passed till
all parties give consent. But in the present case the whole body of the
Clergy is, as themselves apprehend, determined to utter ruin, without
once expecting or asking their opinion, and this by a scheme contrived
only by one part of the convocation, while the other part which hath
been chosen in the usual forms, wants only the regal permission to
assemble, and consult about the affairs of the Church, as their
predecessors have always done in former ages; where it is presumed, the
Lower House hath a power of proposing canons, and a negative voice, as
well as the Upper. And God forbid (say these objectors) that there
should be a real separate interest between the bishops and Clergy, any
more than there is between a man and his wife, a king and his people, or
Christ and his Church.
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.
The appearance of so many dissenters at the hearing of this cause, is
what, I am told, hath not been charged to the account of their prudence
or moderation; because that action hath been censured as a mark of
triumph and insult before the victory is complete; since neither of
these bills hath yet passed the House of Commons, and some are pleased
to think it not impossible that they may be rejected. Neither do I hear,
that there is an enacting clause in either of the Bills to apply any
part of the divided or subdivided tithes, towards increasing the
stipends of the sectaries. So that these gentlemen seem to be gratified
like him, who, after having been kicked downstairs, took comfort when he
saw his friend kicked down after him.
I have heard many more objections against several particulars of both
these Bills, but they are of a high nature, and carry such dreadful
innuendos, that I dare not mention them, resolving to give no offence
because I well know how obnoxious I have long been (although I conceive
without any fault of my own) to the zeal and principles of those, who
place all difference in opinion concerning public matters, to the score
of disaffection, whereof I am at least as innocent as the loudest of my
detractors.
DUBLIN,
_Feb_. 24, 1731-2.
***** ***** ***** *****
SOME
REASONS
AGAINST
THE BILL FOR SETTLING THE TITHE
OF
HEMP, FLAX, &c., BY A MODUS.
NOTE.
About the end of 1733 the Irish House of Commons had under consideration
a bill for the encouragement of the growth of flax and the manufacture
of linen. This bill contained a clause by which the tithe upon flax
should be commuted by a _modus_ or money composition. The clergy, to
whom this tithe was an important source of revenue, and, naturally, not
wishing to lose its advantage, took steps to petition Parliament to be
heard by counsel against the bill. Swift signed the petition, which set
forth the injury which would be done to their order if the clause in the
bill, then before the House, were allowed to become law. In addition to
this he committed and arranged his arguments to writing, and issued them
in the following pamphlet. The activity against the bill proved so
efficacious that the House of Commons dropped it. It may be remarked
that Swift's interference was purely disinterested, since no part of the
revenue of St. Patrick's, as Monck Mason points out, comes from the
"district appropriated to the culture of flax;" nor did Swift, "or any
of his predecessors or successors, ever receive one shilling upon
account of that tithe."