the clergy, of which I fhall here felect the CHAP. moft material articles.

The grievances which they defire to be abolished amount to thirty-two; among the reft it was ftated, that the parish clerks took a barrel of corn for every plough, and two quarts of rye or wheat for every ploughed

acre.

That people who had been long married were obliged to take out certificates of their marriages, and to pay feven fhillings for them; that four taile of corn, each taile confifting of nine fheaves, were exacted by the clergy for every plough land, and one sheaf of corn for every horse in the plough. These grievances they defired to have abolished; befides which, they state fourteen other grievances to be reformed and moderated; among the rest, fees of thirteen fhillings, and five and fixpence for clandeftine marriages, to be reduced to two, and all other church ceremonies to be reduced in a certain proportion to one fhil

ling

III.

1640.

CHAP. ling for the minister and fix pence to the

III. 1640.

clerk.

That by an act of parliament the bishop fhould adminifter an oath to every minister to keep a school for teaching the English tongue; and they defired the statute to be put in execution. That procefs out of fpiritual courts iffued with blanks, and the apparitors inserted the names; which grievances they defired to be reformed; and lastly, that registers had no table of fees, which they alledged ought to be put up in their offices to prevent exactions.

This representation fo long ago proves how much the people of Ireland have always thought themselves aggrieved by clerical dues and clerical exactions. Whatever was the origin of tythes, it is certain that a more inconvenient mode of provision for the clergy could not have been devised; more troublesome to themselves, more injurious to the peace, the welfare, or improvement of the country. Tythes," fays an emi

nent

nent divine*, " are a tax upon

III.

are a tax upon that industry CHA P. "which feeds mankind;" and it is furprifing that the wifdom of the legislature 1640. has not long ago inftituted a better provifion for the clergy.

About the year one thousand seven hun dred and eighty-three a very judicious representation was made to parliament by the grand jury of Kilkenny at the summer affizes, which was prefented by the representatives for that county; in which they ftate the grievances of tithes, of tithe proctors, and their mode of collection, as the causes of all the disturbances and infurrections of White Boys, &c. in the southern parts of Ireland; and request that parlia ment would take this matter into their confideration, and make an adequate provifion for the clergy in a more creditable manner, and by fome inftitution lefs burthenfome and lefs grievous to the community.

* Dr. Paley, archdeacon of Carlisle.

VOL. II.

D

Hitherto

СНАР.
III.

$649.

Hitherto nothing has been done in this momentous affair, though it has been taken up by a man of great abilities in parliament, one of her brightest ornaments, and to whom his country has borne the most ample teftimonies of his public spirit and patriotism *:

The moft obvious and moft direct course would be to form a county rate or affeffment as a provifion for the clergy equivalent to the bona fide valuation of their benefices, and exempt the landholder and tenants from tithes.

Befides the general declamation against innovation, it might be urged with fome colour, that what is adequate now, would not be a fuitable provision in future. Parliament, however, can at any time make an adequate increase in their ftipends and benefices; and that the scheme of increafing college rents after long terms,

which was adopted in the univerfity of CHA P. Oxford, it is faid, from the idea of the great lord Burleigh, feems to be the best 1640. criterion of a scale of equivalency, increase ing with the price of corn, in the adjoining markets.

If the fcheme were adopted, it is manifest the clergy and lay impropriators alfo would receive a fure, honourable, and adequate provision; the country would be freed from many riots and disturbances; and spiritual and temporal concerns would be no longer at variance; the clergy would live in peace with their flocks; and the improvement of the country, and the honeft endeavours of the peasant would no longer be taxed for their fupport.

It is a melancholy confideration, that even a modus upon the tithe of hemp and flax, the native growth of which is fo effential to the profperity of our ftaple manufacture, should be opposed fo conftantly and with fuch effect by the clergy. In the year one D 2 thou