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New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 27, 26 October 1888, Page 13

for better administration and for wise legislation to correct the many and crying faults of the emitting lm.rts in order to create a state of things more favourable to the improvement and welfare of the people. Unhappily, thti hat not bein met, and if w« look back at what has been done in the lar^e part of this century which has now gone by, we find m tad record of unmiee measures that have been adopted, and of good and needrulones that have beea rejected, or delayed, or not proposed, because statesmen of all parties, in striving for political power, have deferred to the prejudices and mistaken wishes of those by whose aid it was most likely to be won or to be kept. Errors of judgment may account for many mistakes in the government of Ireland, bat not for all or for the worst."

Here is an admission which, of i'self, should justify the Home Bule movement. The very thing that Ireland complains of is the neglect of the Imperial Parliament to pass measures " to correct the many and crying faults of the existing laws." From one c»use or another Ireland's interests are always sacrificed to the necessities of English parties, for whom it formed a happy hunting ground. Another peculiarity in this extract is that it was the social and not the mattrial condition of Ireland that was so bad at the time of the Union— a time of wan and revolutions all over Europe, with their attendant consequences—famine, taxeb, and misery. Possibly by " social condition " he means the disabilities under which Catholics laboured. la any case the social, material, and political condition of ihe country is now as bad as it was during any period of this century. Earl Grey illustrates his views on the above axioms by referring to the manner of bnying tithes, and says :— " It is well known to what intolerable oppression the Irish p.asantry were subject from tbe levy of tithes under a law which needlessly aggravated the burden of a payment that must have been odious. Tithes were levied from the small occupiers of land in kind, and in a most vexatious manner, often by lesees who had no scruple in straining their legal powers to the utmost in order to screw the last penny they could from the tithe-payers." Yet we are informed that owing to " powerful interests in Ireland "' nothing could be done, for, either party must incur a Berious loss of Parliamentajy support."' Further on we are assured that " after the necessity for granting this relief bad b«en fen*r*Uy recognised, it nas still further delayed iy a party struggle.'' This is the second sid grievance delayed for years tnrough struggle for power between English parties, another example of the " effect of intimidation in winning concessions from the Imperial Parliament " given to the people of Ireland. I cannot, without trespassing too mmch on your space, follow the noble Earl in his history of the disestablishment of the Irish Church, yet tbere are plentiful lessons for England to be learnt from it. Altnough the writer is seemingly unaware of the fact, be is pleading very strongly for an immediate settlement tf ihe Home Rule question. He shows how in the first Reformed Parliament an attempt was made to compel the Church to surrender a moderate amount of the property it held for objects of general utility. Had its supporters agreed to reform the Cburch during the^e years it would not ha^e been ukimarely disendowed and disestablished. But then the "stupid party '" wou'd resign nothing, no matter how unlawful it was. In 1835 and 1836, we are again informed, that Bills for commuting the tithes and applying the difference " after its wants being sufficently provided for," to purposes of public utility passed the House ot Commons but were thrown out in the House of Lords. Again was the cause of the Irish people sacrificed to English nested interests. But the struggle was not over. AJtnhe commutation Bill without the appropriation clause was carried becauee "in IS3B it waa found that tte attempt to collect tithes under the existing law in I eland was doing so much iujury that it could hardly be continued." After reproaching the Government for Iheir three years delay he eajs : — ■• Tne boon which had been asked for the liish people waa so small in itse f that, even if it bad been carried in the first instance, it would have had htt'e value, except as showing a kindly feeling towards them on the part of the Government and Parliament. The hope that it might be so accepted hud vanished in the bitter struggfe it had caused." Here are two measures granted, years after they should have been. Ihe Irish people were progressing in political knowledge uuder O'Conuell, whom, by the way he never mentions but once and that in connection with his denunciation of the Trades Union in Dublin.

Earl Grey thinks a far larger measure should have been proposed, bnt naively adds, "the proposal of a larger measure which would have done more justice so the Koman Catholics would have had no chance of success without the support of the Conservative leaders, which was not to be looked for." Thus uere Irish interests cartd for in the House of Commons. The Whigs couldn't and the Tone* wouldn't, although we are told that tLe leaders of both parti s ließ admitted the injustice that was being perpetrated on the Homaa man Catholics. Step by step from the httle aguati-in until the introduction of Mr Gladstone's resolutions in 18G8 is the history of the Church question treated in a very lucid manner. So far. it would be difficult to say to what party he belonged, except that here and there he acts as the apologist of the Conservative leaders, while acknowledging their mistakes ; but he who in 1833 was by instinct a Liberal, having left his fathers Ministry because he could not induce the Cabinet to free the slaves, as he advances in age becomes every day more and more Conservative.

In 1868 the late Mr. John Fraucis Maguire, M.P. for Cork, moved for a comittee of the whole House on the Btate of Ireland . This led to an important deba'e chiefly on the Established Church. Ultimately Mr. Maguire's motion was withdrawn in r.ivour of Mr. Gladstone's resolutions, affirming the desirability of disendowing and dibe-jtat-liehing the Irish Church. The noble Earl considers that it would have been better had Mr. Gladstone requested the Government to settle it upon an equitable basis ; his own idea being that of '• levelling up" — thai is dividing its funds between the three churches— upon what basis he does not say. This plan he considers the best and he argues that, tbe Cburch being disendowed, the Government did not know what to do with the funds, while he believed they should be appropriated towards assisting poor Catholic priests, and for religious education generally. He believes that if the settlement of the quee-

tion was left with Mr. Disraeli, these views would be carried oat. bat Mr Gladstone declaring thst no Courch should be endowed by the Government in Ireland put an end to it. Failing the payment »f atl clergy by the Btate, re next thinks the church fands ought t» be oppropriated;towards ibe religious education of the nation-.

(To be concluded in our next )