ing to pay him what he will squander in luxuries and on the Sabbath, pretending to lift up his voice against covetousness and hard-heartedness, in the name of the Saviour who preached the Gospel to the poor without money and without price! In the language of another, "These ministers of the meek Christ speak like lambs and devour like dragons, anoint their lips with the oil of charity and defile their hands with blood." No wonder an Englishman has said, Every distraint had for Church rates, and every public sale for the like purpose, is a nail in the coffin of the Church Establishment." 66 In Ireland this oppression is not borne with so much moderation. England has been obliged to keep a large standing army there to execute her injustice. Lord John Russell declared that without this army, not a penny would be collected from a single Catholic in Ireland for the support of the Church. The Irish blood is often too hot to submit tamely to these violations of home and property; this enormous tax to support what they most bitterly hate. Who that ever read it, has forgotten the slaughter of Rathcormac? Having procured a military force from the government, Archdeacon Ryder headed the troops himself, and led them down to the cottage of widow Ryan to force the collection of £5 tithes, which she had not paid because she could not. It was regarded by the populace as a barbarous cruelty upon a poor wi dow, and they pressed him to desist. "He gave orders first to draw swords, next to load, and at last to fire. He was obeyed. Nine persons were killed, and as many wounded." There were 2900 catholics in the parish and only 29 protestants, and half of these were members of the Archdeacon's family. The tithes of the parish were between $7000 and $8000 a year. The "Minister of the Cross" shot down more persons than his whole congregation amounted to, exclusive of his own family! The heart-sickening details of the widow searching among the dead bodies for her son, her finding him with his mouth open, and his eyes set in the fixedness of death, the closing of his eyes, and the arranging of the body in the decency of death, amid the blood were he lay, are all too terrible to be minutely described! Another widow had two sons killed in this ecclesiastical slaughter. "When their lifeless, but still bleeding bodies were brought into her house, she threw herself on them, and exclaimed in Irish, 'They are not dead, for they are giving their blood.'" And when the terrible truth forced itself on her that her noble boys were no more, she went mad! This bloody massacre was to get £5 worth of corn due to the Archdeacon for tithes. Stanzas have been composed to commemmorate the bloody scene, which shall yet be sung at the funeral of the Church Establishment in Ireland. The last verse runs thus,— "The widow knelt, and she muttered low, He will hear it, or the Bible is a fable, and Heaven a lie. That song will be incorporated in the barbaric literature of the lower classes of Ireland. That fearful tragedy shall be handed down from generation to generation, making each Irishman a sworn Hannibal to the English Church until it is overthrown. It shall yet ring in their wild battle cry as they pour on their foes. That murder scene shall be emblazoned on their banners, and nerve many a heart to deeds of wilder strength, long after the descendants of him who committed it shall have crumbled to dust. Cowered by the tremendous physical force that continually frowns on them, they remain silent. Yet each of these deeds of oppression and murder are treasured up in their hearts, handed down from father to son, and wait the day of vengeance! Whether Ireland shall ever be free or not, we cannot tell, but that she will have a bloody reckoning with England unless her oppressive hand is removed, we cannot doubt. WORLDLINESS OF THE CLERGY.-One half of the livings of the Church are in the gift of the aristocracy, and most of the rest are within the reach of their influence. This influence is all wielded to sustain the wealth, magnificence, and power of the Church; and to concentrate them in the hands of the aristocracy. The livings are held like other property, and bestowed according to the owner's pleasure. In this way it is no uncommon thing to see several livings given to one clergyman— who either sells them out to the highest bidder, or hires poor curates to do the work for a small salary, and pockets the avails of the livings himself. Enormous revenues thus flow into the hands of influential families, which place humble individuals on a footing with princes, when they are once elevated to the mitre. Says Colton, "The Beresford family, in all its branches, at the head of which is the Archbishop of Armagh, in Ireland, is said to realize annually from the Church, Army, and Navy, by patronage, principally from the Church, £100,000 or $480,000. Warburton, Bishop of Cloyne, a poor man at the beginning, left from his acquisitions out of his diocese, £120,000 or $575,000 to his children. It was stated by Sir John Newport, in Parliament, that three Irish Bishops, within fifteen years, had left to their families £700,000 or $3,360,000, average to each, $1,120,000. A former Bishop of Cloyne, as I have seen stated, went to Ireland without a shilling, and after eight years died worth more than £300,000 or $1,440,000. The late Earl of Bristol, Bishop of Derby, resided twenty years abroad, without being nice in the choice of his com pany, and received in the meantime from his diocese revenues to the amount of £240,000 or $1,152,000. More than one-third of the incumbents of the Irish Protestant Church are non-residents; some of whom, with incomes from £5,000 to £10,000, abstracted from the parishes, are living on the continent with their families. The Archbishop of Cashel has livings in his gift worth £35,000 or $168,000 annually; those in the gift of the Bishop of Cloyne are quoted at £50,000 or $240,000 as their annual value; ditto. of the Bishop of Cork, at £30,000 or $144,000; ditto. of the Bishop of Ferns, a similar amount. Some reader may not understand what is meant by pluralities. Suppose a Bishop lived in NewYork in one of the elegant mansions in the upper part of the town, with his liveried servants, outriders, &c. on an annual income of $250,000. Being entitled to one-tenth of the income of six of the richest towns in Genesee county, this large revenue would easily accrue to him. This is what is meant by the term pluralities-the income of several parishes going to one person, through the constitution of the church and the favor of political friends. But do you ask why the income of one-tenth of the annual revenue of six towns, or it may be fifty, is given to one man who lives three hundred miles distant, and who preaches but one sermon a year to the people from whose pockets this revenue comes? This is just the question the English people are now asking. It |