we are

odium, becomes an object of outrage; his property and person are both attacked, and in both the religion and laws of your country scandalized and disgraced. The same cause which produces a violent attack on the clergyman among the lower order of the community, produces among some of the higher orders a languor and neutrality in defending him. Thus outraged and forsaken he comes to Parliament; we abhor the barbarity, we punish the tumult, we acknowledge the injury, but we are afraid of administering any radical or effectual relief; because afraid of the claims of the Church; they claim the tenth of whatever by capital, industry, or premium, is produced from land. One thousand men claim this, and they claim this without any stipulation, for what appears for the support of the poor, the repair of the church, or even the residence of the preacher. Alarmed at the extent of such a claim, we conceive that the difficulty of collection is our security, and fear to give powers which may be necessary for / the collection of customary Tithes, lest the Clergy should use those powers for the enforcing of a long catalogue of dangerous pretensions. We have reason for this apprehension; and the last clause in the riot-act has prompted a clergyman in the South to demand the Tithe of Agist

ment, and to attempt to renew a confusion which your act intended to compose. The present state of the clergyman is, that he cannot collect his customary Tithe without the interference of Parliament, and Parliament cannot interfere without making a general regulation, lest any assistance now given should be applied to the enforcement of dormant claims-ambiguous and unlimited.

"Thus, I submit to this House, the situation of the clergy, as well as of the people-call on you to take up at large the subject of the Tithe. You have two grounds for such an investigation -the distress of the clergy, and the distress of the people.

"Against your interference three arguments are objected, two of which are fictitious, and one only is sincere. The sincere but erroneous objection is, that we ought not to affect in any degree the rights of the Church; to which I answer briefly, that if, by the rights of the Church, the customary Tithes only are intended, we ought to interfere to give and secure the full profit of them; and if, by the rights of the Church, are meant those dormant claims I alluded to, we ought to interfere to prevent their operation.

"Of the two arguments, that one on petitions relies on the impossibility of making

any commutation; but this argument rather fears the change than the difficulty. This argument is surely erroneous, in supposing that the whole wit of man, in Parliament assembled, cannot, with all its ingenuity, find a method of providing for 9000 persons. We who provide for so large a Civil List, Military List, Pension List, Revenue List, cannot provide for the Church. What! is the discovery of the present income of the Church an impenetrable mystery? Or is it an impossibility to give the same income, but arising from a dif ferent regulation, fixing some standard in the price of grain; or if commutation be out of the power of human capacity, is this establishment of a modus impossible; different, perhaps, in the different counties, but practicable in all? Or if not practicable, how comes it that there should be a modus established in some parts of Ireland already for some titheable articles? Is it impossible to have a moderate modus on corn, and some modus on pasture? Or to lay on potatoes a very small modus, or rather to exonerate Would it not be prac

them as well as flax?

ticable to get rid of the Tithe-farmer, and give his plunder between the people and the parson? If all this be a difficulty, it is a

difficulty which is worthy of you, and if you succeed in any part of it, you do service.

"The other argument relies on the times, and I acknowledge they are an objection to the Bill at present, but none against the laying the founda. tion now of a measure to take place on the restoration of public peace; it may be an inducement to that peace, it cannot be an incentive to the contrary; it is giving Government the full force of reward and punishment; and I apprehend, if no step whatsoever was taken, and no debate introduced at present, nothing would be done in future. I shall therefore trouble you with a motion now, and next Session with a Bill on that subject."

He then moved the following resolution:

"That, if it shall appear, at the commencement of the next Session of Parliament, that public tranquillity has been restored in those parts of the Kingdom that have been lately disturbed, and due obedience paid to the laws, this House will take into consideration the subject of Tithes, and endeavour to form some plan for the honorable support of the clergy, and the ease of the people."

To the preceding speech Mr. Secretary ORDE replied in the following words:-as this short speech contains all the leading objections of Mr. Grattan's opponents, we shall give it insertion, as well for the purpose of exhibiting the sophistry which opposed itself to every honest and benevolent effort then made by the friends of Ireland, as to give to the reader an oppor tunity of fully estimating the strength and tri umph of Mr. Grattan, when called on to refute them.

"Sir, I have listened with anxiety and con> cern to the speech of the right honorable gentleman, and I am sorry to say that the motion with which he concludes increases that anxiety and concern. I did intend, even while he was speaking, to take the liberty to remind him, that under the present circumstances of the country, it was impossible in any degree to hold out an expectation that the House would enter upon the subject.

"I did hope, when the right honorable gentleman admitted that the distresses of the poor people of the South arose from other causes than Tithes, from excessive rent, and insufficient wages, he would put an end to the conversation. I did think that having said, as the rent increased