the negro's lot whilst in apprenticeship, and for his freedom in 1840. There will be enough to do to secure this. Let not the whole cause of abolition be put to hazard, by giving a centre of combination in British Guiana or Jamaica, for all the evil elements-a rallying point and a war-cry for the evil spirits who might be evoked and congregated from the islands, and seas, and shores of South America, from Cuba and from Texas, and from the slavestates of the American Union. Slavery has its defenders upon principle: it still exists as a politic system, and is interwoven with the institutions of powerful communities. It may be re-established. The pious men who would govern this world by their own view of its relations to another, may be driven from the scene of their labours and their hopes; the gulfs of the Atlantic may swarm with piratical flags; and those regions in which Las Casas deplored the vast atrocities of his countrymen, and which were afterwards the seat and theatre of the most formidable piracies of modern history, may again be stained with the blood of unoffending millions, and by a British race.

II.

TITHES IN IRELAND.

On the 14th of May, Lord John Russell, in the Commons, is to move, in a committee of the whole house, the fol lowing Resolutions, with a view to the extinction of Tithes in Ireland:

1. That it is the opinion of this Committee, that Tithe-composition in Ireland should be commuted into a Rent-charge, at the rate of seven-tenths of their amount, to be charged on the owner of the first estate of inheritance.

2. That it is the opinion of this Committee, that, on the expiration of existing interests, so much of such Rentcharge as shall be payable in lieu of Ecclesiastical Tithe shall be purchased by the state, at the rate of sixteen years' purchase of the original tithe-composition.

3. That it is the opinion of this Committee, that the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for Ireland should be empowered, with the consent of the incumbents, to demand from the state the purchase, at the same rate, of any other portion of Ecclesiastical Tithe-composition or Rent-charge, not exceeding one-tenth of the whole amount in any one year.

4. That it is the opinion of this Committee, that, until such Rent-charge shall be purchased or redeemed, the amount of Ecclesiastical Rent-charge, and Minister's Money, should be paid to the incumbents from the Consolidated Fund.

5. That it is the opinion of this Committee, that the arrangement of such payments, and the investment of the purchase-monies paid by the state for Ecclesiastical Rentcharge, should be entrusted to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for Ireland.

6. That it is the opinion of this Committee, that the Rent-charges for Ecclesiastical Tithe should be appropriated by law to certain local charges now defrayed out of the Consolidated Fund, and to Education; the surplus to form part of the Consolidated Fund.

7. That it is the opinion of this Committee, that the Rent-charges for Ecclesiastical Tithe and Minister's Money should be collected by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests for five years, and until parliament shall otherwise provide.

8. That it is the opinion of this Committee, that further provision should be made by law for the regulation of Ecclesiastical Duties, and the better distribution of Ecclesiastical Revenues, in Ireland.

9. That it is the opinion of this Committee, that provision should be made for the revision of certain Tithecompositions, where such compositions operate with injustice.

10. That it is the opinion of this Committee, that the Rent-charges for Lay-tithe should be collected by the tithe-owner, and facilities afforded for redemption upon mutual agreement between the parties.

The substance of these resolutions may, perhaps, be more easily apprehended, if they are given with a slight alteration in the wording and arrangement of them.

Certain of the tithe-compositions in Ireland, which have been made so as to operate unjustly, are to be revised. Undisputed compositions, which have been, or which may be, made, for tithe in Ireland, shall be commuted, by operation of an act of parliament, into rent-charges of seven-tenths of the amount of the compositions.

The owner of the first estate of inheritance in the land for which the composition has been made, will be charged with the rent-charge which is to be substituted for it.

The rent-charges thus substituted for lay-impropriations of tithe, shall be collected by the impropriators; but facilities shall be given, by act of parliament, for the redemption of such rent-charges by agreement.

The rent-charges substituted for ecclesiastical tithe shall be purchased by the state from time to time, as the existing interests of those entitled to receive the rentcharges expire, and at the rate of sixteen years' purchase of the compositions for which the rent-charges shall have been substituted; and, even before the expiration of existing interests, these purchases may be made, upon the demand of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for Ireland, with the consent of those entitled to receive the rentcharges: but so that the state shall not be called upon to purchase more than one-tenth of the whole of the rentcharge in any one year.

The investment of the purchase-monies so given by the state, shall be entrusted to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for Ireland.

Until the rent-charges are so purchased, the annual amount of them is to be paid out of the consolidated fund to those who would otherwise have been entitled to the compositions.

The rent-charges themselves so substituted for ecclesiastical compositions, shall be collected by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, and shall be appropriated, by act of parliament, to certain local charges which are now defrayed out of the consolidated fund; and to education; and any portion of the rent-charges which shall not be so applied shall be paid to the consolidated fund.

To state the matter more succinctly, all tithe in Ireland is to be commuted: first, into a fair composition; and

then, into a rent-charge of seven-tenths of the amount of the composition. In all cases of ecclesiastical tithe, the rent-charges, instead of being paid to the parties entitled to the tithe, are to be appropriated, by act of parliament, to county charges, which are now paid by the state; and to purposes of education: and the state is to pay the amount of the rent-charges to the parties entitled to tithe, and ultimately to give money, amounting to sixteen years' purchase of the composition for which the rent-charge will have been substituted; which money is to be invested by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for Ireland.

This plan will, of course, be further explained in the committee. It has been received by the Church in Ireland with some suspicion and resentment; which is not to be wondered at, when it is considered that some of its most important parts were first propounded publicly by one who, rightly or wrongly, is supposed to be an adversary of the Established Church; and that these resolutions are necessarily stated in terms so general, as to leave the precise intention of ministers upon several points still in doubt whilst on others the plan would clearly be, in some degree, hazardous for the Church.

:

Compositions would be hurried on; and care ought to be taken that this be not carried so far as to place the tithe-owner at the mercy of the landlord, or the landlord at the mercy of the tithe-owner. The owners of ecclesiastical tithe would become dependent, at first on the surplus, beyond fixed charges, of the consolidated fund ; and, as the resolutions now stand, this state of things could not be entirely brought to a close in less than ten years, and, probably, would be protracted far beyond that period. An anxiety is consequently felt to ascertain to what extent this surplus may be relied upon, or how the clergy may be secured against the hazard of having to trust to the liberality of future Houses of Commons in granting further supplies, and devising new ways and means for