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and they are to be found amongst the Sessional Papers printed by order of the House of Commons,

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By the act of the 3d and 4th William IV., c. 37, ss. 13, 14, 36, 48, 58, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 69, 71, 73, 78, 80, 92, 93, 104, 114, 121, 124, 125, 128, all rates and assessments for church purposes were abolished throughout Ireland, and the clergy in Ireland were relieved from the payment of first-fruits; and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners were charged to make a valuation of all the ecclesiastical revenues in Ireland belonging to any benefices, offices, or promotions spiritual, and, from the times when these should severally become vacant, to levy a graduated tax upon them, which was to rise from two pounds ten shillings per cent upon benefices of three hundred pounds a-year, to fifteen pounds per cent upon benefices of twelve hundred pounds a-year; and from five per cent upon bishopricks of four thousand pounds a-year, to fifteen per cent upon bishopricks of ten thousand pounds a-year : and the whole lands and revenues of eleven bishopricks were made over to the Commissioners, as soon as they should become vacant, together with part of the revenues of two other bishopricks, and, subject to existing contracts, all monies and property, of every kind, belonging to, or at the disposal of, the Trustees and Commissioners of First-Fruits; and all monies due on account of firstfruits, or on account of advances made by the Trustees and Commissioners of First-Fruits for building or repair

*

* The revenue known by the name of first-fruits, had been granted by the crown to trustees and commissioners for the building and repair of churches, and for the purchase of glebes and impropriations.

ing glebe-houses; and all the monies and property known as Primate Boulter's and Archbishop Robinson's bequests for the purchase of glebes and augmentation of poor livings. The Commissioners were also empowered to sell and convey perpetual estates to the lessees or tenants of the lands of archbishops or bishops, or other sole ecclesiastical corporations in Ireland, or to the lessees or tenants of any lands transferred by the act to the Commissioners; and the monies which from these different sources should become available to the Commissioners, according to the provisions of the act, they were directed to apply

In providing things necessary for the celebration of Divine services in the churches and chapels of the established church throughout Ireland:

And in the payment of parish clerks' and sextons'

salaries:

And of all monies theretofore provided by vestry or other assessment, for the maintenance of curates, lecturers, and other assistants in Divine worship:

And in building and repairing of churches, where these expenses had theretofore been defrayed by vestry assessment; and in contributing, in some other cases, to the repairs of cathedral and parochial churches; and, in other cases, in defraying the whole expenses:

And in advancing money, by way of loan, to enable incumbents to build glebe-houses:

And in augmenting benefices of which the emoluments should be found to be less than two hundred pounds a-year:

And in dividing parishes, where it should be found necessary, and making compensation to patrons whose interests might be affected by such division, and in building parsonage-houses:

And in doing whatever, before the passing of the act,

might have been done by the Trustees and Commissioners of First- Fruits:

And in regulating and, in some degree, equalising, the emoluments of the bishopricks.

And, except where the patronage should be private property, the Commissioners were further empowered, upon the occurrence of vacancies, to suspend appointments to benefices, and, to take into their own hands the profits of the benefices, if it should appear that Divine service had not been celebrated in such benefices for three years.

And to disappropriate and disunite any vacant rectory, vicarage, tithe, or glebe, not being private property, from any bishoprick, deanery, or other ecclesiastical dignity, and to unite it to the curacy of the parish.

Further provision for the execution of these latter powers was made by the 4th and 5th William IV. 90. xLv. and the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland were empowered to lend the Ecclesiastical Commissioners one hundred thousand pounds, at four per cent per annum interest.

The four reports which have been mentioned above, contain an account of the discharge of these great trusts by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, up to the middle of the last year; to which time all the statements which are here made of these transactions have reference.

It appears that, in 1833-4, thirty-four thousand pounds (34,0007.), three and a half per cent Government stock, together with a cash balance, were transferred to the Commissioners from the Trustees and Commissioners of First-Fruits, but subject to contracts and engagements, which would very nearly absorb the whole. Thirty thousand five hundred pounds (30,5007.), old three-and-a-half per cent stock, and thirty-eight thousand seven hundred pounds (38,7001.), bank stock of Primate Boulter's fund, together with a cash balance, were also transferred to the

Commissioners, but the application of the fund is limited by the act to the purchase of glebes and augmentation of poor livings. The temporalities of the bishopricks of Waterford, Clonfert, Killala, Raphoe, Ossory, and Cork, and the annual sum of four thousand one hundred and sixty pounds (41607.), payable by the Bishop of Derry out of the revenues of that bishoprick, have become vested in the Commissioners. The Government advanced to the Commissioners, in 1833-4, a sum of forty-six thousand pounds (46,000l.), which has been repaid; and the Commissioners have borrowed from the Board of Works one hundred thousand pounds (100,0007.), and have received divers arrears and payments due to the Trustees and Commissioners of First-Fruits; and, by the sale of perpetuities, they have raised altogether more than two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, of which upwards of one hundred thousand pounds have been invested in three per cent Government stock, and might be employed in repaying the loan from the Board of Public Works. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners have also taken into the general fund the incomes of thirteen benefices, in which the appointments of ministers have been suspended by them on account of the disuse of Divine service, amounting altogether to something more than twelve hundred a-year.

The Commissioners have received scarcely any thing on account of the tax on benefices, which appears to have been occasioned by their finding it necessary to grant time, in consequence of the difficulties standing in the way of the composition and receipt of tithe.

With these powers and means, the Commissioners have applied considerable sums in furnishing churches and chapels with Bibles, and books of Common Prayer, and registry books; and with the communion elements; and by supplying lights, and providing the churches with lamps, they have encouraged a more frequent celebration of Divine worship on Sunday evenings; and, in many instances, they have helped the parishioners to put stoves

into the churches, which materially tends to preserve them from decay.

They have paid all the salaries of clerks, and sextons, and curates, and other ministers which were before provided for by the vestry cess; and these were considerably in arrear when the act came first into operation, which arrears the Commissioners discharged.

They have found the repairs of churches and chapels one of the most onerous of their duties, and one of the most pressing, inasmuch as delay increased the mischief. In 1834-5, the Commissioners entered into engagements to the extent of 75,000l., in 1835-6, of 92,2571., and in 1836-7, of 55,5667., by which they provided for the most needful repairs of nearly all the churches throughout Ireland.

Applications having also been received for aid for the enlargement of several churches, where the accommodation was reported insufficient for the congregations, and for the rebuilding or erection of a great many churches where they were much wanted, the Commissioners, besides enlarging several churches and completing the building of forty churches, which had been contracted for by the Commissioners of First-Fruits, have themselves built thirty new churches; namely, ten in the north of Ireland, eleven in the south, six in the east, and three in the west of Ireland: but it appears that many more churches are wanted.

Very many applications were made, as soon as the act came into operation, for assistance in building glebehouses, which the Commissioners express their regret they could not comply with, as the act did not enable them to appropriate any funds to that purpose until there may be a surplus beyond what is required for other purposes, to which precedence is given. The act does not, however, prevent incumbents from proceeding according to the laws previously in force for the building or improvement of glebe-houses; but the reports of the

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