NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Irish Clergy have sustained a defeat at the very commence- ment of their tithe campaign; and this not in an obscure and lawless village, but in the important town of Limerick. The Reverend Mr. CRORER seized some sheep and cattle belonging to a tithe defaulter, and offered them for sale in Limerick ; but no one was found hardy enough to become the purchaser, except the reverend gentleman himself, who bought them in at a nominal price, and gave them to the poor in the House of Industry. The farmer whose stock was seized is not represented as a violent Anti-Churchman, but he did not dare to set the example in his pa- rish of pa) ing the tithe. It appears from a letter of Lord MORPETH, published in the Dublin newspapers, that application had been made for the assist- ance of the military in the collection of tithes, and that the Irish Government a few days ago had not determined what answer to give to the application. We cannot believe—after the express declaration both of Tory and Whig Ministers in Parliament, that tithes could not be col- lected by military force, and the result of Lord STANLEY'S expe- riment, which exhibited 12,000/. as the amount paid after a campaign w hick cost 28,000/.—that Ministers will defy public opinion, and run counter to the dictates of humanity and common sense by employing the British Army in the disgraceful, expen- sive, and unavailing service for which the Clergy of Ireland re- quire them. Surely the butchery at Rathcormac is not forgotten at Dublin Castle or. .in Downing Street. Even WELLINGTON and HARDING would -Iirink from the responsibility t aaiti put- ting the dragoons under the command of the tithe-collecting Clergy.
But what is to become of the destitute parsons? That is a question which it behoves their diocesans and the Tory majority of the House bf Peers to answer. The Archbishop of ARMAGH, himself in the possession of an immense income, not derivable from tithes, has found out that the attachment of the Clergy to the Church is altogether independent of the loaves and fishes. In a reply to an address presented to him at a recent visitation, his Grace says- " Your attachment to this reformed part of Christ's Catholic Church is founded on the same basis as my own ; it as distinct from every interested and worldly motive, and proceeds solely from the desire of advancing the truth as it is in Christ Jesus'—the deposit committed to our trust by the imposition of hands. This, your devotedness to the cause of our blessed Lord, is sufficiently attested by your cheerful acquiescence under difficulties and privations of no ordinary character. Conscious, therefore, of your integrity, you may well re.. ject, with becoming warmth, the imputation of having been influenced in your opposition to the late bill affecting the Irish Church by unworthy motives of secular ambition, or by a weak compliance with the suggestions of others at variance with your own conviction."
It is disgusting to read such language as this, when we con- sider that the men to whom it is addressed are, too many of them, in a state bordering on utter destitution, and that the person who uses it is an Archbishop, a BERESFORD, rolling in wealth,. ready to sacrifice the welfare of a whole people, and hazard
the very existence of his Church in an attemptto prop up his party in the State.
If, however, the Archbishop speaks truly, there can be no need of sending the soldiery into the fold or the piggery of the Catholic Dissenter. The Church will not be without ministers although the tithes should not be collected. The Clergy care not for money. Their attachment to the Church is "distinct from every interested and worldly motive :" they desire solely to advance Protestant truth.
