About the same time, 1732, appeared another pamphlet entitled, "The
Reconciler ... shewing how all the good ends proposed by either of those
bills, may, by a more gentle and easy method, be attained, without
injury to the rights of my lords the bishops; or rigour and violence to
the inferior clergy." In the main, the writer agrees with Swift; but the
tract is valuable as showing that the controversy was no small one, and
it furnishes also what is, apparently, an impartial history of the whole
affair. Three Irish prelates voted against the bills on a
division--Theophilus Bolton, Archbishop of Cashel, Charles Carr, Bishop
of Killaloe, and Robert Howard, Bishop of Elphin.

The text of this tract is based on that which appeared in a volume of
"Miscellanies in Prose and Verse" in the year 1789. It has been collated
with those given by Scott, Hawkesworth, and other editors.

[T.S.]

ON THE BILL FOR THE CLERGY'S
RESIDING ON THEIR LIVINGS.

Those gentlemen who have been promoted to bishoprics in this kingdom for
several years past, are of two sorts: first, certain private clergymen
from England, who, by the force of friends, industry, solicitation, or
other means and merits to me unknown, have been raised to that character
by the _mero motu_ of the crown.

Of the other sort, are some clergymen born in this kingdom, who have
most distinguished themselves by their warmth against Popery, their
great indulgence to Dissenters, and all true loyal Protestants; by their
zeal for the House of Hanover, abhorrence of the Pretender, and an
implicit readiness to fall into any measures that will make the
government easy to those who represent His Majesty's person.

Some of the former kind are such as are said to have enjoyed tolerable
preferments in England; and it is therefore much to their commendation
that they have condescended to leave their native country, and come over
hither to be bishops, merely to promote Christianity among us; and
therefore in my opinion, both their lordships, and the many defenders
they bring over, may justly claim the merit of missionaries sent to
convert a nation from heresy and heathenism.

Before I proceed farther, it may be proper to relate some particulars
wherein the circumstances of the English clergy differ from those of
Ireland.

The districts of parishes throughout England continue much the same as
they were before the Reformation; and most of the churches are of the
gothic architec