aid they are
immediately to be sent down to the Commons for their consent.

The particulars, as they have been imperfectly reported to me, are as
follow:

By one of the bills, the bishops have power to oblige the country
clergy, to build a mansion-house upon whatever part of their glebes
their lordships shall command; and if the living be above L50 a-year,
the minister is bound to build, after three years, a house that shall
cost one year and a half's rent of his income. For instance, if a
clergyman with a wife and seven children gets a living of L55 per annum,
he must after three years, build a house that shall cost L77 10s., and
must support his family during the time the bishop shall appoint for the
building of it with the remainder. But, if the living be under L50
a-year, the minister shall be allowed an L100 out of the first-fruits.

But, there is said to be one circumstance a little extraordinary; that
if there be a single spot in the glebe more barren, more marshy, more
expos'd to winds, more distant from the church, or skeleton of a church,
or from any conveniency of building: the rector, or vicar may be obliged
by the caprice, or pique of the bishop, to build, under pain of
sequestration, (an office, which ever falls into the most knavish
hands,) upon whatever point his lordship shall command; although the
farmers have not paid one quarter of his due.

I believe, under the present distresses of the kingdom (which
inevitably, without a miracle, must increase for ever) there are not ten
country clergymen in Ireland reputed to possess a parish of L100 per
annum who, for some years past, have actually received L60, and that
with the utmost difficulty and vexation. I am, therefore, at a loss what
kind of valuators the bishops will make use of, and whether the starving
vicar, shall be forced to build his house with the money he never
received.

The other bill, which passed in two days after the former, is said to
concern the division of parishes into as many parcels as the bishop
shall think fit, only leaving L300 a-year to the Mother Church; which
L300 by another act passed some years ago, they can divide likewise, and
crumble as low as their will and pleasure will dispose them. So that
instead of 600 clergymen, which, I think, is the usual computation, we
may have, in a small compass of years, almost as many thousands to live
with decency and comfort, provide for their children, &c., be charitable
to the poor