ng
results; and it will be one of your first duties to inquire whether it
may not be possible to effect improvements in the laws respecting this
subject, which may afford the necessary protection to the established
church, and at the same time remove the present causes of complaint."
Both houses, during this session, appointed select committees to inquire
into the collection and payment of tithes in Ireland, and the state of
the laws relating thereto. The report of the committee of the house of
lords was presented on the 16th of February, and that of the commons
on the 17th. The report stated that in different parts of Ireland
resistance had been made to the payment of tithes, by means of
organised, illegal, and in some instances armed combinations, which, if
allowed to extend themselves successfully to other districts, would be
applied to other objects, and ultimately subvert the dominion of the
law, and endanger the peace and security of society. In many districts
the report further stated, where resistance had been made to the payment
of tithes, the clergy had been reduced to the greatest distress; and in
order to obviate this, the committee recommended that his majesty should
be empowered to advance to the incumbent, where tithes or compositions
had been illegally withheld, or to his representatives, sums not
exceeding the amount of the arrears due for the tithes of the year 1836,
proportioned to the income of each, according to a scale diminishing as
their incomes increased. It further recommended that as a security for
repayment of the sums so advanced, his majesty should be empowered to
levy, under the authority of a law to be passed for that purpose, the
amount of arrears due for the tithes of the year 1831, without prejudice
to the claims of the clergy for any arrear that might be due for a
longer period. Where the arrears were due in a compounded parish, the
sum to be advanced was to be regulated by the composition, and where
there was no special agreement, by an average of the produce of the
tithe for the years 1827, 1828, and 1829. As the crown was to become
entitled to the arrears, it was recommended that the attorney-general
should be empowered to sue for them, either by petition in chancery or
exchequer, or by civil bill at the county quarter-session. On the tithe
system, the committee stated that they had seen sufficient to satisfy
them, "that with a view to serve both the interests of the church and
the