lasting welfare of Ireland, a permanent change of system will be
required: that such a change, to be safe and satisfactory, must involve
a complete extinction of tithes, including those belonging to lay
impropriators, by commuting them for a charge upon land, or an exchange
for or investment in land, so as effectually to secure the revenues of
the church, so far as relates to tithes, and at the same time to remove
all pecuniary collisions between the clergymen and the tithe-payer,
which, at present, were unavoidable." On the 8th of March, the Marquis
of Lansdowne in the upper house, and Mr. Stanley in the commons, moved
resolutions adopting and embodying the recommendations of the report. In
the lords no opposition was offered to them, but in the commons it did
not pass so readily. Mr. Stanley said that as he intended to state the
whole plan which government had in contemplation, with all its details,
he should move for that purpose that the house should resolve itself
into a committee on the report; a course which he deemed advisable,
because it would put it into his power to give every explanation which
might be required, and to take the opinion of the committee separately
on each of the resolutions. This motion was sternly opposed by the Irish
members. Mr. Brownlow led the attack, by maintaining that the report
was too partial and imperfect to be made the subject of consideration in
committee. He moved "that the debate be adjourned, until the committee
had gone into a full inquiry into the subject of tithes, and the
appropriation of church property in Ireland, and until the evidence
and report of the committee came before parliament." In support of the
amendment, Mr. Shiel said that the Irish members did not oppose the
resolutions: they only said, "Wait for the final report, and do not
decide on a document resting on one-sided evidence." Catholics, he
said, had been excluded from the committee, and only one out of eighteen
Catholic witnesses had been examined. Was this just, or fair dealing?
It was as if a jury were desired to retire on the closing of the
plaintiff's case. They find their verdict; judgment is given; and then
the defendant was desired to proceed with her case. If the committee had
confined themselves to the recommendation of assisting the clergy, the
Irish members would not have complained; but while they came with a
purse of gold for the church, they also came with a rod of iron for the
people. Mr. Shi