Church are now what they were described by Dean Swift to be in his time—namely, country gentlemen in black coats. But they are much better men than they were in his time. Dr. Fitzgerald, the present Bishop of Killaloe, has thus described them:—
Of all holders of property in Ireland, since we got rid of the odious old tithe system, the ecclesiastical holders of property give least annoyance to the bulk of the people. They are commonly known as, whatever else they may be, intelligent and respectable benevolent gentlemen, who oppress and injure nobody; kind and sympathising neighbours, and, according to their means, liberal employers and rewarders of local industry.
Let us take this account of the Episcopal Protestant clergy by one of the heads of their own body as an impartial character of the Church of which he is a distinguished ornament.
But let us also take from another representative of the Irish Church what, in his opinion, are the requisites for the clergy of an Established Church:—
There are two principal requisites needful for this purpose. One is that their national clergy shall include a fair share of the foremost ability and highest education of the country; and the other is that their independence in thought and action shall not be unduly fettered.[1]
Now, one should have thought that, for a 'National Clergy' who profess to be the followers of Christ, the condition that 'the poor shall have the Gospel preached to them,' would be one of the claims of the
- ↑ Essays on the Irish Church, p. 44. A fair and able work.
