54
Letter to the Rt. Hon. C. Fortescue, M.P.
the majority. I am not sure that, even after the late unhappy disruption, it is the Church of the minority. In our colonies the State does much for the support of religion; but in no colony, I believe, do we give exclusive support to the religion of the minority. Nay, even in those parts of the empire where the great body of the population is attached to absurd and immoral superstitions, you have not been guilty of the folly and injustice of calling on them to pay for a Church which they do not want. We have not portioned out Bengal and the Carnatic into parishes, and scattered Christian rectors, with stipends and glebes, among millions of pagans and Mahometans.[1]
But some who are not affected by rhetoric may have their minds influenced by statistics. I extract therefore from a very instructive and careful volume, called 'Ireland and her Churches,' by James Godkin, some passages, showing the proportion of members of the Established Church to the population in certain parts of the country, and in certain parishes.
In some of these instances the incomes of the parochial clergy ('the national clergy' of Dean Byrne) are given; the endowments of the religious guides and teachers of the majority are, in all cases, Nil.
The first extract relates to the Diocese of Meath.
The Rev. Dr. Brady has published 'A statistical digest, exhibiting in a tabular form the present state of endowment and population in the diocese of Meath, compiled from the latest returns of the Census and Ecclesiastical Commissioners of Ireland,' from which I extract the following figures: The number of benefices is 105, composed of 204 parishes, containing 107 churches, and having 105 incumbents. The
- ↑ Hansard, vol. lxxix., pp. 1182-5.
