THE EXPERIMENT OF THREE HUNDRED YEARS.-No. II.

In the short reign of James, we expect no light. That of William and Mary is more cheering, for while the queen lived, episcopal appointments were made with some integrity and discretion, and the good effects were felt even after her death. Mr. Macartney gives a beautiful sketch of the good Archbishop King, whose labours in this reign were greatly blessed, but though the prospect brightens, it is still gloomy. The following epitome closes his account of it.

'In some instances, then, in the reign of William and Mary, the Church of Ireland was regarded as a religious institution, rather than as a political tool, and, though but feebly seconded in any effort for good by the state, much good was done. But can it be said that, in this reign, when no efforts were made for re-building the ruined churches-when bills for establishing schools were brought into parliament and suffered to drop away-when bishoprics were the reward of attendance on the court in London, rather than on parochial duties at home, and when preferment was justly said to be given only to those who were ready to betray it-will it be said that, in this reign, the experiment was fairly tried, of presenting truth to the Irish people through the medium of the Established Church?

In the reign of Anne, vigorous, and, as usual, successful

efforts were made by some of the lower clergy for the conversion of the native Irish, but the bishops refused their countenance. When energetic measures for appointing Irish preachers were proposed in the lower house of convocation, they met this chilling answer from the Bishops. 'We think that endeavouring the conversion of the papists is very commendable; and as to preaching in the Irish tongue, we think it useful where it is practicable.' So the matter dropped and they did nothing.

In the reigns of the two first princes of the house of Hanover, preferment seems to have been given on purely political motives: the details given in the following extracts are so disgraceful, our Author may well wonder that any Protestant remained in Ireland.

'Writing to Mr. Addison, the Archbishop says"You make nothing in England to order us to provide for such and such a man £200 per annum and when he has it by favour of the government, he thinks he may be excused attendance: but you do not consider that such a disposition takes up, perhaps, a tenth part of the diocese, and turns off the cure of ten parishes to one curate." (p. 288.) And to another correspondent "You make nothing of recommending a cast clergyman, whom you are not willing to prefer in England, to £200 per annum in Ireland, and do not consider that in many dioceses £200 per annum is near a fifth part of the maintenance of the clergy of the whole diocese: that to make up £50 per annum very often ten parishes must be united, and after all an ill, an insufficient clergyman, does ten times more mischief in Ireland than in England. You likewise bespeak sinecures for particular friends: but I can make it appear that there are not above a score in the whole kingdom

that are perfectly so, and where they are they starve the cure.'"

"The recommendations of a bishop of Elphin to office are thus described by the archbishop :"He was a gentleman of the Bristol family, and his father was Bishop of Dromore here. He was a great master of painting in little water colours, and by that greatly recommended himself to men in power, and ladies; and so was early made a bishop. In the year 1678 he passed his letters patent for Limerick, and was translated from thence by King William and Queen Mary, immediately after the Revolution. He generally lived out of his diocese: and, though his predecessor left him the shell of a very good house, yet he took no care to finish it, or, by what I can learn, to preserve it from decay. He left the diocese, as I understand from everybody that comes from thence, in a miserable condition : churches greatly wanting, and those that are, ill supplied. I am informed that, though the diocese be large, there are only about thirteen clergymen in it.'

'When the Irish aristocracy saw in the heads of the church a body of strangers called over to beard and trample on them in the House of Lords, and sneer in private society at the land they battened on; when the people saw the offices of religion neglected altogether, or committed to a starving and ignorant deputy, while benefice after benefice, involving the spiritual well-being of millions yet unborn, was heaped on absentees; when efforts to enlighten or benefit the Popish population were crushed or suffered to perish through neglect ; when the church, from its highest to its lowest offices, was treated as an engine of state, and religion utterly postponed to political objects, can we wonder if the religion thus trampled on by its professed guardians

made little progress; or is it not wonderful that one Protestant remained in Ireland? I have observed, have read, and thought, and still am utterly unable, except by the immediate interposition of Providence, to account for the surpassing wonder, that one single Protestant remained in the country. The ruined churches, the impoverished and barbarous clergy, the dark tales of ungodliness and misery, all sink into insignificance as hindrances to the progress of truth, compared with the heartless ecclesiastico-political government in the reign of George I., and the administration of Primate Boulter.'

The following circumstances took place in the reign of George II.

Dr.

'There is, however, one case which deserves especial notice. Had an infidel been appointed to an Irish bishopric, for the purpose of disseminating infidelity, it would have been a departure from what we have stated, and proved, to be the course scarcely ever deviated from by the English government-that of altogether overlooking religion in connection with the Irish church, and using it exclusively as a political engine. Clayton, early in life, “formed an acquaintance with Dr. Samuel Clarke, the result of which was his adoption of those religious principles to which he adhered during the remainder of his life." (p. 614.) He was, however, in 1730, made Bishop of Killala, in 1735 translated to Cork, and in 1745 to Clogher; and after this course of preferment, he very naturally felt that the sentiments, which he had taken no pains to conceal, and which had scarcely checked his preferment, ought to be proclaimed still more publicly, and might be proclaimed without offence. He accordingly made a speech in the House of Lords against the Athanasian and Nicene

creeds, which gave himself great satisfaction, till to his surprise he learned that his elevation had proceeded not in approval but in utter ignorance of his sentiments, and the clamour raised against him, when it was discovered that his lordship had opinions of his own, so affected him that he died. Such was the care with which the experiment of converting the Irish, through the instrumentality of the Irish church, was conducted under the two first princes of the House of Hanover.'

The historical materials are scanty for the reign of George III.; we conclude, therefore, with Mr. Macartney's account of the present century. It is unnecessary to add any remarks to facts which speak for themselves.

even

'The most striking among the various important events which have characterized this century, has in this island been the religious awakening in the national church. From the death of Archbishop King to the close of the last century, God might have taken up against her the fearful charge brought against the church of Sardis,-" I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead." From that time, whether it was that there were a "few names "there"that had not defiled their garments," or that the Holy Spirit willed thus to mark His approbation of the truths contained in the Articles and formularies, in the ideal of that lifeless form, or whether He chose to exhibit His own sovereignty in working by the most apparently hopeless means, we know not, but certain it is that the spirit of life has entered into that establishment, and she has presented an instance of apparently self-illumination, but really of divine vivification, unparalleled in the history of the church or of the world. It could not be said to her, 66 Remember from whence thou art fallen," for we have vainly sought