The Constitutional History of England From 1760 to 1860

was not disputed that by far the greater part of the land-owners in every province were Protestants.[233] But an ignorant peasant is no student of political economy or of logic; and the fact that the payment of the tithe passed through his hands was in his eyes, an incontrovertible proof that it came out of his pocket. The discontent had gradually begotten an organized resistance to the payment, and the mischief of allowing the continuance of such a state of feeling and conduct, which was manifestly likely to impair the respect for all law, made such an impression on the government that, in the royal speech with which he opened the session of 1832, the King recommended the whole subject to the consideration of Parliament, urging the Houses to inquire 'whether it might not be possible to effect improvements in the laws respecting this subject.'

In compliance with this recommendation, committees were appointed by both Houses; and the result of their investigations was a recommendation that a new arrangement should be made, under which the tithe should be commuted to a rent-charge. Accordingly, the next year the ministers proceeded to give effect to this recommendation. But they reasonably judged that an alteration of a particular law in compliance with the clamor raised against it would be a concession pregnant with mischief to the principle of all government, if it were not accompanied, or rather preceded, by a vindication of the majesty of all law; and therefore the first measure affecting Ireland, which they brought in in 1833, was a 'Coercion Bill,' which empowered the Lord-lieutenant not only to suppress the meetings of any assembly or association which he might consider dangerous to the public peace, but also to declare by proclamation any district in which tumults and outrages were rife to be 'in a disturbed state;' and in districts thus proclaimed no person was to be permitted to be absent from his house from an hour after sunset to sunrise. Houses might be searched for arms, martial law was to be established, and courts-martial held for the trial of all offences except felonies; and the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended for three months. O'Connell and his party protested with great vehemence against such an enactment, as a violation of every right secured to the subject by the constitution. And a bill which suspended the ordinary courts of justice must be admitted to have been incompatible with the constitution as commonly understood and enjoyed. But if the measure thus proposed was extraordinary, the state of affairs which had led to its proposal was so also in a far greater degree. The records of no nation had ever presented such a fearful catalogue of crimes as was now laid before the Parliament, and at such a crisis the statesmen to whom the tranquillity of the country and the safety of the citizens were intrusted were undoubtedly called upon to go back from the letter of the constitution to that which is the primary object of every constitution-the safety of those who live under it. Salus populi suprema lex. And the argument of necessity was regarded, and rightly regarded, by both Houses of Parliament as a sufficient and complete justification of even so exceptional an enactment.

And concurrently with this enactment, which, however indispensable for the repression of crime, no one could deny to be severe, the ministers endeavored also to remove the causes of discontent by a large measure of Church reform, not confining their aim to settling the tithe question, but dealing with the whole question of the Irish Church in such a way as to lay down, as an undoubted principle of the constitution, the doctrine that the Church existed for the benefit of the nation; that its property was bestowed on it for the same object; and that, consequently, the nation, or in other words the Parliament, had a perfect right to deal with its property and endowments of all kinds, always keeping the same end in view, the general advantage of the whole nation. Proceeding on these maxims, they introduced a Church Reform Bill, in which, perhaps, the most remarkable circumstance of all was, that the evil which had been the original cause of their taking up the subject at all was the last thing settled, not, indeed, being finally arranged for four years; while the principal detail in the way of reform which was completed in this first session was one which, however reasonable, had hitherto received but little attention, and had certainly provoked no great outcry. It could not be denied that the Episcopal Establishment in Ireland was out of all proportion to the extent of the country and the number of the Protestant population, or of the parishes. The entire population in communion with the Church fell short of 900,000. The number of parishes scarcely exceeded 1400. But over this comparatively scanty flock were set no fewer than eighteen bishops and four archbishops; while England, with 12,000 parishes, was contented with twenty-four bishops and two archbishops. It was proposed to consolidate these bishoprics into ten, the archbishoprics into two, a reduction which could hardly fail to commend itself to all. But with this reduction was combined a variety of other details relating to the Episcopal revenues, to the right of the bishops to grant leases, and other matters of finance, which the ministers proposed so to remodel as to create a very large fund to be at the disposal of the state. On this point the greater part of the ministerial scheme was wrecked for the time. They succeeded in carrying that part of it which consolidated the bishoprics, and in inducing the House of Commons to grant, first as a loan, which was originally turned into a gift, a million of money to be divided among the incumbents of the different parishes, who were reduced to the greatest distress by the inability to procure payment of their tithes, the arrears of which amounted to a far larger sum.

But the assertion that any surplus fund arising from redistribution of the Episcopal revenues ought to belong to the state, not only called forth a vigorous resistance from the whole of the Tory party at its first promulgation, but, when the subject was revived the next year, and one of the supporters of the ministry, Mr. Ward, proposed a resolution that any such surplus might be legitimately applied to secular purposes, it produced a schism in the ministry itself. The resolution was cordially accepted by Lord John Russell, but was so offensive to four of his colleagues, Mr. Stanley and Sir James Graham being among the number, that they at once resigned their offices. The breach thus made was not easily healed; and before the end of the session other dissensions of a more vexatious and mortifying character led to the retirement of the Prime-minister himself. All attempts to deal with the tithe question failed for the time, four more years elapsing before it was finally settled. But, curtailed as it was, the bill of 1833 still deserves to be remembered as a landmark in constitutional legislation, since it afforded the first instance of Parliament affirming a right to deal with ecclesiastical dignities and endowments, thus setting a precedent which, in the next reign, was followed with regard to the Church of England.

Lord Melbourne succeeded Lord Grey at the Treasury; but every one saw that the ministry was greatly weakened. The King, too, had become greatly dissatisfied both with their general policy, especially in regard to the Irish Church-which he took an opportunity of assuring the Irish bishops he was unalterably resolved to uphold-and also with the language and conduct of one or two individual ministers, to which it is not necessary to refer more particularly; and when, on the death of Lord Spencer, father of Lord Althorp, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which took place in November, 1834, it became necessary for Lord Melbourne to propose to him a re-arrangement of some of the cabinet offices, he at once dismissed the whole body of the ministers. It was a somewhat singular step to take, for they had not been defeated in Parliament, and he did not himself allege any special dissatisfaction with anything which they had yet done, though he did apprehend that some of them would press upon him measures disadvantageous to 'the clergy of the Church of England in Ireland,' to which he had an insuperable objection; and, moreover, that the subject would cause fresh divisions in the ministry, and the resignation of one or two more of its most important members. He had, indeed, six months before, given a practical proof of his distrust of the ability of Lord Melbourne and the colleagues who remained to him to carry on the government of the kingdom satisfactorily, by desiring the new Prime-minister to enter into communication with the leaders of the Opposition, 'to endeavor at this crisis to prevail upon them to afford their aid and co-operation toward the formation of an administration upon an enlarged basis, combining the services of the most able and efficient members of each' party.[234] Nor had he relinquished the idea of bringing about such a coalition, till he learned that both Lord Melbourne and Sir Robert Peel considered the differences which divided them to be too deeply founded on principle to render their union in one administration either beneficial to the state or creditable to themselves. And it may be said that the letter in which Lord Melbourne had in November announced to his Majesty the death of Lord Spencer, and the necessity for new arrangements which that event had created, by the expression that 'in these new and altered circumstances it was for his Majesty to consider whether it were his pleasure to authorize Viscount Melbourne to attempt to make such fresh arrangements as might enable his present servants to continue to conduct the affairs of the country, or whether his Majesty deemed it advisable to adopt any other course,' and that 'Lord Melbourne earnestly entreated that no personal consideration for him might prevent his Majesty from taking any measures or seeking any other advice which he might think more likely to conduce to his service and to the advantage of the country,' did not only contemplate, but to a certain degree even suggested, the possibility of his Majesty's preferring to have recourse to fresh advisers.

The King's subsequent acts and their result, however, certainly took the kingdom by surprise. He applied to the Duke of Wellington to undertake the formation of a new ministry; and the Duke, explaining to the King that 'the difficulty of the task consisted in the state of the House of Commons, earnestly recommended him to choose a minister in the House of Commons,' and named Sir Robert Peel as the fittest object for his Majesty's choice. Sir Robert was in Italy at the time; but, on receiving the royal summons, he at once hastened to England, the Duke of